Clearing Up Some Defense Issues

For those of you who are wondering how exactly the Dolphins plan on playing all of these new defensive guys in the 3-4 lineup, Barry Jackson did a nice job explaining the situation on his periodic Sports Buzz column at the Herald.

A linebacking crew of Porter, Crowder, Torbor, and Taylor sounds pretty good on paper. However, who do we have taking up the blocks at defensive end? We've sign Jason Ferguson to fill the NT position, and Jackson tells us that Randy Starks (21 mil? wow) will likely fill in one DE spot. But what about the other? Rod Wright and Matt Roth aren't the biggest guys for that role, and Jason Taylor isn't as effective because of his size as well.

Makes me wonder how the Calvin Pace situation would have changed things. Who would have been moved around or traded? How does this affect our draft situation? Chris Long and Vernon Gholston are both tweener prospects of sorts, and neither figures to play with their hands on the ground too much. Could this mean Glenn Dorsey gets picked and moved to DE? Does Porter get cut loose? And what happens to the promising talent of Quentin Moses?

As you can see, there are a lot of unresolved questions facing this front 7. Don't even get me started with the secondary. We have more holes there than in a chunk of swiss cheese.