Phillip Merling -- the Dolphins' top pick in the NFL Draft on Saturday, not counting the guy you knew about four days earlier -- seemed a bit fuzzy on what he was getting himself into. Joining a team coming off a 1-15 season, that might not be entirely bad. Some people go through years of expensive therapy to disassociate from such trauma.
Merling, a defensive end from Clemson, described himself by speakerphone as ``going to a good team that's competitive.''
Meaning the young man not only is 6-4, 276 pounds and quick, but leads the league in benefit of doubt.
Merling also complimented Dolphins vice president/major domo Bill Parcells, saying, ''I like that type of coach.'' It was almost as if he was unaware that Parcells will not (if you want to get technical about it) be his coach.
Merling later explained, ``Last year I was concentrating on college. I was a little too busy to watch the NFL.''
No problem, Phil. Welcome!
The Dolphins are overhauling this mess, make no mistake, with new people brought in to rebuild a once-proud franchise that hasn't made the playoffs in six long years and last reigned as champion in quaintly distant 1973.
The new officers are Parcells, general manager Jeff Ireland and coach Tony Sparano.
The new infantrymen? They are arriving this weekend in the NFL Draft.
Miami parlayed its league-worst record into the No. 1 overall pick and selected Michigan offensive tackle Jake Long, whose signing had been announced Tuesday to make the top of Saturday's first round anticlimactic, much to the chagrin of TV.
STERLING MERLING
Merling arrived with the first pick in the day's second round, and he looks like a good get for Miami with the 32nd overall choice. That is tantamount to a low first-round pick, and it seems the Dolphins got that type of quality here.
Most of the ''mock drafts'' in the days leading to the real one had projected Merling as a first-rounder, and certainly he fits a position need for Miami, whether he converts to outside linebacker, which might be likely in the team's 3-4 defensive scheme, or whether he remains at end as the heir apparent to longtime star Jason Taylor.
''Message!'' ESPN analyst Keyshawn Johnson immediately described Miami's selection of Merling -- meaning a message to Taylor.
Taylor, the popular, longest-serving active Dolphin, has spent his spring performing on television's Dancing With The Stars, impressively executing the rumba, tango and cha-cha, when he might have been in South Florida attending to Dolphins offseason workouts like every other player but him.
Anyone who has ever described ''a Parcells guy'' has never, ever described a guy pirouetting in sequins.
Moreover, Taylor, gifted but aging, has not committed to playing beyond the 2008 season, which is why the Dolphins have been shades of amenable to eager to trade him as the roster-wide replenishing accelerates.
Speculation was that Taylor might be dealt Saturday night for Tampa Bay's 52nd overall pick, but that did not happen.
A trade this weekend, for Sunday or future picks, could still occur.
Miami kept its 57th overall pick later in Saturday's second round and chose Michigan quarterback Chad Henne -- another very good choice, another possible ''steal'' in that slot.
Spending the earlier 32nd pick on a quarterback would not have been smart, because if Miami felt its need was that great or urgent, it should -- as I suggested in an unsolicited opinion -- have used the No. 1 overall pick on Boston College's Matt Ryan, who ended up going third to Atlanta.
But getting Henne low in the second round was a bargain, considering Miami had him rated second at the position behind Ryan, and considering many draft analysts guessed the team would select him with the earlier pick.
Henne was enthused about his pending reunion with Jake Long, who blocked for him in college.
STILL DESPERATE
For the team, with so many other needs, the selection of a quarterback in the second round underlined how desperate the club remains at that position, forever in search of ''the next Dan Marino,'' or at least a reasonable facsimile.
Second-year pro John Beck, recently signed veteran journeyman Josh McCown and now Henne will compete for the starting job.
The drafting of Henne should have sent Beck, in particular, scrambling for the Pepto-Bismol, or perhaps running to Kinko's to print a batch of résumés.
Miami has seven more draft picks in Sunday's third-through-seventh rounds, including an additional fourth-rounder acquired Saturday in a trade that sent running back Lorenzo Booker to Philadelphia.
Not sure about that deal. Miami got less than the third-rounder it spent on Booker, who showed promise as an underutilized rookie last season with a 4.5-yard rushing average and 28 catches in seven games.
Again, though, that minor trade and everything else about Saturday's Dolphins draft day verified the changing wind blowing through this town, sweeping through this franchise. It isn't so much a fresh breeze as a gale force.
Neither Beck nor Booker was drafted by the regime hired to clean up the mess. The new officers hold no allegiance.
Taylor, too, is a symbol of a failed past, a status quo that has South Florida's most beloved sports franchise on its knees but hell-bent to rise again.
Change isn't coming. It has come.
