The following argument has nothing to do with soon to be former Raiders’ star cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha as a player. As a player, Asomugha is, in my opinion, the best cornerback in the entire league. And yes, that includes Darrelle Revis.

No, Asomugha doesn’t have the reputation Revis has, but simply put, that’s only because the Raiders have been the laughing stock of the league for years and Revis’ Jets are the media’s darling. Also, Asomugha may get overlooked at times because of his lack of interceptions. It’s hard to get picks, though, when quarterbacks won’t even throw the ball his way.

I’m not aware of the number of times Asomugha and Revis were targeted in 2010 because Pro Football Focus is now a website that requires a paid membership, but in 2009, they revealed that Revis was targeted 111 times while opposing quarterbacks only tested Asomugha on 28 occasions. Not to sell Revis short by any means, he’s an elite corner that drastically makes the Jets a better defense and football team, but Asomugha has been just as dominate, if not more so. With that said, however, I don’t believe that the Dolphins should be in his sweepstakes when he eventually hits free agency, as NFL.com's Micheal Lombardi suggested yesterday afternoon.

Most fans are well aware that the Dolphins have themselves a young corner in Vontae Davis that may be on the verge of rising to elite status himself, meaning a lockdown corner is far from one of this football team’s needs in a offseason where several pressing voids must be addressed. Still though, many don’t expect owner Stephen Ross to be shy with his money this offseason, and the ideal of having an elite corner on each side of the field would be frightening for opposing quarterbacks. But that’s where Sean Smith comes into play.

With free agency inevitably in for postponement thanks to the impending work stoppage next month, I thought it was a good time to take a little two week hiatus from the blog to recharge the batteries a little before we delve into our regular offseason posting schedule.

The week before and after the Super Bowl aren’t exactly what you call newsworthy for a franchise that didn’t even make the playoffs, but while I was off, a few noteworthy Dolphins related storylines developed.

Paul Soliai headed for free agency
The Miami Herald’s Armando Salguero broke news early last week that Paul Soliai, who is in for a big pay day after a monster year as the Dolphins’ nose tackle, will hit the open market. The Dolphins would normally get the first chance to sway Soliai to resign, but due the “30 percent rule” that is in place this offseason, they will be prohibited from resigning players to a contract worth more than 30 percent of their current deal.

Because Soliai drastically improved his stock, making a jump from borderline starting material to one of the premiere nose tackles in the league in the matter of only a season, the Dolphins have no realistic chance of resigning him before free agency begins. Instead, they will be forced to hand over a lucrative long-term contract to Soliai with possibly several other teams who are looking to plug up the middle of their 3-4 defense competing for his services.

I’ve heard some fans in the blogosphere suggest that the Dolphins should let Soliai walk considering he finally broke through in a contract year and has had trouble keeping his weight down in the past. Personally, I feel like resigning Soliai should be priority number one for the Dolphins’ front office in the free agency period. By season’s end, the Dolphins were becoming dominate against the run week in and week out. An awful lot of that had to do with Paul Soliai.

To run a successful 3-4 defense in this league you need a double-team commanding monster in the middle. They are some of rarest players around, but the Dolphins have one. You just can’t let someone of Soliai’s caliber walk without at least putting up a fight.

The Dolphins have a whole lot going for them on the defensive side of the football. Sure, their offense is light years away, but with a young defense on the verge of potentially making the jump to elite status, winning football might not be as far away as it may seem. Now, the Dolphins just have to make sure they keep the defense together.

Although the finale to the 2010 NFL season is still over a week away, the long, strenuous draft scouting process has already kicked off with the week’s Senior Bowl. Hundreds of NFL scouts fled to Mobile, Alabama at the beginning of the week to begin the evaluation of some of the nation’s most outstanding seniors.

Senior Bowl week culminates with the game itself tomorrow, but most scouts actually consider the week of practice more revealing and some have already made the trip home. From the fans perspective, though, tomorrow’s game will give many a first impression of some of the prospects we are going to ramble on about and dissect until the draft in late April. More importantly, from the Dolphins’ perspective, there are several quarterbacks, including first round possibility Jake Locker, that have one final game as a collegiate athlete to make the type of statement that could significantly boost their draft stock.

