it's going to leave them in last place

No doubt Ricky can carry the load for the season but our chances of making the playoffs are all but gone. Sucks but I am afraid it's reality. What I still don't know is the actual injury

this is a horrible blow... those of you that hated the wildcat and want to see just the base offense... well.. here you go. You will see that the base offense IS the wildcat, and that miami's offense will look out of sync for the rest of the year. If you thought that opposing defenses stacked the box before, wait until now. At least before, with the wildcat, miami was able to get a hat on hat and outnumber defenders and consistently get yardage. Now they will have to look more traditional in offback sets and I formations and will do the old Wansstedt run for 1 yd up the middle.

This effectively ends their season.. I sure hope I'm wrong but this blow is huge.

Maybe this will be good for Henne's development. We won't have as good a run game to open holes up in the secondary, but his progress and momentum won't keep getting stifled by having to come off the field on 3rd downs, or right after converting a big 3rd down so Pat White can go out there or Brown can take the snap. Hopefully he'll find a way to benefit from this.

This sucks major.....and the topic header makes it seem like its a question of whether he is done for the year, make no mistakes.....he is done and this sucks!

---------------------

"When you suck long enough, you get a Hickey"

the ONLY good thing about it (and it's not good but just looking for a silver lining) is that it will speed Henne's development as a passer b/c he will need to carry the load more passing. But this is a big blow--I think part of RW's rejuvination is that he wasn't pressured to start and be the main ball carrier (remember that's part of what cause him to flake out and quit) and I'm not sure if he'll handle this well and match RB's production. Bad news indeed. We may need to add RB to our draft needs for next year and use a high pick on one.

Henne will have no choice but to grow faster! We will see what we have or dont have in back ups to possibly continue with the wildcat. One thing is clear though Ronnie was very, very good at being patient for the holes to open. I hope whoever takes his place watches lots of Ronnie film. I think if we did go more of a traditional offense Ricky is a great back and Henne can get the job done as well. The only ? is can we count on the WRs to get their job done. I dont believe we are dead!

To me, at least in my opinion, there is no silver lining in this. I don't think this speeds up henne's development at all. In fact, I think it hampers it by now forcing him to produce or fail. Basically, forcing him into a situation similar to what stafford's doing in detroit... there is no surrounding cast to catch the damn ball. Defenders will sit on all the routes knowing miami's receivers can't get off the jams, and they don't even have to drop a safety into the box all the time to stop the run because they aren't using 9 players to block like they would in the wildcat. Unless henne has significant growth over this learning curve, it very well can hurt him and crush whatever confidence he already has. God I hope I'm wrong, but I see this going very very bad.

Panteraize Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Maybe this will be good for Henne's development.
> We won't have as good a run game to open holes up
> in the secondary, but his progress and momentum
> won't keep getting stifled by having to come off
> the field on 3rd downs, or right after converting
> a big 3rd down so Pat White can go out there or
> Brown can take the snap. Hopefully he'll find a
> way to benefit from this.


Listen man, the NFL is not about qb development it is about winning and winning championships. Who cares about qb developement. If we are winning that is ALL that matters. What good does it to to give henne the lions share of plays but we finish with a 6-10 record!

And fahcue, you know your football... I am assuming that our season is over as well but thursday will tell what we will be.

we ain't winning sh!t this year and were never going to--so let's build for 2010 and anything that gets us there is all that matters.

Now that Ronnie's on the IR and out for the season, what's purpose of keeping the injury a secret?

I'm big fan of RB but how many season ending injuries do you have to have before you're labeled "injury prone"?

Well, while this is a major blow to the team as far as versatility goes. Williams can IMHO carry the load for the rest of the season. Hilliard showed in the pre-season that he can be counted upon to add punishing running and "some" big play ability to the team if called upon. The question here is how high (or low) will they be able to set the bar...this also gives Pat White a much larger role in the wildcat and I think we will see much more passing from the formation.

Time for White and Hilliard to step up and show that they belong on this team.

He is our teams best player and athlete.

No way to put a positive spin on this

The Worst part of this is that he is a free agent after this year and if the bargaining agreement does not go through we will have a cap free year in 2010 if thats the case we may never see Ronnie in a Phins jersey again

if there is no cap, Ronnie isn't a free agent and he would be in Miami for 2 more years. I belive thats how it works

One site reported it was a lisfranc fracture. That's not good. It's what knocked Donald Thomas out for the whole season last year.

If next year is an uncapped year, then to be a free agent, you need 6 years of service time. So, Ronnie would be under our control for 1 more year.

Observations:

1. Ronnie is not our future at RB. He's already had 2 major injuries that knocked him out for the season.

2. Due to his injury history, Ronnie has little-to-no trade value.

3. It's Hilliard's time to sink or swim. If he doesn't show he's capable of being a starter, then we WILL draft a RB this coming year, probably someplace at or before the 5th round.

montequi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Observations:
>
> 1. Ronnie is not our future at RB. He's already
> had 2 major injuries that knocked him out for the
> season.
>
> 2. Due to his injury history, Ronnie has
> little-to-no trade value.
>
> 3. It's Hilliard's time to sink or swim. If he
> doesn't show he's capable of being a starter, then
> we WILL draft a RB this coming year, probably
> someplace at or before the 5th round.


