What about Bob? Glauber's NFL Blog

... you are correctamundo. The Dolphins just signed the Michigan offensive tackle to a five-year deal.

There's still plenty of time to hop on board the "What About Bob" mock draft contest, so fire away. Big Ben is Back! has plenty of work do on his spreadsheets, so y'all are doing a good job to keep him busy.

Still haven't heard from Black N Gold and Craig on the contest, but we assume two of our most loyal readers will weigh in shortly.

We'll be back with a lengthier mock draft - one that will invariably include some changes based on our discussions with folks around the league. Not to worry as far as the contest is concerned, though. I'll go with my original 10, plus the Giants' pick at No. 31.

Maybe Bill Parcells simply wanted to disrupt all the mock drafts being bandied about in recent days amidst reports the team is negotiating with Michigan tackle Jake Long.

Or maybe the Tuna and his Dolphins crew are blowing smoke in hopes of targeting another player. Say, a defensive player? Say, Vernon Gholston or Chris Long?

Interesting moment when GM Jeff Ireland, a Tuna disciple, was talking about what the team wanted from the first overall pick.

Here's how Miami Herald beat reporter Jeff Darlington described the moment:

"'Of course I want guys who have great upside -- this is the first pick in the draft," Ireland said. ``This guy is going to be, you hope he's a pillar of your defense for a long time. Of course you hope he's going to have upside. The economics to me . . .''

Ireland stopped mid-sentence, looking over at two reporters who were smiling about what they thought they just heard. Ireland gave the reporters a curious smirk of his own.

''Defense?'' one of the reporters said.

''What's that?'' Ireland responded. ``What did I say?''

''Pillar of your defense?'' someone else said.

The laughter in the room escalated as Ireland tried to rebound.

''Pillar of your defense, your offense, your team,'' Ireland said, as even he couldn't help but laugh at his own wording. ``That's a Freudian slip.''

All jokes aside, the moment quickly heated up sports radio and Internet message boards as they began debating the deeper meaning of Ireland's words.

Beach volleyball, that is.

The guy who replaced Dan Marino with the Dolphins - and did a decent job, mind you, especially in hindsight - is giving professional volleyball a shot.

Fiedler never did make it back to the NFL after suffering a shoulder injury while with the Jets. But the former Oceanside High star, one of our personal favorites because of his stand-up attitude in the NFL, still misses the sport.

Good luck with the volleyball thing, Jay. This guy Karch Kiraly made quite a nice living hitting the beach. Kiraly, the former Olympian, is now retired and serves as a commentator on beach volleyball broadcasts.

Bill Parcells would love to trade the first overall pick. But all indications are, at this point, anyway, that no team is willing to offer a blockbuster package to move up. That could change, of course, with teams keeping their plans close to the vest.

In the meantime, Tuna's troops are getting a good look at Virginia defensive end Chris Long and Boston College quarterback Matt Ryan.

Miami defensive end Jason Taylor, who has been in the news lately because of speculation about his future with the Dolphins (he thinks he'll be back in 2008, but we'll believe it when we see it), begins his long-awaited stint on Dancing With The Stars tonight on ABC.

Talk about pre-game jitters.

"I'll be shaking," he says.

Taylor says he's having "a blast" learning to dance, and has been training for up to six hours daily. And if Taylor decides to keep playing this season (there has been speculation he might retire or be traded), I guarantee you he'll credit his experience with dance as helping him somehow rush the passer more effectively.

The show has featured former NFL players Emmitt Smith, who won the competition, and Jerry Rice, but Taylor is the first active player to take part in the show.

Bill Parcells promised big changes in his first year as the Dolphins' personnel honcho, and he is certainly delivering on that vow.

He is going nuts on the first day of free agency.

A half hour into the signing period - at around 12:30 this morning - he signed 49ers guard Justin Smiley.

He has agreed to terms with Giants linebacker Reggie Torbor.

He has signed Titans free agent defensive tackle Randy Starks.

