*** DOLPHINS NEWS ***
Feb 11, 1998: -- JJ's Press Conference --
Jimmy Johnson gave a press conference today for the first time
since the end of the season and had a number of interesting things to
say about the Dolphins, the coaching situation, free agency and what
we can expect in the years to come.
First of all, JJ discussed free agency. He said that the
Dolphins have about $16 million to spend under the salary cap, which is
expected to be around $51.5 million. He further gave some hints about
what he was looking for in free agency.
While stating that he couldn't name any names as far as free
agency is concerned, he did say that there were 4 free agents that the
Dolphins considered genuine impact players at their positions.
However, he went on to say that he expected that all of these players
would either be designated franchise players or transition players.
He further stated that there were 24 other players who the
Dolphins thought could come in and be either starters or role players
for the Dolphins and he said he expected to be able to sign some of
them.
As far as franchise players are concerned, JJ said that the
Dolphins would not be trying to sign any of them. He didn't rule out
trying to sign a transition player, but he did say that the Dolphins
wouldn't be doing anything "insane" as far as spending money is
concerned and he defined "insane" as trying to sign a franchise
player.
On the subject of money, he stated that free agents this year
were going to be overpaid because of the increase in money from the
TV deals. That, he said, was unavoidable and he seemed willing to
overpay a player that the Dolphins wanted.
As far as positions that they would be looking at, the only
position that JJ mentioned specifically was the offensive line. He
did say that he expected to sign "a couple" of "big time" players and
3 or 4 more "role" players.
While evaluating free agents, JJ said that he asked the
coaching staff to evaluate them in 3 categories - motivation,
toughness and medical. In each category, the players were rated as 1
through 5, with 1 being the best.
He said that he was more concerned about motivation with the
free agents than he was with the draftees because he knew that a kid
coming in fresh from college would want to prove himself, but a
veteran player might not be as motivated to work hard and prove
himself to the team, especially if he already had collected a lot of
money just for signing.
The only Dolphin free agent that he specifically mentioned by
name was Tim Bowens and he said that he was confident that Bowens
would remain with the Dolphins "one way or the other". This seems to
indicate that they'll put the franchise tag on Bowens if they can't
come to a contract agreement by Friday.
JJ was asked later in the press conference about Ernie Zampese
and he replied that while he had considered Zampese a good candidate,
he still hadn't made up his mind to hire Zampese when Zampese was
hired by the Patriots. He said that he told his staff back in
December that Kippy Brown was going to be a bigger part of the offense
this year, regardless of what happened and that even if Zampese was
still available now, he might have decided on Brown anyway. JJ said
that he had not spoken with Zampese in more than a year.
With regards to the new offense, JJ related a couple of
stories about conversations he had with various players and coaches.
He said that he told Dan Marino on the plane back from New England
after the playoff game that he was going to junk the offense and start
from scratch. He said that Dan was very positive about it and would
do anything JJ wanted to win.
And finally, JJ said that he made a mistake not signing Andre
Rison last spring when he had the chance. He didn't sign Rison
because he thought that Yatil Green would be able to fulfill the role
of starting wide receiver.
In other news, the promotion of Kippy Brown to offensive
coordinator was made official today. Along with Browns' promotion,
Larry Seiple was promoted from receivers coach to quarterbacks coach,
Joel Collier was promoted from defensive staff assistant to running
backs coach, Robert Ford was hired from Dallas to coach the receivers
and the Dolphins hired Randy Shannon, a former player for JJ and
assistant coach at the University of Miami as a defensive staff
assistant.
My Comments:
JJ's comments, while not revealing much, were very revealing.
Based on the earlier rumors and the Dolphins' needs, I expect that the
4 impact players that JJ was talking about can be selected from the
following list: John Randle, Todd Steussie, Kevin Donnalley, Tre
Johnson, Dana Stubblefield and Dorsey Levens. Probably 4 of these
players are the 4 that he was referring to.
His stated willingness to "overpay" is a good sign for the
Dolphins. Also, while he said that the Dolphins would not be trying
to sign any players that were tagged as franchise players by their
teams, he did not rule out the attempted signing of transition
players. That may spell good news for those hoping that Miami will go
after John Randle (which includes me, by the way).
Assuming for the moment that the rumors about Donnalley
wanting to test the free agent market are true, I think that the
Dolphins will make their biggest push for Donnalley and Randle. That
coincides with what the Sun-Sentinel was saying the other day and it
seems to make the most sense.
I doubt that the Dolphins will go after Dana Stubblefield in
any serious way and while they might have an interest in Dorsey
Levens, it would surprise me if they signed him.
So, who are the other 24 players that the Dolphins may be
looking at? Most likely, they are young offensive linemen and pass
rushing specialists, although it wouldn't surprise me to see the
Dolphins sign someone who's specialty is returning kicks and you can
never have too many good defensive backs.
If you have RealAudio, be sure and listen to the press
conference. If you don't have RealAudio, or would rather read his
comments, check the Sun-Sentinel website tomorrow morning and the
Dolphins Endzone website for transcripts of the press conference.
Related Info:
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Curt Fennell,
[email protected], DOLFAN in New Rochelle (almost)
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