AFC EAST - MIAMI DOLPHINS

2006 PREVIEW

This team played as well as any team in the league in the second half last season, and the Fish upgraded at the quarterback slot provided Daunte Culpepper can fully recover from his knee injury.

That being said, they will miss running back Ricky Williams, who actually did an excellent job spelling Ronnie Brown last year. In fact Williams had more touchdowns (6) than Brown (4) despite not joining the Dolphins until Week 5. Miami does have a nice receiving corps in Chris Chambers, Marty Booker and the newly acquired Kelly Campbell. If Culpepper can regain his past form, that trio could potentially put up some big numbers this season. However, the health of Culpeper is still in doubt, and should he miss some time we are not confident that Joey Harrington is the answer. Also Brown still has to prove that he could be an every down back.

The Dolphins are pretty sound defensively, and if their first round draft pick Jason Allen is fully healed from a hip injury that hindered him last season, he should instantly improve the secondary. While this team has the potential to battle for a wild card berth, there are simply too many ifs on both sides of the ball to expect much more than an 8-8 season. Then again such a record should be good enough for second best in the AFC East.

2006 Prediction: 2 nd Place AFC East