Three weeks of practices and two preseason games brought clarity to much of the Dolphins' roster and depth chart. Among the wide receivers, however, the immediate future remains opaque going into Thursday's preseason game against Tampa Bay.

Beyond Ted Ginn Jr. -- who began camp with the first team and has stayed there as the coaches give him every opportunity and confidence boost they can -- it's a big shrug. Who will start? Who will make the roster at all?

To the former question, coach Tony Sparano answered, ``It's still uncertain to me right now. It's starting to clear up a little bit more for me, but it will take a little bit more time.''

On Saturday, rookie Brian Hartline started opposite Ginn. Before Hartline's promotion late last week, Davone Bess ran with Ginn. Greg Camarillo, the Dolphins' best receiver last year before his knee injury, started training camp with Ginn, but has slid down the depth chart if judging by whom he takes snaps with in practices and games. Sparano says Camarillo's deployment is a matter of the coaches trying to find out what others can do against first-team defenses since they already know what Camarillo can do.

The usually dependable Bess, who has only three catches for 19 yards in the first two games, didn't help himself by failing to pull in a beautiful, 20-yard rainbow from quarterback Chad Pennington on Saturday. Then again, Hartline didn't tear it up, either, although he would have needed a long shovel to catch a couple of the passes from Pennington and Pat White.

``Your job is at stake every time,'' Bess said. ``That's what this game is about. When you go out, you've got to take that mind-set that you don't want to be left behind.''

Mixing drops with catches hasn't moved rookie Patrick Turner, the preseason receiving leader, up the depth chart. Being a third-round draft pick gives Turner a better pedigree than former practice-squad workers Brandon London, Anthony Armstrong and James Robinson.

``Everything is going to take care of itself,'' London said. ``Last year, with the Giants, I was on the bubble. Then I came down here and we made it to the playoffs. You never know how things are going to work out.''

`GOOD PROBLEM BREWING'

Pedigree doesn't get you a job quicker than special teams, however.

About the only thing Sparano seems sure of is the Dolphins likely will dress only four wide receivers for most games. Last year, the Dolphins had six wide receivers before cutting Derek Hagan after eight games. Camarillo's season-ending knee injury three games later shrunk that quintet to a quartet.

``There is no secret that the fourth and fifth receivers on this team need to be special-teams people,'' Sparano said.

``I think we have a good problem brewing right now with some of those players because they have been involved with special teams,'' he continued. ``London has played special teams, Turner has played special teams, Hartline has played special teams in these games and Robinson played special teams in the game the other day. Anthony Armstrong has played special teams and I mean not just returning the ball.

``These guys are running down on kickoffs and on punt rush and doing those things, so that's been helpful in this evaluation.''

RETURN DUTIES

Hartline excelled on special teams during his Ohio State years to the point of making YouTube for one kickoff-coverage hit. He might return punts Thursday, as he did Saturday, although Sparano said he's considering Bess or Ginn for that job. Ginn, Patrick Cobbs or Lex Hilliard might be the deep men on kickoff returns, where tremendous speed hasn't translated into tremendous length on Armstrong's returns.