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Dolphins Find It Hard To Put A Bow On 2009 Season

05:40 Mon 01-04-10 | by Andy Kent
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Cleaning out their lockers today was not what the players had planned on doing when the 2009 season began for the Miami Dolphins, especially not after having won the AFC East last year and hosting a playoff game.

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The fact that their season came to an end with yesterday's 30-24 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers and that the 7-9 record tastes so bitter to everyone indicates to Head Coach Tony Sparano that the message of exactly how high the bar is being set here has resonated with his players.

"I think the foundation here is getting stronger and stronger, I really do. I think that the culture here that we set out to change is changing," Sparano said in his final press conference of the season. "I think that there are a bunch of disappointed guys in that locker room right now that went 7-9 and we should be disappointed. I think that the expectations going into these games, and I've mentioned this before, is that we believe we're going to win all these games. It's not one of these ‘kind of' feelings, one of these 'maybe we can win' feelings. So the culture is changing and we're getting better and right now, but we've got a ways to go."

Last year at this time the locker room was alive with energy as the Dolphins were coming off of their big win up at the Meadowlands over the New York Jets that clinched the division and were looking ahead to playing the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Wild Card game. Now the players were saying their good-byes to each other and the coaching and training staff, fully aware that not all of the same faces will be back next year.

The toughest part about a day like this is that yesterday's loss is still fresh in everyone's mind yet at the same time they have to answer questions about their individual future and about the entire season as a whole and not everyone is ready to that. First-year linebacker Cameron Wake came on strong in the second half of the season, his first as a pass rushing outside linebacker, but he was more ready to sum up the year from a team perspective than his own.

"As you see, the trash bags are the main indication of a season not going the way you wanted it to," Wake said as he filled that trash bag with personal belongings. "It's a position we put ourselves and we know we had maybe three or four opportunities to make this go a different way but we didn't."

Wide receiver Greg Camarillo was trying to balance the satisfaction he felt personally for making it through the entire season injury free after blowing out his knee in Week 10 last year and the frustration of seeing his team at 7-6 with three weeks to go and the playoffs within their grasp only to lose all three.

"You obviously don't want to end the season at the end of the regular season. You want to keep playing," said Camarillo, who finished with 50 receptions for 552 yards but no touchdowns. "Up and down is pretty much the right way to describe this season. We had some low moments and we had some high moments and to be successful in this league you have to smooth that out. You can't bounce around, you've got to steadily get better and steadily improve. We did that but then we'd fall back down and have to pick ourselves back up. There was a lot of character on this team and it showed when we would always fight back, but we dug ourselves too many holes."

Throughout the season Sparano preached to his players about focus and approaching each game with the same mindset, and that's what allowed the Dolphins to rebound from a 0-3 start, then from 2-4, 3-5 and 5-6. They ran out of gas in the final three weeks and were beset by a slew of critical injuries, including losing quarterback Chad Pennington, running backs Ronnie Brown and Patrick Cobbs, cornerback Will Allen and nose tackle Jason Ferguson for the season.

But this team was never about making excuses when it came to injuries or the league's toughest schedule, so Sparano's initial mindset a day after seeing the season officially come to an end spoke volumes.

"As I told the team I'm not really good at this and I wasn't prepared for it. I was just not prepared for any kind of finality," he said. "That wasn't the way that we approached it yesterday but that's the way it is, so there'll be a cooling off period here for me and then you've got to move on fast and that's what we'll be prepared to do. In my heart of hearts I really believe that we're a lot closer right now than we were a year ago. That's what I believe."

He also admitted that he learned a lot in his second year as a head coach, specifically about how to put together a 53-man roster and build for depth in order to account for injuries. Learning how to utilize the game day roster and making some critical decisions at critical times in a game are things he learned more about as well and he sees room for improvement. The way the season, with the playoff possibilities that were out there, did frustrate him but he knows he has to move forward.

The injuries and other factors did force some younger players into action sooner than planned, like quarterback Chad Henne, rookie cornerbacks Vontae Davis and Sean Smith, running back Lex Hilliard, rookie wide receiver Brian Hartline, rookie safety Chris Clemons and offensive linemen Nate Garner and Joe Berger. Now there are fewer questions about those players headed into 2010.

"I think it will help us a lot and there's no question about it," Sparano said. "I think seeing Vontae, seeing Sean Smith, seeing Chris Clemons, seeing Cameron Wake and some of these younger players is going to help us a lot going forward because you're not sitting there worried about not having enough evidence on what these people can do. I know what Lex Hilliard can do in a game right now. I've got it. I know what Hartline's going to do when he gets to the game, I think I understand it.

"Now can we improve it? Sure we can improve some of these things. So I now know what their strengths and weaknesses are. I've been in some situations before at the end of seasons where I had no idea of what this guy can do in a game. You're going to ask me that question in training camp next year and I'm going to say, ‘Well I don't know. I've got to get the guy in a game.' Well, we're going to have very few of those next year."

Sparano and his staff will now get to the job of evaluating each and every player's entire body of work from the season as well as doing a quality control period on the coaching staff so that the organization can approach free agency and the draft with a clear vision. That means 2009 has to go in the rearview mirror, the good and the bad.

INJURY UPDATE: Rookie quarterback Pat White was at the practice facility less than 24 hours after being hospitalized with a head injury and was talking and joking with teammates. Sparano was relieved that the injury wasn't as serious as it could have been and said White is doing fine. ... Henne, who suffered blurred vision in from a bruise under his left eye after taking a hard hit in the first half, felt a little better today after seeing an eye doctor for an eye exam. He said the vision is coming back and he is awaiting the results of the eye exam. ... Allen, Brown and Ferguson all addressed their health with positive remarks and have resigned themselves to rehabbing in South Florida throughout the offseason. Allen, who tore the ACL in his right knee against New Orleans, is confident he can regain his starting job next year and it looking forward to helping Davis and Smith continue their development. Brown, who suffered a season-ending foot injury against Tampa Bay, is off of his crutches and feels like he is getting better, and Ferguson was a recovery timetable of six to eight months for his quadriceps injury that ended his season at Carolina and will wait until he is healthy again before he makes a determination on his future with the team.