Miami Dolphins running back Kory Sheets has an opportunity to step into the spotlight next season. The 5’11” dynamo, who was signed off the San Francisco 49ers’ practice squad in October 2009, was expected to serve as Miami’s primary kickoff returner before a torn Achilles’ tendon suffered in training camp cost him the entire 2010 campaign. With both Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams no longer expected to return to South Florida, Sheets is ready to compete with the team’s second-round pick, Daniel Thomas, for the starting tailback job.

Kory was kind enough to take time out of his offseason training schedule to talk about his rehabilitation process, his goals for the 2011 season, and his gameday routines.

1. You missed the entire 2010 season with a torn ACL. What did the rehab process entail and are you now fully recovered?

The rehab process was long and difficult. At one point, around December, I hit a wall, and I wasn’t progressing (anymore) – it wasn’t getting worse, it wasn’t getting better. With my workout that I was doing, I needed to make my calf muscles bigger and stronger, so once I was able to do that, to make that stronger, I felt more production. From there, it just kind of took off, and started healing. As of right now, I’m 100% – there’s no pain, I got my strength back, and I’m running at full speed.

2. What have you been doing during the offseason, with no contact permitted with team officials?

A bunch of us are working out over at Nova (Southeastern University) – we had been going every day until the lockout (temporarily) ended. Right now, I’m just taking a break and a week off, maybe two. I think I’ll probably get back at it around the end of the Fourth of July (weekend).

3. Has anyone on the Dolphins served as a mentor or role model for you?

I wouldn’t say a role model, but a few guys talked with me, asked me what I wanted to do, and helped me study and just become a better pro. Lousaka Polite sat down with me on multiple occasions, helped me watch film, and showed me things that I needed to work on in my own game, how to read off of him and block.

4. Last season, you were expected to be the primary kick returner. Is that something you plan on doing in 2011?

Depending on whatever happens with Ronnie and Ricky – if they don’t come back, then my main focus is going to be (being) the starting tailback.

5. If Ricky and Ronnie don’t return, as expected, is the plan for you to pair up with rookie Daniel Thomas in the backfield?

Yes, that’s the (team’s) plan, but my main focus is to going to be the main guy. If there’s something else they want me to do, I’ll gladly do it with no problem.

6. What do you feel you bring to the team when you step out on the field?

Speed – in the NFL, most guys are fast, and just watching it all last season, (there’s) a lot of warp speed out there. I think I’ll help bring a lot of speed to the offense.

7. Would you say that you’re the fastest player in the NFL?

Oh, no. (laughs)

8. Where would you rank?

I don’t even know, because there are a lot of guys out there that are fast. There (are) a lot of 4.2 (40-yard dash time) guys coming into the league.

9. Is there a current player in the NFL who you feel most closely resembles your skill-set?

I’ve been compared to Reggie Bush coming out of college. I don’t feel that I play like him – we have similar things that we can do, but I honestly don’t know who (I played like). I’d (have to) sit here and think about it.

10. Which teams and players did you follow growing up, and which players did you most admire strive to be like?

I followed the 49ers growing up. And players, I watched Barry (Sanders), I actually watched Ricky a lot. Who else … that’s pretty much it. I really didn’t watch football too much.

11. Can you take me through a typical gameday? Do you have any pre-game routines or superstitions?

I usually don’t like to eat before a game. I don’t know, growing up, I just never ate – I don’t know if that was (because) I was just nervous or I just didn’t like to eat before a game. In high school I didn’t eat; in college, I wouldn’t eat before the morning of the game. After the game, I’m usually hungry.

12. What music do you listen to before a game?

Usually, it’s whatever is on my iPod – there’s no set list or no person that I like to listen to more. Maybe an hour before the game, I’ll sit in the locker room, and listen to probably some R&B music and just kind of relax.

13. Is there anything you’d like to say to your DolfansNYC fans?

When the lockout is over, we all will be ready to play ball!

