The Miami Dolphins starting lineup seems to be clearing up more and more each day. After going into training camp with expected competitions at left guard, center, right guard, and No. 2 receiver on offense, defensive end, both weakside and strongside outside linebacker, possibly cornerback, and free safety on defense, and punt returner and kick returner on special-teams, we learned early on that Brian Hartline was the man opposite Marshall, Cameron Wake was thankfully the team's every-down answer on the weakside, and Will Allen wasn't healthy enough to make a run at Davis or Smith.

The first two preseason games have done a good job of clearing up just about everything else, but we likely have to wait until after Friday night to edge the starting lineup in stone.

Even though there are still two remaining preseason contest, the third game is typically used as a dress rehearsal, and having most, if not all,of the position battles settled is a good way to solidify chemistry and cohesiveness before things get real in a couple of short weeks.

And the final exihibition game usually provides an opportunity for those players on the roster bubble to make their final push to make the team, with minimal reps for starting caliber players. So lets take a look at which competitions are clinched, and which ones still have a little bit of convincing to do.

Clinched-Offense

Right Guard: John Jerry
Early on it looked like the third-round pick out of Mississippi was only getting first-team reps so the coaching staff could get a feel for what he can bring to the table against a first-team defense. Jerry had a few bumps in the road early on in camp, and didn't exactly standout in the team's intrasquad scrimmage, but ran away with the competition in the first two preseason games. He's shown the potential to be mauling run-blocker, and has arguably been the most consistent of any of the Dolphins' interior lineman.

Clinched-Defense

Right Defensive End: Jared Odrick
We haven't heard Sparano name a winner here yet, but judging by how solid Odrick looked in the first two games, it wouldn't make much since to plug in a veteran like Marques Douglas and consequently halt the rookie's progression. Odrick continues to look like a quality NFL starter already, with potential upside that could eventually lead to him becoming one of the top 3-4 ends in the league. Charles Grant may be providing the most pass rush of any of the Dolphins' defensive ends so far, but he is almost exclusively spending time as Kendall Langford's backup on the left side. If he had a chance at unseating Odrick, it would make sense to work him in on the right side.

Strongside Outside Linebacker: Koa Misi
Regardless of which South Florida reporter you side with, when discussing how Misi has looked thus far, he's clearly ahead of Ikaika Alama-Francis. Misi still isn't showing much of a pass rush, but he is good enough at the other elements of the position to hold down the starting job opposite Cameron Wake. Is he starting quality, yet? That's still up in the air.

Clinched-Special-Teams

Punt-Returner: Davone Bess
No, Bess isn't going to break off many big returns, but it's evident that the coaching staff trust him over all the other options. His decision making has always been trustworthy, but he can't afford to muff any punts, or fumble any returns like last season.

On the Verge-Offense

Left Guard: Richie Incognito
Just when you thought the competition at left guard was finally settled, Donald Thomas received some first-team reps in practice this week. Incognito returned to starting duties the next day, however, but it's clear that he probably needs a solid performance Friday night to secure the job. He's as tough as they come, but his mediocre pulling seems to holding him back.

Center: Jake Grove
Joe Berger had the upper hand heading into Saturday night, but Grove may have landed a knockout blow after outplaying Berger pretty decisively. Like I have said from day one, the only reason this is a competition at all is because Grove's costly contract doesn't quite seem worth it when Berger's solid play isn't a huge drop-off. But when Kris Jenkins and Vince Wilfork come to town in Weeks 3 and 4, I don't think there's any question about who needs to be lined up as starting center. That would be Jake Grove, $30 million contact and all.

On the Verge-Defense

Free Safety: Chris Clemons
Well, it's been two weeks since Sparano said Clemons was a solid performance away from writing his name in pen as starting free safety. Some poor tackling in the opener and an invisible showing Saturday night later, and Clemons still hasn't been crowned the starter just yet. Based on the fact Reshad Jones hasn't been overly convincing either, outside of one fumble recovery, Clemons is still in the driver's seat. I expect things to stay that way given how many reps that have been invested in Clemons, but if Jones were to go out and steal the show in the final two preseason games, an upset would possibly begin to brew.  

On the Verge-Special-Teams

Kick-Returner: Nolan Carroll
Yes, Carroll was outstanding in kick-return duty on Saturday night, averaging 25 yards per return and breaking off a 36-yard return, but consistency is in order before we can just hand him the job, in my opinion. Does anybody remember Chris Williams last season? One dazzling display of kick return ability, in one game, had everyone calling for him to make the squad. Then, of course, was the infamous face-mask muff the following week. I'm certainly not saying that will happen to Carroll, but he's not out of the woods yet.

