Outlined against a gray, rainy November sky, The Four Bikemen of the Dolphins rode for the first time.

The foursome pedaling away on exercise bikes -- linebacker Joey Porter, left guard Justin Smiley, backup nose guard Paul Soliai and linebacker Erik Walden -- during Wednesday's drizzle drenched practice highlighted the way injuries have cut away at the Dolphins in a manner they didn't in 2008. Dolphins coach Tony Sparano couldn't recall a time last season when he had four roster players missing practice.

``But I wouldn't expect that that's going to stay that way,'' Sparano said. ``Well, we'll see.''

Sparano said the knee injury that kept Porter out of practice wasn't a new problem. Later, the Dolphins clarified that the knee merely had been irritating Porter, who had knee surgery in 2007, but not enough to prevent him from practicing or playing. Now, they said, it has gotten worse. Had the injury shortened Porter's time in practices or games and the Dolphins not put it on the injury report, they might have some explaining to do to the NFL office.

A bad hamstring limited Porter's snaps against San Diego (Sept. 27), sidelined him against Buffalo (Oct. 4) and clearly has slowed him in the four games since.

Smiley's shoulder injury also has a familiar sound. He had offseason shoulder surgery for the second time in his career. Soliai's ankle injury came in the first quarter of Sunday's loss to New England. Although he played through it, he didn't log even a tackle assist Sunday, a marked contrast to the massive disruptive force he had been the previous week against the Jets.

Walden has a hamstring injury. Offensive tackle Lydon Murtha (illness) and tight end Anthony Fasano (hip) practiced Wednesday but didn't work in all of the drills.

At least linebacker Channing Crowder and starting nose guard Jason Ferguson, who missed Sunday's game with shoulder and elbow injuries, respectively, practiced fully for the first time in two weeks.

``Practiced a little bit, hit a little bit, so we'll see what happens,'' Crowder said.

After ambling to his locker, cornerback Vontae Davis insisted that the hip he injured in Sunday's game was fine.

``The team we played last week didn't have their starting left tackle out there, didn't have a couple of [running] backs out there,'' Sparano said. ``Everybody loses somebody; it is not an excuse. We were fortunate last year that we didn't have too many of those, and right now we have a couple of them.

``We are at the halfway point of the season, so you are going to have a few bumps.''

BUCS AILING, TOO

Among those listed as not practicing on the Tampa Bay injury report were wide receiver Antonio Bryant of Miami Northwestern High and Florida State (knee), wide receiver Michael Clayton (knee) and defensive end Stylez G. White (shoulder), who had 1.5 sacks Sunday against Green Bay. According to the Bucs' unofficial statistics, White leads the team in quarterback pressures, with 18.

SALUTE TO VETERANS

On Tuesday at Duffy's Sports Grill in Plantation, Dolphins running back Ricky Williams hosted a luncheon for the Wounded Warriors Project Miami. Dolphins cheerleaders, Williams and fellow running backs Ronnie Brown and Kory Sheets broke bread with 20 military veterans of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Williams gave the veterans 20 tickets to Sunday's game and vouchers for hot dogs, popcorn and soda.

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@