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Dolphins News: JJ's Press Conference
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Dolphins News: JJ's Press Conference
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*** DOLPHINS NEWS ***
Feb 11, 1998: -- JJ's Press Conference --

Jimmy Johnson gave a press conference today for the first time since the end of the season and had a number of interesting things to say about the Dolphins, the coaching situation, free agency and what we can expect in the years to come.

First of all, JJ discussed free agency. He said that the Dolphins have about $16 million to spend under the salary cap, which is expected to be around $51.5 million. He further gave some hints about what he was looking for in free agency.

While stating that he couldn't name any names as far as free agency is concerned, he did say that there were 4 free agents that the Dolphins considered genuine impact players at their positions. However, he went on to say that he expected that all of these players would either be designated franchise players or transition players.

He further stated that there were 24 other players who the Dolphins thought could come in and be either starters or role players for the Dolphins and he said he expected to be able to sign some of them.

As far as franchise players are concerned, JJ said that the Dolphins would not be trying to sign any of them. He didn't rule out trying to sign a transition player, but he did say that the Dolphins wouldn't be doing anything "insane" as far as spending money is concerned and he defined "insane" as trying to sign a franchise player.

On the subject of money, he stated that free agents this year were going to be overpaid because of the increase in money from the TV deals. That, he said, was unavoidable and he seemed willing to overpay a player that the Dolphins wanted.

As far as positions that they would be looking at, the only position that JJ mentioned specifically was the offensive line. He did say that he expected to sign "a couple" of "big time" players and 3 or 4 more "role" players.

While evaluating free agents, JJ said that he asked the coaching staff to evaluate them in 3 categories - motivation, toughness and medical. In each category, the players were rated as 1 through 5, with 1 being the best.

He said that he was more concerned about motivation with the free agents than he was with the draftees because he knew that a kid coming in fresh from college would want to prove himself, but a veteran player might not be as motivated to work hard and prove himself to the team, especially if he already had collected a lot of money just for signing.

The only Dolphin free agent that he specifically mentioned by name was Tim Bowens and he said that he was confident that Bowens would remain with the Dolphins "one way or the other". This seems to indicate that they'll put the franchise tag on Bowens if they can't come to a contract agreement by Friday.

JJ was asked later in the press conference about Ernie Zampese and he replied that while he had considered Zampese a good candidate, he still hadn't made up his mind to hire Zampese when Zampese was hired by the Patriots. He said that he told his staff back in December that Kippy Brown was going to be a bigger part of the offense this year, regardless of what happened and that even if Zampese was still available now, he might have decided on Brown anyway. JJ said that he had not spoken with Zampese in more than a year.

With regards to the new offense, JJ related a couple of stories about conversations he had with various players and coaches. He said that he told Dan Marino on the plane back from New England after the playoff game that he was going to junk the offense and start from scratch. He said that Dan was very positive about it and would do anything JJ wanted to win.

And finally, JJ said that he made a mistake not signing Andre Rison last spring when he had the chance. He didn't sign Rison because he thought that Yatil Green would be able to fulfill the role of starting wide receiver.

In other news, the promotion of Kippy Brown to offensive coordinator was made official today. Along with Browns' promotion, Larry Seiple was promoted from receivers coach to quarterbacks coach, Joel Collier was promoted from defensive staff assistant to running backs coach, Robert Ford was hired from Dallas to coach the receivers and the Dolphins hired Randy Shannon, a former player for JJ and assistant coach at the University of Miami as a defensive staff assistant.

My Comments:

JJ's comments, while not revealing much, were very revealing. Based on the earlier rumors and the Dolphins' needs, I expect that the 4 impact players that JJ was talking about can be selected from the following list: John Randle, Todd Steussie, Kevin Donnalley, Tre Johnson, Dana Stubblefield and Dorsey Levens. Probably 4 of these players are the 4 that he was referring to.

His stated willingness to "overpay" is a good sign for the Dolphins. Also, while he said that the Dolphins would not be trying to sign any players that were tagged as franchise players by their teams, he did not rule out the attempted signing of transition players. That may spell good news for those hoping that Miami will go after John Randle (which includes me, by the way).

Assuming for the moment that the rumors about Donnalley wanting to test the free agent market are true, I think that the Dolphins will make their biggest push for Donnalley and Randle. That coincides with what the Sun-Sentinel was saying the other day and it seems to make the most sense.

I doubt that the Dolphins will go after Dana Stubblefield in any serious way and while they might have an interest in Dorsey Levens, it would surprise me if they signed him.

So, who are the other 24 players that the Dolphins may be looking at? Most likely, they are young offensive linemen and pass rushing specialists, although it wouldn't surprise me to see the Dolphins sign someone who's specialty is returning kicks and you can never have too many good defensive backs.

If you have RealAudio, be sure and listen to the press conference. If you don't have RealAudio, or would rather read his comments, check the Sun-Sentinel website tomorrow morning and the Dolphins Endzone website for transcripts of the press conference.

Related Info:


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Curt Fennell, curt@phins.com, DOLFAN in New Rochelle (almost)
     
   

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