Are Pro Bowlers the cure to Dolphins’ ills?

By Hugo Guzman  |   Monday, February 11, 2008  |  Comments( 4 )

Miami Dolphins
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As I watched the NFL Pro Bowl on Sunday, a handful of divergent thoughts occurred to me.

The first thought was pretty simple and straightforward. There are zero Miami Dolphins out there. Granted, Jason Taylor was voted in as a starter but chose to sit out and rehab his foot instead, but it must be sad for Dolphins fans to know that not a single player on the AFC roster was sporting a Dolphins helmet.

The second thought was a bit more profound but still pretty easy to arrive at; even with Jason Taylor making the squad, Miami's lack of Pro Bowlers points to an overall lack of game-changing talent and is probably one of the main culprits in its putrid 1-15 campaign.

The third thought was surprisingly lucid for a knucklehead like me in that it goes against prevailing logic; simply garnering Pro Bowl selections will not be enough to get the Dolphins back to NFL relevance. Sure, it would be great to behold a veritable sea of Dolphins helmets in Honolulu; in 2003, for instance, Miami sent a half-dozen players, with running back Ricky Williams garnering MVP honors. Then again, that team played in just as many postseason games as the 2007 edition.

That would be zero.

That's not to say that there aren't any Pro Bowlers in the making on the current roster. Running back Ronnie Brown was on pace for a Pro Bowl -- if not an All-Pro -- campaign prior to his freak knee injury, and there's no reason to believe that the 26-year-old can't return to form within a season or two. Offensive linemen Vernon Carey and Samson Satele both turned in quietly impressive performances at left tackle and center, respectively, and seem more than capable of earning a trip to Honolulu in the not-so-distant future. Guys like Ted Ginn Jr. and Jason Allen seem to have the talent necessary to make the trip, but will have to up their overall production and consistency in order to get the call. And last but not least, veterans like Taylor and Joey Porter look as if they have enough gas in the tank for one or two more return trips.

The point here, though, is not whether Miami has Pro Bowl potential on its current roster. It's that getting guys to Hawaii does not an NFL contender make.

One needn't look hard or far to find evidence of this viewpoint. In fact, you only need to look a few hundred miles north. The Jacksonville Jaguars also had just a single Pro Bowl representative - running back Fred Taylor - and he only got in as an alternate. Yet they managed to reel off 11 regular-season wins to go along with a 31-29 road playoff victory against the Pittsburgh Steelers and a highly contested 31-20 loss to the New England Patriots.

Still not convinced that Pro Bowl presence and NFL success are not correlated? Take a guess at how many New York Giants made this year's roster. The answer is just one (defensive end Osi Umenyiora).

Clearly, Pro Bowl berths do not equal postseason glory. So if you think that landing high-profile names will get the Dolphins back to the Promised Land, think again. What's needed in Miami is continuity, execution, and a prevailing team-first ethic.

Honolulu is overrated.
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About Hugo Guzman

Trying to bring an objective approach to NFL analysis.
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