It was the first game of the season. It turned out to be very close and very interesting. The score was 20-14. What had been an afterthought of a game before the season started became a nationally televised event. Brett Favre was wearing his new jersey for the first time, Chad Pennington was facing his old and previously his only team, it was a good game until the end and it could have been even sweeter for Dolphin’s fans had Ted Ginn Jr. not been called for offensive pass interference in the end zone, on fourth down, in the fourth quarter with virtually no time left on the clock. It was devastating. Game over. Go celebrate your first win as a member of the New York Jets Brett Favre. Go to the showers, Dolphins and Chad Pennington. The ball should have been thrown to someone else, not Ted Ginn Jr., but hey when you’re the ninth overall pick in the draft there is a lot to live up to. Dolphin’s teammates, coaches and fans are still waiting for Ginn to produce, because we all know he can’t live up to the hype of a top-ten pick.
With the ninth pick in the 2007 NFL draft the Miami Dolphins brain-trust took some deep breaths, swallowed hard, held hands and decided to take the barely six feet tall, barely 175 pound, Ted Ginn Jr., the speedy wide receiver from Ohio State University. Cam Cameron (the Dolphins head coach at the time) was vehemently booed when he made the selection and introduced the new pick to fans and he should be booed now. I know he is no longer the coach in Miami but this pick was bad. Cameron should have been punished for it. He should have been relegated to clean-up duty after every Dolphin’s game until Ginn is out of the league or at least on another team. I know I sound like a Ted Ginn basher, but I want to make one thing clear: NONE OF THIS IS GINN’S FAULT.
Ginn was setup to fail. You know, just like in basketball, when a big post man gets the ball in the worst position under the basket or in hockey when a player receives a horrible pass directly behind the net, what is he supposed to do with that? What can he do with that? Nothing. And that’s what Ginn did and that’s what he has done ever since he came into the NFL. Ginn is nothing more than a glorified punt returner. He was once an All-American cornerback in high school before attending Ohio State. Once he got there he became a great kick returner and an above average wide receiver but he did not become good enough to warrant a top ten draft pick, maybe not even a first-rounder at all.
Here is where we get to Brady Quinn. He was just sitting there on a tee ready to be snatched up and ready to lead the Dolphins into the future. The great quarterback who led Notre Dame back into relevancy was available and we let him pass by. When the commissioner stepped to the podium with the card in his hand I was sure he was going to call his name, who didn’t? No one and I mean no one, thought they were going to hear Ted Ginn Jr.’s name being announced, that you can bet on.
To defend the Dolphins thinking?? If you can call it that, the 2007 draft was slim on offensive players. After Ginn went at nine, running back Marshawn Lynch went to Buffalo with the 12th pick and then Quinn went to Cleveland with the 22nd pick. By the way, Dwayne Bowe, who was chosen by Kansas City right after Quinn with the 23rd pick and Ginn’s former Ohio State teammate Anthony Gonzalez, who the Colts took with the 32nd and last pick in the first round, are both wide receivers who are off to much better careers then Ginn. Now, Gonzalez has benefitted from playing with a perennial All-Pro quarterback in Peyton Manning, but Bowe catches passes from Brodie Croyle and Dan Marino’s (who has been retired for eight years) old backup Damon Huard and their offensive line has been as bad as anybody in the league.
Ginn may turn out to be one hell of a player. Odds are he probably won’t and he will be out of Miami in a couple of years. That is not the point.
They set him up for failure and so far that is what he’s delivered.
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