Multiple sources have confirmed the dealing of wide receiver Greg Camarillo to the Minnesota Vikings in exchange for seventh-year veteran corner Benny Sapp. It's tough to say goodbye to Camarillo, who has been as reliable as they come, didn't drop a pass last year, and is responsible, after all, for the only win in an otherwise miserable 2007 season.

In reality, though, as hard as it is to say, he's probably already hit his ceiling as an NFL player due to his limited physical ability, and with Brian Hartline and Davone Bess already edged in stone ahead of him on the depth chart, the Dolphins were wise to free up a roster spot for a young prospect like Marlon Moore or Roberto Wallace.

Sapp comes to Miami with a respectable resume. In six seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs and Minnesota Vikings, Sapp has started 17 games, and is fresh off a career-high 7 starts a year ago. During that span, Sapp has defensed 21 passes, picked off four, forced four fumbles, and has accounted for 169 tackles. More importantly, he's spent extensive time as a nickel corner, which appears to be the main motivation behind his acquisition, with no concrete time table for Will Allen's return in place.

The roster fringe receivers may be celebrating this afternoon, but the same can't be said for Nate Ness, who impressed in the preseason opener, but is now officially a long-shot to make the team. Obviously, Sean Smith and Vontae Davis are locks, Will Allen is as well if he makes the full recovery he's expected to, Nolan Carroll isn't going anywhere, and the Dolphins have to be planning on keeping Sapp if they were willing to trade away Camarillo for his services.

That leaves former first-round pick Jason Allen and Nate Ness the only realistic candidates for a sixth corner. If the Dolphins decide to keep six, which is a good bet a the moment with Will's uncertainty, you have to think Jason Allen gets the nod as of now, due to his solid special-teams play. That's why Ness will have to imitate his Tampa Bay performance in both the third and fourth preseason game if he wants to make the cut.

Before we say goodbye to ol' reliable once and for all, let's take a look back at the day when he saved all of us the embarassment that would have come with the first 0-16 season in NFL history.

It seems as though the upside and downside of this football team drastically switched from last week to this week. A week ago, the offensive woes had everyone concerned, but now the defense, and in particular the secondary, is the cause for some of the negativity.

But seeing Chad Henne have an outstanding first-half, and witnessing our first glimpse of Brandon Marshall contributing, has brought back the excitement. After the second preseason contest, let's see how both sides of the ball and each team graded out.

Because the end of the second quarter featured a hybrid first and second string offense and defense, I have modified the grading format accordingly. Instead of dividing the grades up by first-team, second-team, and third-team, I'm just grading each half.

Offense

First-Half
The major theme of the night for the starting offense had to be "that's more like it." After failing to score or move the ball into opponents territory in four possessions against Tampa Bay, the first-team offense bounced back in a big way Saturday night.

Chad Henne made sound decisions, checking down when need be and got the ball down field when things opened up. Going 11 for 14 is impressive enough, but when you factor in two of those incompletions were drops, maybe Henne had his best half of action to date. We are grading the offense as a whole, however, so those two drops are only detrimental to the grade, not more evidence for our argument.

One of those drops was another by Brandon Marshall, which continues to be a little concerning. Outside of that play, though, Marshall was very solid, reeling in four balls for 65 yards, and threw two fantastic blocks which led to touchdowns by Anthony Fasano and Ronnie Brown. Speaking of Fasano, is this a sign of things to come with defenses focusing so much attention on Marshall? Bringing Fasano's production back after it's one year hiatus, would be an asset of an X-factor for this offense. There's still a long way to go for that to become a reality, but it's something to look forward to nonetheless.

While the passing game shined in the second quarter, the running game wasn't much of a factor. There's obviously no reason to worry about that, though, as I think it's safe to say Ronnie and Ricky will average more than eight carries in a half.

I'm also counting Chad Pennington's one and only drive with the starting offense, because Brandon Marshall, Ronnie Brown, and the starting tackles were still in the game. And what a drive it was. The highlight was the spectacular 37-yard grab by Marshall on a Chad Pennington down-field lob to set things up. Pennington also showed some awareness, scrambling for 13-yard run to move the chains, and made a nice check-down toss to Brown, who ran off Marshall's block for the score.

Pennington surely proved he's still capable of leading an offense, despite yet another shoulder surgery in the offseason. That could entice a team with struggling quarterback play or a key injury to pursue a possible trade, but for now, the Dolphins have great security behind Henne.

GRADE: A-

Second-Half
Going into halftime with 24 points, Tyler Thigpen and the second/third-team offense wanted to keep the big plays and scoring coming. Unfortunately, Miami only put up another three points in the second-half, and weren't nearly as explosive as the starting unit.

They weren't necessarily stagnent, as they did move the ball deep into Jaguars' territory on two drives, but they turned the ball over on downs on one and had to settle for a field-goal on the other.

