Our third down pass rush is already taking a hit with Starks moving to the nose IMO (thereby decreasing his time there). Though inconsistent, Merling has ability there.
Not as much as one might think: http://www.profootballfocus.com/by_player.php?tab=by_player&season=2009&surn=Merling&playerid=4346 I do think he was a average DE, I also think we can do much better. AND...DC Mike Nolan has his first real "test", so far everything has gone according to plan, Merling being out for the yr is a wildcard, this will be a great test of his skill, and his ability to spot talent to fit his system as well as how he runs a open competition with the Dolphins. This will be a great measurement of Nolan's skill with TC opening 7 wake ups from tomorrow...let us see what decisions he makes.
I think its up in the air on whether or not we can cut him outright as we aren't sure if the injury was football or nonfootball related. There is conflicting evidence between the reports.
You might see Randy Starks, Tony McDaniel and Ryan Baker take on some bigger roles in the 3rd down nickel defense. As for Randy Starks' placement at Nose Tackle and what it does to his ability to affect nickel...I tend to think the same way as Muck. But, I was trying to look toward the guy that this coaching staff really views him as being similar to, Jay Ratliff, and he did get about 770 snaps this year, and I just looked at a couple of games and Ratliff played on 35 out of 54 of the snaps where the Cowboys lined up with 5 or 6 DBs. I don't think that Starks really lined up in 100% of our nickel downs in 2009, in fact it was probably about the same percentage (65%) as Ratliff lined up in the Cowboys' nickel packages. The biggest danger is that he'll get worn down more playing NT than he was playing DE in the base. That could be the case. Hopefully it's not. But it looks like in Dallas they used Junior Siavii a lot to spell Ratliff at NT, just like in Denver Mike Nolan used Marcus Thomas a lot to spell Ronald Fields, and so I've been figuring about 200 to 230 snaps for Paul Soliai this year in the same capacity.
If I'm Randy Starks, the first thing I'm doing right now is marching into the FO and asking for a nice fat extension with a boat load of guaranteed cash. His value has never been so high and may never be this high again. This is the time for him to ask for a raise
According to Pro Football Talk, Merling's story is that he injured his Achilles off site while doing pass rush drills on a high school football field. I don't know if the Dolphins have any way of verifying that he was actually practicing or exercising but either way it probably doesn't matter. He's probably going to end up on the Non-Football Injury list and he's probably not going to get his $600k salary this year.
But, if Merling contends that he was, in fact, practicing/exercising when the injury occurred, don't the Dolphins have the burden of proof to contradict that? If so, it will be hard for the Dolphins to reach that burden without some kind of evidence supporting them, so I think it's very likely that he WILL get his salary of $600,000 for 2010. But, doesn't really matter I suppose.
The answer is no. All that matters from their standpoint is whether he did it while practicing or working out at their facility, which evidently he did not. The player is under no obligation to work out off site during the off season, and in fact there are some strict regulations negotiated by the NFLPA on the amount of time they can spend putting a guy through practice type drills and whatnot. What he does on his own time is his own time, and if he injures himself on his own time, it's a non-football injury.
OK. However, if he's placed on IR for the year, he'd still get paid, correct? Or do you suspect he'll just be cut flat-out?
We had another Non-Football Injury last year with Matt Roth and judging by that experience, they will put Merling on that list and he'll not get his salary for 6 games, and then after 6 games the Dolphins will have 3 more games to decide whether to activate him to the active roster, at which point he'd probably start receiving game checks again. But this injury is so serious that there's no way in hell he could be playing by mid-November, I would think. So they'll let that 3 week period come and go I'm sure and he'll just not end up collecting any of his salary this year. I think there's some wiggle room for the Dolphins to decide to go easy on him and pay him the $600k anyway, but I doubt it especially given the legal trouble he was in.
It would send a message about the off season troubles players keep getting in, but how strong that message is...who knows. There will probably be national ridicule (sounds like something Florio would jump all over) about how the Dolphins didn't do jack squat when he beat his pregnant girlfriend but when he got hurt, that was grounds for dismissal evidently, yadda yadda yadda. Still, I think most people would ultimately take it that it was the combination of the two things that did him in, because as Sean Smith said he seemed to be having a good camp. First round picks don't normally get cut two years after drafting them just because they took an injury and needed to miss a year. So, from that standpoint, the fact that the Dolphins aren't willing to stand by him might be directly attributable to his legal issues. Who knows. I doubt they waive him, though.