There’s an interesting asterisk next to Philbin’s name, and that’s a backup quarterback and soon to be free agent named Matt Flynn. Flynn has done everything asked of him while backing up Aaron Rodgers at Lambeau. He’s only started one game, and performed very well in icy Foxboro. Teams may be gun shy after the Kevin Kolb semi-disaster in Arizona. However, unlike any quarterback in the upcoming draft, there is tape of Matt Flynn facing NFL defenses, and NFL speed.

If we zero in on Philbin this offseason, the very first question we’d ask him is whether or not Matt Flynn is the real deal. Philbin has worked with the kid for years. If anyone would know, he would. And if his answer is “Yes”, then perhaps we could drag Matt Flynn down to South Beach once free agency opens. Our second half resurgence may have pushed us out of the elite QB draft area.  Bringing in Flynn would certainly open up the top of the draft to other positions of need.

Here’s an interview with Philbin.

Is Flynn the next Schaub? Or the next Kolb? AP Photo/Mike Roemer

Tony came to town as the somewhat under-qualified puppet of Bill Parcells. Immediately the Dolphins showed life, winning the AFC East under the leadership of Chad “Efficient But Gets Injured a Lot, Like a Hell of a Lot” Pennington. However, the regime will ultimately be judged by the choice of Chad Henne as the quarterback of the future. Chad showed flashes in his time under center, but never assumed the role of the “franchise quarterback” that some had hoped. Two sub-.500 seasons followed. This season Henne hit the turf, but the mediocre football has continued.

The debasing of Tony Sparano happened quickly. Bill Parcells, the puppetmaster, yanked the cord on his “golden parachute” and disappeared. Then, already blowing in the breeze, Tony received another kick to the “Sparanads” when Owner Stephen Ross, GM Jeff Ireland riding shotgun, tried to replace him with Jim Harbaugh before firing him. Sparano had earned the lack of confidence from the top brass. The team had largely thrown in the towel by the end of the 2010 season. In our opinion Ross’ mistake wasn’t trying to replace Tony, it was not going with his gut and relieving Sparano of his duties last winter.

It was clear from the start in 2011 that something was missing with these SoFlo Sea Mammals. The 2010 collapse had continued into this season. Though the Dolphins, aided by a weak part of the schedule, staged a mini-comeback from a winless start, it was too little too late. The pink slip was handed down.

Sparano spent a great bulk of his head coaching career not taking chances. He was notorious for avoiding the jugular, and will always be, at least in our minds, synonymous with the kicking game. Tony is by all accounts a good guy. He played his cards too close to the vest, in a division with a pair of riverboat gamblers. That may have cost him a few games. But ultimately what cost coach Sparano his job is failing at the ultimate task, one that remains for the next person handed the reins of  our beloved franchise:

Finding a gunslinger who can recapture the imagination of this city.

–GO DOLPHINS, and feel free to follow us on Twitter @thebottlenose

The Miami Dolphins have decided to wear a helmet sticker for the rest of the year, to honor the most absurd season in team history.

“We thought it was the right thing to do,” Coach Tony Sparano said. “Everyone’s thinking it. Might as well own up to it.”

The Dolphins started out a dismal 0-7 before suddenly blowing teams out of the water, winning 4 out of 5, with the lone loss by a single digit to the NFC East leading Cowboys in Dallas.

Analysts expect Miami to beat the Eagles by 75, before losing to Buffalo by 1 and the Patriots by 58, then rounding out the season with a 91-14 trouncing of the New York Jets.

BS NEWSWIRE

Six wins could put us at around pick seven or eight. That is, historically speaking, far too high to draft a right tackle. So, let’s keep that need in mind (Colombo has been a strong run-blocker, but has struggled against the pass rush) and scratch it off our round one list. A seam-stretching tight end has been on many of our minds for a while. But did you catch a glimpse of H-back Charles Clay this week? Not to mention we’ve already pointed out Fasano’s under-appreciated skills in a past piece. So we’re not going to jump for a TE this high in the first round either. Marshall and Bess are locked up as our #1 and our slot. Does that move our attention to the defensive side of the ball? We think it very well could.

