The eyes that matter will occasionally be on the obvious. Some will marvel at offensive tackle Jake Long's massive frame. Others will evaluate every pass thrown by quarterback Chad Henne, no matter the qualifications of his targets. Phillip Merling's ability to pass rush also will get considerable attention. But during this weekend's first rookie minicamp, which begins at 2 p.m. Friday, the Dolphins' coaching staff won't be nearly as interested in the obvious as it will be in the unknown. The players who matter most might be the ones who don't seem to matter at all. ''Bill [Parcells] and I have been around for several years, and we have always been able to hit on a couple of those [undrafted free agent] guys,'' general manager Jeff Ireland said. ``There are no guarantees that you are going to hit on those guys, but it is just another way of expanding the draft when you hit on those guys, for sure. ``It's an important process.'' At the minicamp, each of the team's nine draft picks is expected to attend. The Dolphins also signed 14 other undrafted players to free agent contracts, and a handful of other noncontract players will participate on a tryout basis. link to rest of story http://www.miamiherald.com/616/story/518015.html
Nice. I'm hoping some of these guys that work out for us are Bess and Poppinga. Especially Bess, we need some help at WR
The more I look at it the more convinced I am that our eyes should be on Jayson Foster. He's the biggest wildcard. He could either completely disappear out there, or make EVERYONE look plain silly. Either is possible. Kory Robertson is also one to watch at the NT position. Bess I like but he might have a tougher time making the roster without presenting any particular STs value. He's a very "dime a dozen" receiver at this level and I think we already have a few of those in David Kircus and Tab Perry. Wilford, Ginn and Hagan are a notch above. Kircus and Perry are similar to Bess and they may succeed in crowding him out. Poppinga, I like him but he's going to have a tough time moving ahead of a few of the guys on this roster UNLESS he plays Special Teams like a Larry Izzo. We'll see. I thought we should have signed Jameel McClain for that purpose. I think McClain will be a very good STs player. Believe it or not, Mike Byrne and Dan Gore have a genuine shot to make the team just because of how thin we are at offensive tackle. I don't know about Heerspink.
