And thus ends one of the more frustrating careers in Dolphins history.
Ted Ginn, Jr. (can’t forget the “Junior” part, God knows, we drafted his whole family and wouldn’t want Senior to get ignored) was, of course, unwanted by the vast majority of Dolphin fans. It was assumed, and with good reason, that the Dolphins would be doing backflips at the fact that Brady Quinn fell to them at #9. As we now know, Randy Mueller and Cam Cameron didn’t give a hoot about Quinn. I remember sitting in a near-catatonic state at my friend Kevin’s house as everyone howled with laughter. I can’t even tell you how many text messages I got that day that were variations on either “ha ha” or “wtf?
I had no idea that the simple act of not being Brady Quinn would be the best service Ginn could offer the Phins.
The “common sense” pick, Quinn, would have set this team back years. By picking Quinn, the Mueller/Cameron regime probably buys another year or two at the helm to let things develop. Are you an inept GM or coach? Pick a QB in round 1! You can buy extra time while you tell your boss “we’re still developing a franchise QB!” Instead, Mueller and Cameron went out on a very small limb, and after the most dismal season in Dolphins history, it snapped. Out went Mueller and Cameron, in came “The Trifecta”, or “The Triumverate”, or whatever the hell we’re calling the Parcells/Ireland/Sparano tag team. Out went John Beck and in came Chad Henne. Not a few people derided the firing as unfair, after just giving them a year on the job, but it’s indisputably been the right move.
As for Ginn, for every great play he made, it seemed like there were two horrible plays to make up for it. He was placed squarely behind the 8-ball from the moment he was drafted, and never made his way out. Maybe that’s with good reason: forgetting the individual “Ginn Moments” that drove so many fans up the wall (i.e. a terminal case of alligator arms, a propensity for running out of bounds, and a few too many dropped balls in the open field) from a sabermetric point of view, he was a disaster. I’m aware that the jury is still out on Pro Football Focus; I think they’re incredible and love to make use of their ratings. Maybe you feel differently, but still, check out Ginn’s rankings among qualifying wide receivers for his Dolphins tenure:
2007 – 82nd out of 92.
2008 – 84th out of 111.
2009 – 87th out of 107.
As a returner, he generally didn’t fare better until this year:
2007 – 187th out of 194.
2008 – 199th out of 269.
2009 – 14th out of 291.
Was Ginn coming into his own as a returner? Perhaps. But it’s more likely that his high ranking was due to the one-game explosion at the Meadowlands. He had a +3.7 rating on returns for the year and had a +3.8 rating for that game, meaning that he was essentially neutral the entire rest of the year.
I initially wanted the team to give Ginn one more chance. I felt that with Brandon Marshall in tow, Ginn could fulfill his NFL destiny: running go-routes constantly and letting the Dolphins air it out to him a few times per game, to keep the opposing defense honest, while continuing to use him as a kick returner. Whatever Ginn’s limitations as a player may be, straight-line speed is not among them. So what if he pisses his pants when he runs crossing routes? The Dolphins have plenty of receivers who excel in that department: Davone Bess, Greg Camarillo and Brian Hartline. Bess is on the verge of becoming the NFL’s version of the pre-stardom Kevin Youkilis: beloved by statistically-oriented geeks and ignored (but not for long) by the general population. Were Douglas Adams still alive (and, of course, a football fan) he would describe Greg Camarillo as being like a towel: just the most massively useful thing you can have on hand; good at doing pretty much anything you ask. Brian Hartline was a “plus” player last year, too and showed some tremendous potential as a red zone threat, with his size. And we’ve only just mentioned Brandon Marshall…
…and that’s why Ginn’s no longer on this team.
Maybe Ginn specializes in one particular thing. Maybe he’s good at running go routes. Unfortunately, every time he’s on the field, you’re leaving a better receiver on the bench, unless of course you’re playing 5 wide, which the Dolphins did exactly zero times last year. We know Marshall’s going to be out there in every situation, and getting a lot of footballs thrown his way, so that leaves less playing time and less action for everyone else. Marshall’s unreal durability (by far his most underrated asset) means that Miami probably has no need for more than four active wide receivers on the roster, unless they can contribute in some other way. And right now, there is no evidence that Ginn is a better receiver than Bess, Camarillo or Hartline. Ginn brings a possible deep threat and a quality kick return game to the table, and absolutely nothing else. In the end, that wasn’t enough.
Once the front office got Marshall, they were able to accept Ginn’s limitations for what they were, instead of hoping that he’d become something he’s not. In the end, they decided that an offense that controls the ball and moves it through the air with short to medium range passes is enough, and that the double-teaming on Marshall, plus a strong running game, will keep defenses honest enough that they won’t need to chuck it 50 yards in the air. If you look at the numbers, and look at who’s on the team, that’s a perfectly rational decision.
So we close the book on Ginn. A fifth rounder seemed a little light for compensation, but then, the rest of the league probably saw Ginn exactly as I’ve described him here: good kick returner, might be able to help on go routes, and hopeless at anything else. Most of us never totally warmed to him, and expected something more than what he was, but that’s life in the NFL.
Hey, it could be worse: we could have drafted Brady Quinn.
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