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Dolphins News: Erickson Released
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Dolphins News: Erickson Released
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*** DOLPHINS NEWS ***
Sep 03, 1999: -- Erickson Released --

Jimmy Johnson announced this afternoon that the Dolphins have released quarterback Craig Erickson, in a move that reduces the roster to 69 players and solidifies' Damon Huard's status as the backup quarterback.

JJ further announced that a series of roster cuts would likely be announced on Saturday to bring the Dolphins down to the 53 man limit before Sunday's deadline.

This move comes in the wake of the pre-season loss to the Packers on Thursday night, in which Erickson completed 10 of 17 passes for 172 yards, including a 56 yarder to Larry Shannon. Erickson did not throw a touchdown pass, but did have an interception.

That works out to a quarterback rating of 68.8, which is somewhat better than Huard's rating of 44.0 last night. However, Huard has looked better overall this summer and Craig Erickson's hefty salary of about $1,000,000 for this season undoubtedly factored into the decision.

This leaves the Dolphins with 3 quarterbacks on their roster: Dan Marino, Damon Huard and Dan Gonzalez. It is possible that the Dolphins may only keep 2 quarterbacks on the roster for the regular season this year.

My Comments:

Craig Erickson has been living on borrowed time with the Dolphins since he was injured last summer. Ever since Damon Huard came in and beat him out, Erickson has been much too expensive a player to keep as a third string quarterback.

The question raised by the departure of Erickson is who will the third string quarterback be? Dan Gonzalez did not play well in NFL Europe this spring and has looked so poor in training camp that JJ didn't give him any snaps in pre-season games this summer. I would be stunned if Gonzalez even made the practice squad.

Well, there is one intriguing possibility - as my buddy Chris reminded me the other day, Tony Martin is a terrific athlete and played quarterback in college. In an emergency, Martin could play quarterback.

Keeping Martin as the emergency quarterback opens up a roster spot for the Dolphins, allowing JJ to keep just 2 quarterbacks and an extra running back or defensive lineman.

Also, I think that keeping just 2 quarterbacks says something about how confident JJ is in his offensive line's ability to keep Dan Marino healthy.

Or maybe it's just that he knows that if Dan and Damon are lost, the team is lost, too.

In any case, I'm sure that Craig Erickson won't have any trouble in finding another job in the NFL. If not right now, certainly by the end of week 1 there will openings for experienced quarterbacks.

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

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Curt Fennell
curt@phins.com
DOLFAN in New England