1 Miami Dolphins

THE BELIEF The off-season trade for Daunte Culpepper gives the Dolphins their best quarterback since Dan Marino. It will be the springboard to undreamed-of success.

THE REALITY Who can argue? The only thing is, Miami is thin. It's a team of stars, and if one or more of them go down--that could be disastrous.

Let's start with Culpepper, who came from the Vikings for a second-round draft choice, almost a gift. A Dolphins official says their study of the quarterback before the deal was "extensive, extensive, extensive." The first concern was how his right knee would hold up. Last year he tore three ligaments, and it's almost unprecedented for a player to come back from that kind of injury in under a year. "I never felt pain like that in my life," Culpepper says. "It felt like my leg was broken in half." Thanks to renowned orthopedist Dr. James Andrews, Culpepper started the first preseason game, on Aug. 12.

And what of his game? After 2004, one of the finest seasons a QB ever had, the bottom fell out for Culpepper even before the injury. He was hesitant, unsure of himself. He threw into coverage. He repeated mistakes. "I looked at film, and I could see one thing after another," Culpepper says. "Things never felt right. We lost our coordinator, our center and Randy Moss, our leading receiver. Everything started going bad [in '05], and it just got out of control."

Behind Culpepper, former Lions starter Joey Harrington hasn't had a particularly noteworthy camp. Ronnie Brown must carry the running game while Ricky Williams is off serving a one-year suspension for violating the NFL's substance-abuse policy. After Chris Chambers, there's no deep threat among the receivers.

And then there's the offensive line. Oversized, sluggish--that's been the rap. But in 2005, under the tutelage of Hudson Houck, one of the best coaches in the business, it showed some life. "The other day I tackled Ronnie a little too hard, and a little bit of a fight broke out," middle linebacker Zach Thomas says. "Three linemen jumped me. They've got an attitude now." That's thanks to Houck, who always favored those big, area-blocking linemen he had clearing the way for Emmitt Smith in Dallas. "He tells us we're in a heavyweight fight," says center Rex Hadnot. "He says the big guy will wear the smaller guy down. That's what we want to do--wear 'em down, break their will."

You can find all sorts of hints that this could be a really big year in Miami. The Dolphins have the momentum of six straight wins at the end of last season. Half their schedule is against teams that drafted in the top 10. Thomas and Jason Taylor are still the focal figures of a defense that's carried the team since Marino left. And offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey, who did exotic things in Pittsburgh with his combination wideout-quarterback, Antwaan Randle El, has found another one in Marcus Vick, the free-agent quarterback who was bounced out of Virginia Tech for on- and off-the-field misbehavior. Vick has had a remarkable camp as a receiver. He looks as if he'd played the position all his life. Just another plus for a team that could have a ton of them.

2006 SCHEDULE

SEPTEMBER

7 at Pittsburgh (T)