Much of the offseason attention on the Dolphins has focused on a dancing defensive end and a three-man quarterback race.
But whether it's John Beck, Josh McCown or rookie Chad Henne tossing the ball this fall, the real question is whether the Dolphins have a go-to receiver among a young group that probably owns more iPods than touchdowns.
Gone are veterans Chris Chambers and Marty Booker, so Ted Ginn Jr. and Derek Hagan will have plenty of opportunity for playing time.
"There's a lot of possibilities,"
receivers coach Karl Dorrell said. "It's a group that has a lot of growth potential, and that's my job, to get that potential out of them."
Hagan, 23, needs to shed a budding reputation for dropping easy catches while making spectacular ones. Coach Tony Sparano has gone out of his way to commend Hagan for his offseason work ethic.
"I heard all the stories and all that, and I know the kid was out here on his own time spending a lot of time catching balls from the jugs machine, catching balls with the quarterbacks and doing all those things,"
Sparano said. "I really like where this guy is right now and I think he's playing with a little bit of confidence. When you play with confidence and you feel good about yourself, you play fast."
Even Hagan, who had 29 catches for 373 yards and two touchdowns last season, realizes it's time to display some of his Arizona State heroics.
"I'm ready,"
Hagan said. "I've been sitting behind Chris Chambers and Marty Booker the last couple of years and now those guys are gone and my expectations are high."
Hoping to 'play faster' than last season, in which he had 34 catches for 420 yards and two touchdowns, Ginn has impressed Dorrell with his desire to create separation on the field and from those who criticize him for not living up to his lofty draft status as the ninth overall pick.
"[Creating separation] takes day-to-day preparation and work at doing that, and he does that every day,"
Dorrell said. "Route-running, ball skills, he has a better knowledge of what we're trying to get done. He doesn't make a lot of mistakes."
"He's trying to act like an experienced player out there, too, so he's doing a lot of positive things."
While the new Dolphins regime ignored the receiver position in the draft, the team did sign former Jaguars receiver Ernest Wilford on the first day of free agency in February. However, a pedestrian average of 39 catches over his first four seasons doesn't exactly scream go-to status.
"All I ask for is an opportunity and that's what Jacksonville gave me,"
said Wilford, whose best season came in 2005 when he recorded 41 catches for 681 yards and seven touchdowns - the same number of touchdowns notched by Dolphins receivers last season.
Beyond Wilford, Ginn and Hagan, there are 'hungry' receivers such as journeymen David Kircus and Greg Camarillo.
"He is hungry,"
Dorrell said of Kircus. "His experience of having failure and coming back, getting this opportunity, he cherishes [it], so he's going to make the most out of it."
Kircus, 27, claims innocence to a second-degree assault charge that has him facing a trial in Littleton, Colo., on Oct. 20.
"Everything will work itself out. I believe that and if the Dolphins didn't believe that they wouldn't have signed me,"
said the 6-2, 190-pound Kircus, who had a career-best nine catches for 187 yards for Denver in 2006, his last full season in the league.
"My mentality of being a backup is out of my system. I had that in Detroit and Denver. It's time to let that go and show everybody I could play."
Dorrell believes that Camarillo, 26, will be known for more than just his game-winning touchdown catch in overtime against the Ravens last year that saved the Dolphins from an 0-16 season.
"Put him in any spot and he knows what he's doing,"
Dorrell said. "He doesn't make mistakes and he catches the football."
"He's one of those guys a lot of us coaches call quarterback friendly. They like throwing to guys like him because they can count on him."
Of the four undrafted rookie receivers - Jayson Foster, Davone Bess, Selwyn Lymon and Justin Wynn - Bess, barely 5-10, has clearly stood out.
"I see improvement,"
Sparano said. "There is a lot of competition at the position right now. As far as where anybody is, any of those things, we really haven't put our finger on that yet, but we're looking at all these guys right now."
"What I like is we have some big players at the position. We have some smaller guys that can really run. We are starting to find some roles in maybe our half-personnel stuff when you are getting three wide receivers out there. Some things are starting to take shape as we get on with this."