Our pass defense was putrid to start the year. So do we bring in a DB? A corner to replace Vontae or Sean? Another safety prospect? We don’t think so. We contend that our poor pass defense numbers were due to an inability to pressure the opposing quarterback. Mike Nolan has schemed beautifully as of late, and we’ve been getting to opposing gunslingers much more often. But we’re not enthused about the right side of our defense. Jason Taylor is on his way to Canton, and will soon be put to stud, making dozens of tiny defensive ends on a farm in Kentucky. Koa Misi is not (sniffle, sniffle) going to be a sack master. He’s high motor, but it’s simply not what he does.

Our solution? Ladies and gentlemen,  in the first round of the 2012 NFL draft the Miami Dolphins select COURTNEY UPSHAW, LINEBACKER, ALABAMA.

This is assuming he falls to us. Upshaw is going to terrorize teams at the next level. Opposite Cam Wake, we will strike fear into the heart of every quarterback we face. How do you beat Brady? You rattle him. If he has time he will slice and dice like a surgeon. If we have designs on winning the East we can’t let that happen. He would toss Sanchez around like a rag doll. But Upshaw is not merely a pass rusher. We don’t believe he’d ever leave the field. Adding a pass rush demon like him would in a sense be an upgrade to the secondary too. Exactly why it has become an elite position in this league. As of press time we’ve got the #6 scoring defense in the NFL. Imagine if we added a beast like Upshaw to that mix.

Ladies and gentlemen, in the second round of the 2012 NFL draft, the Miami Dolphins select D.J. FLUKER, TACKLE, ALABAMA.

Not an Alabama fan, I promise. Fluker is a hell of a right tackle prospect, adept at both run and pass blocking. The top of the second round is prime territory for top shelf right tackles and guards. Adding Fluker would free up our tight ends, who are often kept at the line due to our weak pass blocking on the right side. We’ve got to stop the rush on that side. It has killed us several times this year.

At this point we would have added perhaps the most talented two players at their positions. To boil it down, we will have drafted less time for opposing quarterbacks, and more time for ours. In the third, perhaps we’ll hedge our bet on Matt Moore. Can we really go all in without a potential backup plan?

Ladies and gentlemen, in the third round of the NFL draft the Miami Dolphins select BRANDON WEEDEN, QB, OKLAHOMA STATE.

A 28-year old rookie? Sure, it’ doesn’t happen every day. But Weeden’s skill set matches up with almost every quarterback in the crop. Whoever drafts Weeden will get a mature athlete with a cannon for an arm and an eye-popping resume. He was drafted by the Yankees as a starting pitcher, then returned to football in his native Oklahoma. His age, and his propensity to gamble a bit too much with the football, may push him into the third round. We’d be wise to bring him in as a supplement to Matt Moore, or even as a potential starter if Moore goes belly-up in his second frame with the Fins.

THE MATT FLYNN EXPERIENCE?

This scenario could of course also work if we made a move in free agency and handed Matt Flynn the reins (or even Josh Johnson or Vince Young). Flynn has flashed, and has learned from the best up in Green Bay. Here’s a video of every throw from his only career start, against the Patriots in Foxboro. Someone is going to make the leap. We predict that the results with Flynn will be more Schaub-esque than Kolb-ish.

ALL EYES ON MOORE

This is an insanely important stretch for the Miami Dolphins. This year presents an incredible crop of quarterbacks, and we need to decide if we’re in the market for one. Dolfans have witnessed what happens when you half-heartedly try to find a franchise QB. How good does Matt Moore need to be for us to make him “The Man”? If he just shows flashes will that be enough to keep us from calling Robert Griffin III’s name if he’s on the board? Is Moore Kyle Orton? Or does Moore have franchise potential? The guy is averaging just 192 yards per start, and we think Moore Mania is premature. If you applied his numbers as a starter to a 16 game slate you’d be looking at just over 3,000 yards, with 19TDs to go alongside 11 INTs. Those look like Chad Pennington numbers.

But are they the kind of stats that alter the course of a franchise?

GO DOLPHINS, and feel free to follow us on Twitter @thebottlenose

The buzz began in earnest, as Californians got their first taste of the journeyman signal caller during Miami’s tilt with the Chargers. Immediately Californians began gathering, demanding that Moore come to the people immediately. Their cries unheeded, countless protestors wouldn’t budge, leading to a series of unfortunate beatings and pepper spray incidents.