Ronnie is not under contract after this season, so he's not ours to trade. If next year remains an uncapped year, then he won't be an unrestricted free agent. If that happens, I believe he'll be a restricted free agent, but I'm not sure how that is going to work for players with 5 years service time.

RB will be a need for us anyway. If they work out a new CBA, then Ronnie is an unrestricted free agent and we'll have to replace him. Ricky is retiring after 2010. So, we also need to groom someone as his replacement. Hilliard is a big, downhill runner, so he can fill a role. But, he's not a guy with speed. I'd think we'd go looking for a more well rounded RB to be the main guy going forward.

Fahcue2 is right on the Henne thing. I don't see it helping him. With the wildcat, it took the pressure off him to produce first downs all the time. Old vets like Manning and Brady can carry the team on their passing game alone but for a young guy, it is best that he develop and get his confidence before the whole pressure of producing the first downs is on the passing game.

However, all I have said in the prior paragraph is based on the assumption that our running game will now be gone since the Wildcat is gone.

I'm not sure. A respectable amount of our running yardage has been accrued by the base offense and not all of it Ronnie Brown.

I'd like to see a few games before I throw in the towel as a lot of the posters above appear at first blush to have.

The treads? Yes. The head? That, I'm not so sure about.

Rick

guys, CONFIDENCE is one of if not the biggest contributor to development and/or lack thereof. If Henne can develop and maintain confidence in his passing game, ie some fuccking receivers catch the ball, then he stands to have a good chance of developing as the season progresses..

however, if his receivers keep letting him down, and he gets picked alot because his receivers can't get seperation, along with him getting a bunch of coverage sacks becuase he already shows that as a weakness, I can see this destroying his career. All those guys, Peyton, Eli, Aikman, etc all had surrounding casts around them.. even when they were playing shittty that they could build confidence on.. Henne has none of that and now his most reliable player in Brown is gone. A RECEIVER ABSOLUTELY MUST STEP UP AND BECOME A WEAPON FOR HENNE TO HAVE A CHANCE AT DEVELOPMENT. point blank. To think otherwise is delusion.

I think after reading this, we can all agree on a few points.

1- Ronnie Brown is a hell of a versatile RB that we are better with. Losing him does cut into our playbook, and that's never a good thing.

2- Ronnie Brown has had two serious injuries in the past 3 seasons. If he gets hurt for an extended period of time again, he will officially be "injury prone".

3- Ricky Williams is one hell of a "back-up" RB to have.

I think we are all anxious to see what becomes of our offensive scheme now that we don't have a versatile H back to run the ground game. However, the NFL is a breeding ground for opportunistic players put in tough situations, whether through game situations or injury ones. What I will be watching for is whether Henne raises to the occasion and puts his mark on this team to cement his future as a dolphin, or if it is simply too much to ask from a "rookie" QB. I'm not sure in any sense of the word of how he will perform tonight, but I have a feeling we will be seeing a man who is going to do his best to will his team to a win. Is that enough? I don't know, but I'll be routing for him all the same. Ronnie Brown is hurt, but Ronnie Brown is one man on an entire team. If your hopes revolve around 1 person, then the organization is doomed from the start. I don't think this team is dependent that much on 1 guy. I see things going better than expected, and I still see us at 9-7 when this is season is over.

Odenn Wrote:
> What I will be
> watching for is whether Henne raises to the
> occasion and puts his mark on this team to cement
> his future as a dolphin, or if it is simply too
> much to ask from a "rookie" QB.

I don't think you can put too much on Henne. He has no weapons in the passing game. There is only so much he can do. I hope he doesn't try to do too much himself. He has done a good job of not taking chances, and that needs to continue. I really want to some other guys step up. Let's see if Lex Hilliard and Kory Sheets can help carry the load on the ground. I am particularly anxious to see if Sheets' speed can change the look of our running game. It would also be nice if Ted Ginn could actually catch a deep pass. And I'd like to see if Patrick Turner can use his size to make himself into a dependable target. I'd like to see if Kory Sperry can follow up last week's performance with a better one. And I'd like to see Pat White contribute a couple of big plays. We didn't spend a 2nd rd pick on him to be our QB of the future. We spent it to get some big plays out of the guy as a running/passing threat. Now would be a nice time to make a couple big plays.

The rest of this season is NOT going to make or break Henne. This not about his confidence, his receivers, or the running game. This is about him staying calm, making good decisions and throwing accurately.
If he does that, and I think he will, then he and only he will control his future.
There have been many QBs that start out with bad personell around them and turn out just fine when the team is upgraded.

I am more concerned with the OL. They need to open holes even with 8 in the box. They need to give Henne time. That will be the difference in our offense. Ricky and others can get the job done if the OL does their job.

Or D has to keep giving the ball to the offense too. Another big question at this point.

GO PHINS!!! We really need this one!!

ok Leon I'll bite... what parts of henne staying calm. making good decisions, and throwing accurately DON'T have anything to do with his confidence, his receivers, or the running game???

Not trying to be a dick.. but can you clarify that for me??