Let’s compare the numbers:

Trent Green: 13 seasons, 112 games played, 26, 963 passing yards, 157 touchdowns, 101 interceptions, career QB rating of 87.5.

Daunte Culpepper: 7 seasons, 85 games played, 21,091 passing yards, 137 touchdowns, 89 interceptions, career QB rating of 90.8.

So in 27 less games and half as many seasons Daunte Culpepper is 20 touchdowns and 5,872 yards behind Green. That is less than 1 touchdown per game and average of throwing 217 yards to catch Green right now if he never played again. O yeah there is also that thing that Daunte has a playoff WIN, three to be exact and a trip to the Conference title game. Yet Miami has it in their head that Daunte should not even compete against a guy seven years his elder.

I have to scratch my head at that. I thought competition was supposed to make players better? I thought it would be good to have some veteran help on a team that hasn’t had a good quarterback since Marino retired. Apparently Miami doesn’t think so.

Congratulations Trent Green you inherit a franchise that can’t protect you, has streaky receivers, a young runningback, and a defense that still has great individual players but is getting old. You get to play the Patriots defense twice a year and the up and coming Jets. Are you sure you didn’t bump your head harder than you thought? Although after this decision along with the very questionable first round draft pick maybe the Dolphins franchise is suffering from their own concussion.

 Too bad your ass got saaaaaaaaaaaacked!

His status is relatively unknown at this point.  Certainly, he is not good enough to carry a team as pathetic as the Dolphins.  Even more troubling is the fact that the Dolphins did very little to address their porous offensive line.  I believe Anthony Alabi is currently their starter at left tackle.  Ouch.  With that sort of protection, Trent Green will stuggle and I would be very surprised if he lasted the entire season.  I think perhaps the Dolphins have given up on the coming year already, and will look to address the O-Line in next year’s draft before handing the reins to John Beck.

 More interesting, though, is where this trade leaves Daunte Culpepper.  Culpepper is the obvious odd man out, and it looks like a foregone conclusion that he will be cut, as it is unlikely that the Dolphins could trade him for anything.  Honestly, there is nowhere in the league where Culpepper could compete for a starting job – maybe Jacksonville, but would he really be an upgrade?  Possibly Minnesota, but would they take him back?  At this point, Culpepper will have to accept his role as a backup and go somewhere like Buffalo where J.P. Losman’s grasp on the starting job is tenuous at best.

Right.  That’s gonna work.

After some prodding, Cuban admitted that he simply had too much money, and felt as though he needed to blow an ungodly sum on a foolish business venture.  Cuban’s financial adviser is reportedly attempting to convince Cuban to simply start lighting cigars with $100 bills, as that is sure to be a better allocation of funds than starting a football league.

One cannot help but think of Vince McMahon’s XFL fiasco when they hear crazy talk about challenging the NFL’s supremacy.  For the hundreds of millions of dollars lost in the XFL’s lone season, the only things accomplished were a brief resurrection of Tommy Maddox’s career and America’s introdcution to the legendary He Hate Me. 

Western Kentucky has never been so proud…

Cuban also pulled out some concepts from his old Economics notes, claiming that there is “more demand for pro football than supply.”  And sure, the Mark Cuban Football League (or MCFL) won’t have Peyton Manning or even Rex Grossman, but rumor has it that Tim Couch is just sitting at home, waiting for a call.  Perhaps if Cuban asks nicely, he can pry Major Applewhite away from his OC position at Alabama to play quarterback for the Santa Fe Salamanders.  It’s certainly worth a try.

We here at Call the Draw wish Mark Cuban the best of luck in committing financial suicide.  We look forward to running into him during our bi-weekly trips to Goodwill.

 The Big East:  I had an entire post ready about how Syracuse was going to be the most improved team in the Big East.  And then I decided to scrap it.  I just couldn’t lie to everyone out there in the blogosphere.  Everyone in the Big East will be comparable to the state they were in last season.  West Virginia, Rutgers, and Louisville will all battle it out for supremacy, while one of them will drop a game to South Florida, who will be just outside the mix due to a loss to some inexplicable loss to a Big East bottom feeder.  The other 4 teams will fail to distinguish themselves in any way.

 Welcome to Big East football!  Is there any doubt in anyone’s mind that Marshall will be the next team added to the Big East?  I don’t know how this hasn’t happened yet.  They are certainly no worse than UConn and Cincinnati.

 In conclusion, I apologize for taking the easy way out, but seriously, you try picking an improved team out of this bunch.  Since I am in the business of predictions, though, I predict that the teams in the Big East will finish in the exact same order that they did last year.

