Today, the Dolphins had their kickoff luncheon at Sun Life Stadium, where players, coaches, and fans all got together to get pumped up for the 2011-2012 season.

Players sat down and chatted with fans, also doing interviews with Jesse Agler (@finsjesse if you’re not following him on twitter don’t consider yourself a true Dolfan). Then they closed it out with Coach Sparano giving a speech to all in attendance.

Like him or hate, Coach Sparano can give one hell of a speech. Tony is a very motivating speaker that can light up any room. In fact, Brandon Marshall tweeted earlier: @BMarshall19: Every time I hear coach Sparano speak I get chills. #greatness

There were a couple of lines that stood out to me from Tony’s speech:

Sparano at Dolphins luncheon said " this team will win!!"

Talking about home opener, "I hope it’s outrageous out there.”

Tony quoted Gladiator, saying "If you win the crowd, victory belongs to you, this group will win the crowd."

Here is a link of the video of Tony’s speech courtesy of The Finsiders.com

http://thefinsiders.com/blog/2011/coach-sparano-kickoff-speech-83111

Tick tock; tick tock….it’s that time of year where everyone stares at the clock waiting for the regular season to start. It’s also the time of year where the season previews and super bowl predictions start coming out.

Recently, Peter King put out his season preview listing the Dolphins 4th in the AFC East with a 6-10 record. King also posted his Super Bowl prediction, taking the Falcons over the Chargers in this year’s Super Bowl.

That being said, you won’t be ready for this year’s kickoff until you check out my 2011 NFL season preview. So here you go:

The Dolphins began today with 82 players on the active roster. NFL rules required them to trim off two, dropping them to 80 players by 4 p.m. today.

The two players that got the axe were OT Allen Barbre and OG Tyler Donahue. Barbre was placed on injured reserve with an undisclosed injury and the rookie Donahue was waived.

Of course, the real cut-down deadline will be Saturday evening at 6 p.m. when the Dolphins will be forced to make 27 cuts in order to establish their 53-man roster. With the starters only getting limited action at most on Thursday night against the Cowboys, the spotlight will be on the roster fringe players in their last ditch effort to make an impression. 

Bittersweet is probably the word that describes it best. There was plenty to feel good about in the Dolphins’ 13-17 loss at the hands of the Buccaneers on Saturday night.

Well, when I say plenty I’m mostly just referring to Chad Henne’s performance. But he’s a quarterback. A quarterback whose struggles prevented this team from threatening for a playoff spot a year ago. So, when Henne plays well there is a huge reason to be pleased.

But there was plenty of bad too. 76 yards worth of penalties bad. A grand total of 22 rushing yards in the entire game bad. The Tampa Bay running backs combining for 116 yards receiving bad.

Even with all the bad, though, the Dolphins were a Brandon Marshall fumble away from possibly taking a 13-3, maybe even a 17-3 lead into the half on a team that went 10-6 a year ago in the brutal NFC South.

And so the flip-flopping continues.

What should the fan base be feeling this Monday morning? Should they be thrilled that Chad Henne is seemingly coming around, or should the offensive line’s nightmare game have Dolphin fans lining up to hit the panic button? Let’s weigh the positives and negatives from a very indifferent night in Tampa.

POSITIVES

Chad Henne may be a different quarterback: It may be the preseason, but it’s looking more and more safe to assume that Chad Henne has finally turned the corner. I’m not saying he’s going to be an elite quarterback in this league, but he surely looks like a quality one. A quarterback that is suddenly capable of putting this team on his back and actually winning games on his own. That’s crucial because with the current state of the running game, he may have to.

But it’s not just the big-time yardage and gaudy quarterback rating that has me thinking I’m looking at a completely different player. There were two plays that stood out to me against the Bucs in particular.

The first being an all out blitz from Tampa Bay that led to a simple quick out to Anthony Fasano for a 9-yard gain. But it’s what Henne did before the play that excited me. He clearly recognizes the blitz and audibles at the line to a quick hitter to Fasano. That’s the type of play that shows me he’s finally taking command of this offense. Simple, yes, but still something we haven’t seen from Chad in the past.

The other play was about a 6-yard completion to Clyde Gates on third and three. Henne’s eyes are fixated to the right of the field from his drop back. Instead of forcing the pass into his first read, though, Henne looks left to find just enough room to fit a tight pass into Gates. Staring down receivers has been my major grip against Henne from day one. The sky is the limit if he’s going to begin to go through his progressions.

And all of that isn’t even mentioning the beautiful 60-yard touchdown strike to Brandon Marshall and another well-placed deep ball on a pass Clyde Gates should have probably reeled in. Henne has always had the arm strength; he’s just never had the deep ball accuracy or the touch to utilize it consistently.

In the past two games Henne has completed 25 of 37 passes and has thrown for 369 yards and a touchdown with no interceptions. I don’t want to make Henne’s maturation official until he has similar success when it counts, but being optimistic isn’t jumping the gun after what we’ve seen in back-to-back weeks.

The Dolphins addressed their depth at safety this afternoon, inking Gerald Alexander to an undisclosed deal.

The 2007 second-round draft pick out of Boise State has started 30 of 41 games in his four-year career.

At 27-years-old, Alexander had his career year as a rookie, accounting for 81 tackles, registering 2.0 sacks, and picking off two passes for the Detroit Lions.

His last decent season came in 2009 when he managed 55 tackles and two interceptions for the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Alexander is listed as a free safety, which may immediately draw conclusions that the Dolphins aren’t satisfied with Chris Clemons and Reshad Jones. But not so fast.

He said he’ll learn both free and strong safety on twitter, likely meaning he’ll be competition for backup strong safety Tyrone Culver. Culver required the help of the trainers last night for an apparent injury, but was able to walk off the field on his own power.

It’s unknown whether or not Alexander is being brought in because Culver may miss time or because the Dolphins just aren’t happy with his production. Either way, Culver’s relief from Jimmy Wilson moving to corner was short lived and now his roster spot is once again in jeopardy.