Brian Hartline's Season Is Over After The Miami Dolphins Place Him On IR

The season has officially ended for Brian Hartline, who was placed on the injured reserve Saturday.

Hartline injured one of his fingers during the Miami Dolphins loss to the Cleveland Browns last Sunday. Hartline had surgery on the finger earlier this week, and the Dolphins finally decided to place him on IR.

Hartline has had the best season of his young career after just the first 12 games, and he will be missed for the remainder of this season. The Dolphins better hope that Brandon Marshall is ready to play this week (and he likely will), because if he isn't then Miami's prime receiver will be Davone Bess. That isn't good because, while Bess is an extremely good receiver, he thrives when defenses are focusing more of their attention on another receiver like Marshall.

With the extra spot on the roster, Miami added tight end Dedrick Epps from the practice squad.

We will see what the offense is able to do without Hartline. I wouldn't be surprised if RB Patrick Cobbs sees a couple more catches. I know he isn't a receiver, but Tony Sparano loves Cobbs and uses him a lot as a receiver.

Thanks for reading, and let me know what you think the loss of Hartline will do to the offense.

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Chad Henne Finally Plays Like He Should Have Been Playing All Season

Henne Showed Promise On Sunday

Yesterday, we saw that Chad Henne was finally able to play the way we have been expecting him to play the entire season. He was able to throw the ball deep when he needed to, but the most important thing was that he didn't have to carry the entire team on his shoulders.

The Miami Dolphins running game was able to carry part of the load, and that was a huge help for Henne. There have been too many games this season where the Dolphins have relied completely on Henne's arm, and he isn't ready for that kind of responsibility yet.

He shouldn't have to have that kind of responsibility, either. Not many veteran quarterbacks can do well without help from their running game, so why would a young Chad Henne be able to do any better for the Miami Dolphins?

Miami's numbers running the ball actually weren't anything special. With the exception of a late 45 yard touchdown run when the game was already put away, the Dolphins numbers were a little pedestrian. Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams gained 180 rushing yards together off of 44 carries. Those are pretty good numbers, but you would think they would have been able to gain more yardage with that many carries. If you take out the 45 yard run, they combined for 135 rushing yards on 43 carries. That is 3.1 yards per carry, which isn't very good.

What I am trying to say, though, is that maintaining a steady dose of the running game is important because it keeps defenses guessing. Keeping defenses guessing helps Chad Henne do better and throw fewer interceptions. Even though running the ball didn't move Miami down the field too well, it still kept the Raiders defense honest.

I liked what I saw in Henne against Oakland, too. He was able to keep his composure after throwing a bad interception and continue to drive the ball down the field later on. The crazy thing is that he didn't even have Brandon Marshall. He wasn't even playing with his best players, yet he was still able to throw the ball all over the field. He threw touchdown passes to Marlon Moore and Patrick Cobbs, who (I might add) aren't really considered playmakers in the NFL.

I'll be honest, I wasn't too confident about the Dolphins coming into this game, but Chad Henne showed me a lot on Sunday. He had good numbers, but the biggest improvement was the mentality he played with. He is playing with a lot more fire after being benched for Chad Pennington and then Tyler Thigpen.

Don't give up on him yet. I have a feeling that he is going to have a great career after watching that game.

Thanks for reading, and please leave a comment saying what you think about Henne.

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Calling Miami Dolphins Fans, I Need Your Help!

Everyone hates the offseason in the NFL.

It doesn't matter who you root for, you just want the cold weather to hurry up and come back so you can watch some football.

And just like fans don't enjoy the offseason, neither to journalists and blog writers like me.

So I am asking everyone who reads this, please email me a question about the Miami Dolphins.

It can be anything that has to do with the Dolphins. I will post your question with an answer on my blog.

When you email, give me a format something like this:

Name:
Location:
Question:

It doesn't have to be exactly like that, because I understand I shouldn't be picky. But as long as you ask me a question I am happy.

Email your Miami Dolphins questions to paul@dolphinshout.com, and I may even post your question as soon as tomorrow depending on whether anything new comes out of Miami.


Now, since I always try to add some Dolphin talk to as many of my posts as possible, here is something for you guys to think about:

Should Miami keep Patrick Cobbs?

He is coming off of a season-ending knee surgery last year, and Miami already has a lot of running backs on the roster.

What made me think about it was an article I read saying his knee was getting a lot better.

I'll be honest, I don't know much about the risk of Cobbs being injured. I'm not sure if he gets injured a lot or not, but I do know that he obviously can't be a player who never has to worry about injuries simply because he had a season ending injury.

But, do the Dolphins even need to worry about him?

I don't think so because along with Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams, Miami has Lex Hilliard and Kory Sheets. Hilliard was able to be successful when he ran the ball last season, and Sheets has a lot of potential. Do we need to worry about holding on to Cobbs when we have good backups like Sheets and Hilliard?

Let me know what you guys think about Cobbs, and don't forget to email me your questions here:
paul@dolphinshout.com

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