In one year of being in Minnesota he turned that defense from a bottom ten defense into a top ten defense with essentially the same personnel after losing two first round draft picks to injury in Chad Greenway and Erasmus James. He had no pass rush and turned a linebacking core that was extremely questionable to begin the season into a group that shut down the run with the DT’s in front of them.

Tomlin is a great motivator and joins a franchise that has its history on the defensive side of the ball with the Steel Curtain of the 70s. He’s been tutored under the likes of Tony Dungy and Monte Kiffin and now will be working beside the godfather of the zone blitz in Lebeau. Not too shabby of a group to learn from.

Though he is young he demands and earns the respect of players who are sometimes older than him because of his knowledge of the game. In Minnesota he coached college teammate Darren Sharper who he went up against daily at their alma mater William & Mary where Tomlin played wide receiver. In his first season in Tampa is the DBs coach he came to All-Pro John Lynch and said here are things that can make you better after Lynch was coming off a career season. Tomlin is not afraid to correct what needs corrected regardless of if you are a superstar or a backup. Everyone will get better under his watch.

The Steelers found a gem in Tomlin that will bring them success for years to come and multiple Superbowls. In 10 years Steeler fans will be glad they took a risk on a young black coach trying to prove himself because there is no doubt he will.

This brings up a football-related point though, what if the NFL had a draft lottery?  Can you imagine the suspense, particularly with a player like Reggie Bush or Calvin Johnson hanging in the balance?

 As much as I would love to see Reggie Bush as a Bengal, I think the system would be detrimental to the league.  Parity is part of the NFL’s beauty.  The NBA is a different story though, as its front office incompetence and overall dilution of talent will always keep it from acheiving parity.

 In any case, Call the Draw salutes Oden and Durant and hopes they will playing in the majestic Pacific Northwest (and how could anyone not?).

Independents:  Army             

 Not many choices here, especially considering that Temple has joined the MAC.  Army showed potential during Bobby Ross’s three year tenure, knocking off a middling Baylor squad and nearly defeating Texas A&M in 2006 (en route to a disappointing 3-9 record), but they couldn’t seem to return to their mid-90′s prominence.  Admittedly, however, I may be a little biased towards Army, as I was a season ticket holder during their magical 1996 campaign (Ronnie McAda was one of the best wishbone QB’s ever to grace the field of Michie Stadium).  That said, the Black Knights welcome former assistant Stan Brock as their new head coach.  I know nothing about Brock, other than  that he was an All-American offensive tackle at Colorado, and later played for the New Orleans Saints.  This is his first HC job (unless you count the AFL, which would be foolish), but he knows how to talk the talk:

“I’ve been around some great coaches in my career and I think I bring a little bit of all of them into this new challenge. I completely support coach Ross’ vision for the program and intend to build upon the groundwork that he laid. We understand that we are ‘America’s Team’ and one of the most widely recognized symbols of our Army,” Brock said.

As far as personnel goes, Army still has senior QB David Pevoto, as well as senior WR Jeremy Trimble….but that’s about all for the offense.  The defense also suffers heavy losses.  Army traditionally starts seniors though, so turnover is certainly nothing new.  The main question is whether or not Brock will return to the wishbone that Army once ran so well.  Surely, the brass at the Academy must realize that the option is their only chance to compete with the other mid-majors.  Occasionally, maybe they get lucky and beat a team like Texas A&M or Boston College.  More importantly, they will be doing their part to preserve a type of football that has tragically disappeared during the last 10 years.

 It also bears mentioning that Army sort of wins this honor by default.  Navy could not be considered much improved unless they went undefeated, and although it is early to say for sure, I don’t think that’s in the cards.  Notre Dame should be considerably worse this year (which I’ll get into in a later post).  Army lost a few headscratchers last year, most notably to Arkansas State (shudder).  You have to think with a senior quarterback, they’ll be able to pull out a few more wins.  In 2007, they host Rhode Island, Temple, and Tulane, all of which should be wins.  Trips to Akron and Air Force, as well as a visit from Tulsa are also winnable games.  They could be 5-4 when Rutgers comes to town for a Friday night ESPN2 showdown that could be interesting.  6-6 and a bowl game is not out of the question.

If nothing else, Stan Brock should inject some youthful exuberence into the program, and being a former O-lineman, hopefully he will renew the team’s focus on running the football.  For no reason at all, I imagine Brock as something of an Ed Orgeron Lite.  And that can only be a good thing….