1. Jake Locker, QB, Washington: There may not be a bigger high risk, high reward prospect in this year’s draft than Jake Locker. Many draft experts believed Locker would have been the first overall selection in last year’s draft if he would have chose to come out early. Instead, Locker returned for his senior season where he finished his degree and got one more valuable year of experience under his belt. However, he drastically hurt his draft stock as his passing numbers took a dip and Washington stumbled to a mediocre season. Still though, Locker’s superb athleticism and arm strength and the fact that he played in a pro style system at Washington have many draft experts projecting him as the second ranked quarterback in the draft.

2. Titus Young, WR, Boise State: We all know that the Dolphins need to get faster and more explosive on the offensive side of the football. Brandon Marshall, Davone Bess, and Brian Hartline make up a pretty solid receiving core, but the lack of a true deep threat really hurt Miami’s ability to produce big plays. If the Dolphins are serious about addressing this issue, Titus Young would be the ideal selection in the second or third round. That is, if he doesn’t just play his way into the first round conversation this week. Young has consistently been getting separation on go-routes this week in practice and if he can run a sub 4.4 at the combine, comparisons to Desean Jackson would likely be soon to follow. The only problem is, when dealing with speedy receivers, you never know when you’ve got another Ted Ginn on your hands.

Omar Kelly of the Sun-Sentinel is reporting this morning that the Dolphins’ plans are to release 32-year old cornerback Will Allen once teams are officially allowed to cut ties with veterans next month.

Allen was placed on injured reserve early in the year after he underwent a knee scope to help alleviate pain in his knee as he attempted to return from a torn ACL. From the outside looking in, it certainly appeared to be a premature move on the Dolphins part, as Jeff Ireland churned the roster by bringing in roster fringe lineman and wasn't willing to wait for the outstanding depth Allen would have brought to the cornerback position.

In his five years with the Dolphins, Allen arguably established himself as one of the most underrated cornerbacks in football, but the combination of his age, durability, the emergence of Vontae Davis and Sean Smith, and the fact that he’s owed $5.5 million in 2011, the third most of any Dolphin, makes this an almost compulsory move. Hopefully, by avoiding handing that big of a check to Allen, the Dolphins can put that extra cash to good use in free agency.

Dolphins’ general manager Jeff Ireland was back at it again yesterday at the Senior Bowl. In the same manner he praised Gibril Wilson and endorsed the pedestrian receiving core last offseason, Ireland had nothing but good things to say about Chad Henne and talked like he’s still not willing give up on him as the future of the franchise.

"He's shown some aggressive tendencies, he's shown some exciting throws," Ireland said. "He's got all the ability in the world. We've just got to put a plan together and an offensive philosophy that fits Chad Henne, and I think we'll do that." He did, however, make it known that the Dolphins would "evaluate what’s out there like we do every position in free agency and the draft.”

Reading too heavily into Ireland’s comments would be foolish considering that this regime tends to say one thing and do another and that teams generally like to throw smokescreens out there in the early stages of the offseason. It’s not like Ireland would tip his hand if he had a plan in place to acquire another quarterback either via a trade, free agency, or the draft. Having said that, though, we can ponder whether or not there is still any hope for Chad Henne as a starter in this league.

Even if the Dolphins are intent on finding a new potential franchise quarterback, there’s no guarantee that Chad Henne won’t, at the very least, retain his starting job to begin the season. If they choose to address the situation in the draft, rookies usually need at least one season of developmental time. There are obviously the exceptions like Sam Bradford, but there isn’t a quarterback in this year’s draft that appears half as NFL ready as Bradford was. If the Dolphins choose to bring in a veteran, there isn’t one attainable quarterback in this league that Chad Henne can’t at least compete with.

So while I agree with many fans that it’s time for the Dolphins to stop investing in Chad Henne like a franchise quarterback and that it’s time for Jeff Ireland to scour the land for the next potential long term solution, it’s likely more than a probability that the Dolphins won’t find a reliable quarterback this offseason and Chad Henne will take that first snap in early September. That may not be what the majority of fans want to hear, but sometimes the truth is discouraging. But if it indeed plays out that way, will all hope be lost for the 2011 season?

Personally, I find it hard to believe that the light bulb will ever turn on in Henne’s head if it hasn’t already. But if somehow season three as the starter is the year the game finally slows down for Henne and he lives up to the potential that comes with having a rocket for an arm, he wouldn’t be in uncharted waters. Most elite quarterbacks in this league, or even solid starters for that matter, reveal the type of player they’re going to be by their second season under center. Looking at the curious case of Drew Brees’ rocky start in San Diego, though, we see some striking similarities with Henne’s first three seasons in Miami.