They also struggled to get the running game going, with Patrick Cobbs and Lex Hilliard only accounting for a combined 34 yards on 13 carries. Thigpen was a decent 8 of 12 for 76 yards, but at the end of the day, leading the offense to only three points in an entire half isn't going to cut it.

GRADE: D+

The Dolphins got down to business about a week early today, waiving tight end Kory Sperry, nose tackle Travis Ivey, and running back Tristan Davis, despite not being required to trim the roster down to 75 players until August 31st.

Tristan Davis probably saw his minimal chance at making the team go in and out of hands. Davis muffed the opening kickoff against Tampa Bay in the preseason opener and didn't get any more opportunities after that.

Travis Ivey meanwhile, was always a long-shot, and his only highlight of training camp was being all over ESPN for carrying several teammates' shoulder pads as part of some harmless rookie hazing.

Kory Sperry on the other hand, is a mild surprise after a report last week that suggested he likely had the slight edge over John Nalbone for fourth on the depth chart. Sperry even contributed 31 yards receiving and a touchdown a year ago in relief duty. Now, though, Nalbone and Joey Haynos will keep battling for the final tight end roster spot.

Small Talk

-Both Vontae Davis, who had to come out in the second quarter Saturday night with a reported chest injury, and Brandon Marshall, who evaded the media in order to see the team doctor after the game, participated fully in the Dolphins' practice today.

-Tony Sparano said he doesn't expect Pat White to play Friday night against the Falcons in his press briefing this afternoon. Is anyone else a little puzzled by this whole thing? Especially, considering Miami just waived three players.

It doesn't appear White is apart of this team's plans, so why continue to drag this out? Either the front office is still keeping their options open for a possible trade of any of their three backups, or they value the Wild Pat package enough to consider keeping four quarterbacks.

In the end, it was all worth the wait. After nearly two hours of delayed action due to frequent lightning strikes in the Jacksonville area, the Dolphins pulled off a narrow one point victory over the Jags, but more importantly the first-team offense was brilliant in the second quarter, shredding the Jags' defense for 21 points.

Chad Henne was as good as we've ever seen him, going 11 of 14 for 151 yards and throwing two touchdowns to Anthony Fasano. And that's not even taking into account the two drops by Marshall and Hartline that, if caught, would have made Henne's first-half performance one completion away from perfection.

Speaking of Marshall, despite yet another mind-blowing drop, he reminded us of why exactly we were so excited about his acquisition in the first place. Four receptions for 65 yards, to go along with two key touchdown producing blocks, and Marshall had himself a pretty solid half of action.

Defensively, things weren't so upbeat. The secondary was abused for much of the game, led by Vontae Davis' and Sean Smith's nightmare drive, in which Vontae was burned for a 35-yard completion and Sean Smith gave up a 22-yarder.

Is it possible that these young corners aren't quite is good as we thought they were, or is that a little too drastic of a reaction to only a preseason game? Time will tell, I suppose. On the bright side, I expect the pass defense as a whole to significantly improve once Nolan begins to implement his exotic blitz packages in the regular season.

On another positive note, the run defense was superb tonight. The Dolphins held Jacksonville to a mere 2.8 yards a carry and stuffed Jones-Drew for -2 yards on 4 attempts. All in all, it was a long night with the weather, but the offensive fireworks in the second-quarter will make it a whole lot easier for Dolphin fans to get some sleep tonight compared to last week's ugly performance.

As for continued evaluation of this game, I'm going to wait until after seeing the taped version on NFL Network 11 p.m. Monday night. Expect the report card to come on Tuesday and in-depth roster analysis on Wednesday and Thursday.

Game Ball: Chad Henne, QB

Statline

Passing
C. Henne: 11/14, 151 yards, 2 touchdowns
C. Pennington: 3/4, 54 yards, 1 touchdown
T. Thigpen: 8/12, 76 yards

Rushing
R. Brown: 4 attempts, 5 yards
R. Williams: 3 attempts, 13 yards
P. Cobbs: 9 attempts, 16 yards
L. Hilliard: 4 attempts, 18 yards,

Top 5 Receiving
A. Fasano: 2 receptions, 66 yards, 2 touchdowns
B. Marshall: 4 receptions, 65 yards
D. Bess: 3 receptions, 31 yards
M. Moore: 2 receptions, 32 yards
R. Brown: 2 receptions, 19 yards, 1 touchdown

Top 5 Tacklers
Y. Bell: 4
V. Davis: 3
M. Johnson: 3
S. Smith: 3
J. Folsom: 3
R. Jones: 3

Forced Turnovers
J. Amaya: Interception
T. Culver: Fumble recovery

Special Teams
D. Carpenter: 2/2 field goals, long-31 yards
B. Fields: 3 punts, 27.3 average
N. Carroll: 4 kickoff returns, 25 yard average, long-36