He has traded for Cowboys defensive tackle Jason Ferguson.

And now he has agreed to terms with Jaguars free agent wide receiver Ernest Wilford.

Oh, yeah, he's aggressively attempting to sign Cardinals free agent linebacker Calvin Pace.

(UPDATE: Parcells is at it again, signing Raiders free agent QB Josh McCown to a two-year deal. Parcells is signing players faster than Neil Best writes blog posts.)

... but it's not the blockbuster that's been talked about involving the first overall pick.

Tuna will acquire Cowboys nose tackle Jason Ferguson, whom he brought to Dallas from the Jets a few years back.

According to the Dallas Morning News, the 'Boys and Dolphins will trade sixth-round picks this season and Dallas gets Miami's sixth-round pick in 2009.

Still no word on whether Tuna and Jerry Jones will swing a deal that gives Dallas the No. 1 overall pick, which the Cowboys would presumably use to select running back Darren McFadden.

Guess Bill Parcells isn't scared of staying up late to help his new team. The Dolphins' director of football operations struck quickly in free agency, signing 49ers free agent guard Justin Smiley to a $25 million deal. The contract was agreed upon at around 12:30 a.m. today, just minutes after the signing period began.

Wait a minute. How'd he negotiated a deal so quickly?!?!

Wink-wink.

The Dolphins' new football boss has been busy dumping players left and right, but now comes the hard part for the Tuna.

With the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, Parcells must now decide whether to use the pick - perhaps on Boston College quarterback Matt Ryan or Virginia defensive end Chris Long or some other blue chip performer - or trade it away.

Given Parcells' history, I say he deals the pick. Or at least actively attempts to do so. Remember 1997, his first year with the Jets? He had the No. 1 overall pick that year, but dealt it to St. Louis and took linebacker James Farrior.

Parcells knows he has plenty of holes to fill in Miami, and he hates the idea of dumping big money into one player at the top of the draft. That's why I say he does all he can to move down - maybe even with his old boss, Jerry Jones, who covets running back Darren McFadden.

Any thoughts? Fire away.

The Dolphins have terminated the contract of oft-injured quarterback Trent Green, who had been hoping to return from his latest concussion, but is not a part of Bill Parcells' plans for the team.

Also released today were: wide receiver Marty Booker, tackle L.J. Shelton, and defensive tackle Keith Traylor.

The next big decision involving a veteran player will be what to do with linebacker Zach Thomas, who missed the second half of last season with concussion-related problems. The expectation is that Thomas will eventually be released. Either that or he'll retire.

The Dolphins have done the expected and hired Cowboys offensive line/assistant head coach Tony Sparano as head coach. Sparano has been director of football operations Bill Parcells' first choice all along, so this one is not a shocker in the least.

Now the remaining intrigue surrounds the Falcons and Ravens, who are fighting over Cowboys offensive coordinator Jason Garrett, who was in Baltimore yesterday and is in Atlanta today. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is willing to match any salary he's offered as a head coach.

I wrote about Bill Parcells taking over in Miami for today's newspaper, so here's a look. I essentially sing his praises as a talent evaluator, despite the fact he's had his share of clunkers over the years.

Bottom line: Every program he's been a part of has improved dramatically during his tenure.

Oh, and check out the headline on this one. It's a clever one from Newsday headline whiz Greg Gutes, who always gets it done in the trenches of the newsroom. Gutes and I go back to our Gannett days - he in Poughkeepsie, me in Westchester - and he once thanked me for getting my copy in early after an Islanders-Canucks playoff game in Vancouver. In 1982. I believe that was the game Mike Bossy scored a goal in mid-air after being tripped by a Canucks' defenseman.

Barring an unexpected change of plans, Bill Parcells is set to join the Dolphins as the team's director of football operations, possibly as soon as tomorrow.

Then again, you could have said the same thing about the Falcons last night and been reasonably accurate.

