An Egg In A Basket

Monday, July 26, 2004
Alistair Henderson
MDBW Staff Writer

Ricky Williams, in a tumultuous off season, has shaved his head and laid the shortcomings of the Dolphins organization bare.

For whatever bizarre reason, Ricky is no longer a Dolphin. Gone. One bald egg in one basket, gone.

And gone with him are the hopes of thousands of Dolfans, dozens of his teammates, the coaches, and especially Dave Wannstedt and Uncle Wayne himself. Dave might as well start packing now, and doubtless Wayne is deep in conversation with his legal advisors. Not that Ricky will be easy to find in Asia.

When Dave Wannstedt dealt away those two first round picks he thought he was getting a golden egg. Turns out he laid a goose egg.

Ok. Let’s get this straight. The plan this year again was Ricky.

Ricky runs the ball and a bad offensive line looks good. Ricky runs the ball and opens up the passing game. Ricky runs the ball and gives an already strong defense a breather to come back even stronger. Ricky runs the ball in goal line and third and short situations and we convert.

Easy, right? A masterful plan guaranteed to succeed. Just like last year, and the year before. Everything based on a power running back with a penchant for wedding dresses and weed.

Does “been there, done that” sound familiar? What makes us think that it was going to work this year? Third time lucky? The addition of David Boston and a questionable makeover on the offensive line? A potential change at quarterback, replacing a journeyman with a third-string import?

Maybe. You never know. The tweaks and additions might just have magically worked. But the fact is that it all depended on one bald egg who turned out to be something of a basket case. And when you put all your bald eggs in one basket case, that can actually be a recipe for disaster.

And it raises a question. What was the plan if Ricky got injured this year? Who were the Dolphins going to turn to?

How is it that other teams have adequate to great back ups? Denver seems to be able to pull running backs out of a hat at the drop of a helmet. What were the Dolphins thinking, having basically no adequate back up for Ricky? Travis Minor? Leonard Henry? Nice players, but I don’t think so.

This is an apparent disaster of massive proportions for the Miami Dolphins, not just because their franchise player is no longer available, but because they didn’t plan for the very real possibility of that happening.

And Dave Wannstedt is left with egg all over his face.