Culpepper cleared to practice

Daunte Culpepper has been cleared to practice when the Dolphins' training camp opens this Saturday. Although not near fully recovered yet, he will practice with the first team, a good sign that he could be ready to play as early as the first game of the season.

In other news, the Dolphins signed another seventh-round draft pick, DT Frederick Evans. Talks with first-round selection Jason Allen are moving slowly, and it's doubtful he'll be signed before the start of training camp.

Dolphins start signing rookies

Last week, the Dolphins signed fourth-round draft pick OT Joe Toledo and seventh-round pick WR Devin Aromashodu. Toledo signed a four-year deal worth about $2 million with incentives that could push it to almost $3 million. Aromashodu's deal was also for four years, and it was worth $1.7 million.

The Dolphins expect to announce the signings of their other seventh-round picks, Rodrique Wright and Fred Evans, in the near future.

Ricky breaks arm in CFL game

Ricky Williams broke his arm in the second quarter of a Toronto Argonauts game last Saturday. Neither Ricky nor the Argonauts disclosed details about the injury or how many games he would miss.

A look back at the 2005 season

There isn't much news nowadays in Dolphins-land, so I thought I'd reflect back on the past season. Record-wise and expectations-wise, last season was a big success. The Dolphins finished the year at 9-7, including a six-game winning streak, and just barely missed the playoffs. It was a big turnaround from the previous year's 4-12 record.

When the season first ended, I thought the Dolphins beat expectations to finish with a winning record. However, the more I thought about it, the more I believe we should have expected a good team last year, and 2004 was the aberration. Remember that the team finished 2003 with a 10-6 record, Ricky Williams had just had a big year, and hopes were high for 2004. Then Ricky decided to take a year off, announcing his plans as training camp started.

That news knocked the team off-balance for all of 2004. If Ricky had stayed, the Dolphins should have had a winning season and been a playoff contender. In 2005, Ricky returned, bolstered by new draft pick Ronnie Brown, so it was reasonable to assume last year would resemble 2003, as if 2004 never happened. The trauma of 2004 altered our expectations of the team, but it shouldn't have because the Ricky soap opera threw everything off.

That said, I still think Nick Saban did a good job last season and it was a good idea to hire him. The former regime was taking the team nowhere, and the personnel decisions they made were horrible. At least Saban is starting to lay a sound foundation for the team (although I question the Dolphins' draft this year), and his overall philosophy makes more sense.