DAVIE, Fla. -- Buried amid Joey Porter's belittling of Matt Cassel and the buzz around whether rookie QB Chad Henne could replace Chad Pennington sooner than expected was Miami Dolphins coach Tony Sparano calling out his receivers.
"I need somebody to step up and make a big play," Sparano said tersely at his Wednesday news conference. "That's what I'm hoping to see. I'm hoping to see some of our receivers step up, make a big play, break a tackle, run after the catch and do something like that. That's what I want to see."
Miami WRs have caught 16 passes. Greg Camarillo has seven receptions, and is the only one with more than three.
They have been poor when it comes to separation. As Laura Bernheim of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel noted, the Dolphins are one of only six teams without a pass play of 25 yards or longer and rank 30th with a 3.1 yards-after-catch average.
Ted Ginn, the ninth overall draft choice last year, has three catches for 26 yards. Ernest Wilford has zero catches despite being one of the team's more significant free-agent acquisitions. The Dolphins gave Wilford a four-year contract with $6 million in guarantees, but he was inactive in Week 1.
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Tim Graham
Graham joined ESPN.com in 2008 after covering the Miami Dolphins for the Palm Beach Post. He previously spent eight years at the Buffalo News, where he was an award-winning NHL and boxing writer. The Baldwin-Wallace College grad also has worked for the Las Vegas Sun and Boston Herald.
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