But the mayhem didn’t stop there. Two Dolphin games in New York in the span of fourteen days turned the Big Apple and surrounding areas into a firestorm of Moore Mania. Over 1,000 arrests, with near riots every day. “The 99% wants Moore,” crowds chanted while being dragged away by police.

New York and California aren’t alone. Tent cities have cropped up nationwide, full of people desperately hoping for Moore. With the rising star only scheduled to visit Dallas, Boston and Buffalo from here on out, expect these protests to spiral out of control well past the end of the season. Egypt, Syria and Greece have also begun to feel effects of the craze. It would be overwhelming to many, but the blossoming signal-caller is taking it all in stride.

“My main focus right now is just to win games, spread the ball around, move the offense and win. That’s all I care about right now,” Moore said in a completely unrelated, actual news article.

GO DOLPHINS, and feel free to follow us on Twitter @thebottlenose

Dolphins Overall Worth (DOW) as we tumble to 0-6 against Denver? 250 (-41 points)

RISERS

CAMERON WAKE (NASDAQ: WAKE) +1: This is to honor his two sacks, but he has not been wreaking havoc consistently. Opposing quarterbacks have had roughly 29 seconds in the pocket to find the open guy. It puts the Dolphins in an interesting spot regarding his possible extension/raise. His sack numbers will look good, but has he been a force this season?

REGGIE BUSH (NYSE: BUSHY) +1 1/3: Sure, Reggie did manage a respectable 4.2 yards per carry and a couple of catches, but this slight gain is for his refreshing honesty. “We stink.” He caught some crap for making that remark, but has stood by it ever since. Good for him. How else would you describe our play thus far?

MATT MOORE (NASDAQ: MMOO) +2: Not that he was great, but a rating in the 90s, no interceptions and a touchdown is worth a slight, and we mean slight uptick. He fed the ball to The Beast and Bess, and hit Fasano on a nice score. Solid play. Oh, and we are aware that The Beast would now like to be called “The Monster”, but we aren’t into players giving themselves nicknames. Nicknames come from other people, fans, journalists, some coincidentally named Nick.

TUMBLERS

DANIEL THOMAS (NYSE: DTHOM) -3: We can’t quite figure this kid out. He’s had his moments, but 2.8ypc against perhaps the worst defense in the NFL is not going to cut it. Is he the bell cow back we’ve been looking for? Time will tell. We’d like to see him run with a little more fury. Use that 230lbs, my man.

STEPHEN ROSS (NASDAQ: ROSS) -9: What a sad tap dance Ross has to do these days, pretending allegiance to a lame duck coach so as to not turn off the guys he’s about to try and replace him with. Have we reached out to Cowher’s people, as reports suggest? Or are we waiting ’til an official firing? Who in the hell knows? But Ross blew the coaching search last offseason, including Ireland on the hunt, which eliminated the big names who would have immediately sent Jeff packing. Football is won by decisiveness, not rampant “half-assery”. Ross is good at cutting checks, and courting vaguely famous people to buy fractions of the team. He should back the Brinks truck up to the house of someone with a Lombardi, and get the hell out of the way for the next five years.

TONY SPARANO (NYSE: TSPAR) -14: Sure, Mike Nolan deserves some blame for the collapse, but the inability to finish the drill in a near victory falls largely on the man in charge. It takes a hell of a limp noodle to drop a 15-point lead with less than three minutes remaining. Not to mention the “interesting” 2-point conversion attempt early in the 4th. Sparano’s is becoming a sad tale. The Tuna vouched for him, then yanked a Golden Parachute and ran for the hills. Then Ross yanked the rug out from under him before, get this, leaving him in charge out of pure embarrassment. Tony is flailing, with a locker room that stopped listening long ago, and not much support around him.

SUMMARY: The bright side? Well, as far as the NFL Draft order goes, a loss to a fellow crappy team is the same as a win over a great team. The Suck for Luck faction was able to find joy in what was one of the most humiliating losses in franchise history. We understand wanting the Dolphins to beat a team or two, but as we’ve learned, what good is it to sort of suck? The 2011 SoFlo Sea Mammals are doing their darndest to suck all the way, baby.

GO DOLPHINS, and feel free to follow us on Twitter @thebottlenose