But Parcells did what he does best; he creates the leverage game and gets a better deal elsewhere. He told the Falcons no thanks and is "expected" to sign on with the Dolphins.

(Thus, the use of the words "unexpected" and "set" and "possibly" in describing the situation. If nothing else, chronicling Parcells' various adventures over the last 23 seasons has taught us to proceed with caution. The Miami Herald is using the word "is" to describe Parcells taking the job, as in he "is" taking the job. Now, of course, this all depends on what your definition of "is" is. I believe a certain President was confused about that definition at one point in time.)

The indications I'm getting tonight are that Parcells used the Falcons to get the same deal he agreed to with the Dolphins, the place he preferred all along.

It's nothing new for Parcells, who had previously left the Falcons hanging in 1987, had twice led the Bucs to believe he would accept their head coaching position, wavered so badly on whether he'd return to the Giants after the 1983 season that former GM George Young had a contingency plan in place, negotiated with the Jets while he was still the Patriots coach in 1996 and sent out signals to the Giants while he was coaching the Cowboys last season that he was interested in New York's general manager job once Ernie Accorsi retired.

By the way, I believe that Parcells will do with the Dolphins what he's done with every other team he's been associated with over the years: Make them better. A lot better. He isn't ready to coach again, but he is an astute personnel man who had more hits than misses over the years, and it's almost impossible not to see the Dolphins benefit from his moves over the coming years.

Agree? Disagree?

Your dime, your dance floor. Fire away.

Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga confirms he has had conversations about selling the team, although he says he is "not actively" looking to cash out.

Of course, that could very well mean he'll sell the team tomorrow. And if he does unload the franchise, he stands to make a ton.

Huizenga bought the team from the estate of Joe Robbie for $138 million in 1994. The Dolphins are worth an estimated $1 billion today.

Nice chunk of change for an 0-13 team, I'd say.

The Dolphins have welcomed back Ricky Williams, who is expected to begin practice next week and could play against the Steelers in a Monday night game on Nov. 26.

Wonderful. Now there's at least a reason to tune into this game other than to watch Ben Roethlisberger make mincemeat of the woeful Dolphins. More on that later.

In the meantime, here's what Williams had to say about his passion for the game, and why we think he is full of it when he talks about his newfound love for football:

"'I hated being a football player before,'' he told reporters yesterday. "Someone asked me a question. They said, `Do you like playing football?' I thought about it and I thought about it and I thought about it. And the next day, I was doing this exercise and I was writing down my ideal paradise moment. And when I really thought about it, it was playing football.

"I realized that I love to play football and I love to be on the field. But I hated being a football player.''

What?!?!?!?!

Look, you either love to play football, and you don't. Ricky Williams doesn't, and the real reason he's attempting a comeback at age 30 is for the dough. After all, if he really loved the game, don't you think he'd have figured that out long ago? Before he decided to make reefer a regular part of his training regimen?

Please.

As for Williams' return date, noted football guru Adam A. suggests there might be a conspiracy theory attached to it. He wonders if the league set the reinstatement now so that Williams would be available for the Pittsburgh game, which would potentially boost ratings for an ESPN game that would otherwise have few redeeming qualities ... unless you're a Steelers fan, of course. And we are well aware of our stature as the adopted blog site of our avid Steelers supporters like Black N Gold and Big Ben is Back!

...

Williams: Sincere in his comeback? Or just another phony baloney? Your call, people.

The official announcement from the NFL on Ricky Williams' reinstatement:

"Ricky Williams was notified today by Commissioner Goodell that he has
been reinstated as an NFL player. Williams can begin attending team
meetings and practicing immediately, but will not be eligible to play in
games until Week 12 when the Dolphins play at Pittsburgh (Monday night,
November 26). The Dolphins will receive a roster exemption for Williams
for up to two weeks when he begins practicing, starting no later than
Monday."

One key point here: Williams will be allowed to practice, but the question is whether the Dolphins will let him. Stay tuned.