The wide receiver situation in Miami must be getting a dire when Braylon Edwards is invited to Dolphin camp for a look-see. I guess Braylon has forgotten about, "I think they used me as a pawn in the things that they were trying to do. It happens," Edwards wasn’t too happy with Miami back in 2005, "So at that time I still had it in the back of my head that they told me one thing and did another. We call that lying."
Coming out of Michigan should have been the first clue Edwards would never live up to his draft status. Even his dad got in on the act while Edwards was a rookie in Cleveland, "If you pick somebody third, then find out if they're a failure or not," Stan Edwards said. "They need to go back to his college film and see that he's a 7-foot high jumper with a freakish sense of timing when in the air, and he could bench-press 225 pounds 31 times, so he's not going to get the ball taken away."
As a fan, I always wondered where a college kid got those 5-carat diamond earrings before ever getting a paycheck. It’s freakish how money comes out of nowhere and no one questions a kid’s character. Nick Saban will be remembered more like Satan in Miami because he could sure spin a yarn with a straight face, "I apologize to anybody that was misled by anyone in this organization who made that comment," Saban said. "I could only say that I didn't make it, and I could only take responsibility and apologize for our organization if that did occur."
The Dolphins played Cleveland that year and Edwards said in June he had circled Sunday's date between the two teams as a means of motivation, but now he is only concerned with winning. "It has gotten to the point where I've moved on and I put that out of my head," he said. "This game isn't about revenge."
Edwards got rich off his rookie contract and turned out to be one of those players whose love for money far exceeds his desire to run slants over the middle. That is not going to change no matter how desperate Edwards gets now that money is gone. Many fans in Miami barely remember the whining but some will never forget.
This coaching staff and personnel department had nothing to do with the Edwards affair in 2005, but to think this guy is going to change would be foolish. When a team like the Jets is willing to let him go, there is no place for him in Miami, like there wasn’t in Cleveland or San Francisco.
Braylon Edwards is all about Braylon Edwards and will always be, the Miami Dolphins don’t need another Brandon Marshall that is less productive. Consider the following career stats…
YEAR | TEAM | REC | YARDS | AVE | TDS |
2005 | CLEVELAND | 32 | 512 | 16.0 | 3 |
2006 | CLEVELAND | 61 | 884 | 14.5 | 6 |
2007 | CLEVELAND | 80 | 1,289 | 16.1 | 16 |
2008 | CLEVELAND | 55 | 873 | 15.9 | 3 |
2009 | CLEVELAND | 10 | 139 | 13.9 | 0 |
2009 | NY JETS | 35 | 541 | 15.5 | 4 |
2010 | NY JETS | 53 | 904 | 17.1 | 7 |
2011 | SAN FRANCISCO | 15 | 181 | 12.1 | 0 |
TOTAL | 326 | 5,142 | 15.8 | 39 | |
Edwards broke 1000 yards once in his career and surpassed 10 TDs only once that same year, 2007. When Edwards should have broken out into one of the games great receivers he went backwards.
Then there is Edwards legal issues… He has been pulled over several times over the last eight years for speeding violations. The most recent of which was in October 2008 when he was pulled over for driving 120 mph in a 65 mph zone.
Two days before being traded to the New York Jets, on October 5, 2009, Edwards reportedly punched Edward Givens, a local party promoter, in the face at 2:30 A.M. outside of the View Ultralounge & Nightclub. Givens, who is an acquaintance of LeBron James, alleged that Edwards was jealous of James' success thus prompting Edwards' attack. This prompted James to call the incident "childish."
On October 26, 2009, Edwards was charged with misdemeanor assault and later plead no contest to the charge of aggravated assault on January 12, 2010. Edwards was given a suspended 180-day jail sentence, was fined $1,000 and placed on inactive probation. Though Edwards offered no explanation or apology for his actions, he reportedly regretted the entire ordeal according to his lawyer. The NFL did not suspend Edwards for his actions.
On September 21, 2010, Edwards was arrested on a drunken driving charge in New York early in the morning. He was originally pulled over for having excessively tinted windows on his Range Rover. Police smelled alcohol on Edwards who blew 0.16—twice the legal limit. He was arrested on a DWI charge. He is still on probation for the altercation that occurred in October 2009… (WIKI)
The Dolphins can do much better than messing around with Braylon Edwards even if it means keeping the players already on the roster.
