Miami, or more specifically Tony Sparano, is in an interesting situation. The Dolphins’ owner spent a few weeks after the season trying to persuade Jim Harbaugh to take over for Tony Sparano. When Harbaugh went to San Francisco, Sparano was given a two-year contract extension. But that doesn’t mean the Dolphins won’t look again to replace him if he fails to get above .500 next season.
I don’t think Miami belongs on the list of teams with QB concerns. The still have Chad Pennington and he can step in and play well at any time if the Dolphins call on him. But Chad Henne, who will be entering just his fourth season, showed a fair amount of improvement from the 2009 season to 2010 and should, again, be the starter in 2011.
Miami needs to first figure out their running back situation. Ricky Williams is effectively gone at this point, and that leaves Ronnie Brown, who will be a free agent and so may not return either. There should be a fair number of good free agents available, but drafting a running back may be a better route.
The Dolphins also need to be very careful about picking a replacement for Dan Henning at the offensive coordinator position. Josh McDaniels’s name has been floating around, but reuniting him and Brandon Marshall may not be a good move.
They have a mid-round draft pick at 15th in the first round. But they may want to try and trade that for some more mid-round draft picks, especially if they are looking to pick a running back. Another option would be to get an offensive lineman. Their line isn’t bad but could use a tune-up to avoid giving up another 30-sack season.
The thing that concerned me most this past season about Miami was their inability to win at home. They were 1-7 at home and 6-2 on the road. That isn’t supposed to happen in the NFL. If you can win that many games in front of hostile crowds, you should be able to do the same in front of your own fans. This is clearly a good team; they just need to figure out how to have the same motivation when the crowd is on their side as when it isn’t.
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