First of all let me apologize for not getting these pictures up sooner. I have been out of town a lot and Short Michelle and Alex are busy planning their wedding next weekend. Combine that with the lockout and a less than exciting first round pick and it all adds up to me posting this weeks late.  Sorry.

I also want to say that when I say less than exciting about Mike Pouncey only mean that being a lineman isn’t exactly someone you spend a lot of time watching highlights of. I am pretty happy with the pick and the draft over all. Let’s just hope we can improve our back field in the off season.

The Dolfans NYC turnout was a little low this year as was the turnout of the draft in general. It rained the night before when we had to wait in line, and of course the lockout thing, so pretty much just the die hard football fans showed up. A lot of the Dolfans NYC die hards had to work too. But even after all that we still had a pretty good turn out and filled up an entire row of the draft.  We brought along ALRIGHT MIAMI signs for Jim Mandich and even got Roger Godell to hold one up for us. Mad Dog had just died and we wanted to try to get out signs on TV to show our love and express the sadness of Dolphins fans everywhere.  Luckily we made it on both NFL Network and on ESPN!

Anyway, we all had a blast, and I think it’s too late to give a draft wrap up, so why don’t you guys just check out all the pictures and we will see you soon. We should have some new videos up once Michelle gets back from her honeymoon!

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Sorry we have been distant.  This lockout is getting to us!  But we have some details about our most exciting draft event.  Dolfans NYC is going to roll deep and we want you to come with us!

Though there is some uncertainty as far as the upcoming season, the show must go on. And in this case, the show is the 2011 NFL Draft! The Dolphins have the 15th pick and it’s anyone’s guess as to what they plan on doing with it. All we know is that we want to get everyone together to see it happen!! Who’s in?!?!

Here’s the deal….

WEDNESDAY, April 27th – Fans can line up at Radio City Music Hall starting at 10pm. At midnight, wristbands will be given at a first come, first served basis.

THURSDAY, April 28th – Fans with a wristband can line up at 6:00pm to receive their tickets. Please note that tickets have seating assignments on them, so the plan is for us all to go together!

So….on Wednesday, let’s meet up at 8pm, which should be early enough to get a good spot in line. For anyone who has been to the Draft before, it’s nearly impossible to join your friends once they line up, so it’s important that we all line up together. Radio City is on 50th and 6th. There’s a Magnolia Bakery on the corner of 49th and 6th. Let’s meet there at 8:00pm and walk over together to line up.

On Thursday, let’s meet up at that same Magnolia Bakery at 6:15pm so we can walk over and get tickets with seats together. The tickets are given out in a random order so showing up early doesn’t give you an advantage. We aren’t meeting up until 6:15 to give every one a chance to get to midtown after work.

For anyone who wants to meet up once inside Radio City, please check our Facebook and Twitter pages. We will post where we are sitting.

Please email us if you plan on joining, so we have a good idea of how many people to expect. If you do attend, please don’t forget to bring your Phins gear! (towels, flags, banners, etc).

Go Dolphins!!

Now that the New York Jets have been eliminated from the Playoffs and we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief, it’s time to think about what’s next for the Miami Dolphins.   Let’s take a look back at where it all went wrong in 2010 and make some very early predictions for 2011 (presuming we’ll actually have an NFL season). In the coming weeks, I’ll break down key free agents who’d look great in aqua and orange next season.

Anyone who watched even a handful of series doesn’t need to look at advanced metrics to know Miami’s offense was dreadful. The Dolphins, expected to be a dominant run-first team after having the fourth-best rushing offense in 2009, tied for 29th in rushing TDs (8) and 21st in rushing yards (1,643), while also coming in 27th in passing TDs (17) and fourth in interceptions (21). While WRs Brandon Marshall, Davone Bess, and Brian Hartline, as well as TE Anthony Fasano (signed to an extension through 2012), form a solid and dependable aerial attack, the same can’t be said for just about every other member of the offense. So who should and likely will be back in 2011?

Chad Henne, QB

2010 Prediction: 4,161 passing yards, 25 TDs, 13 INT
2010 Statistics: 3,301 passing yards, 15 TDs, 19 INT

It turns out I – as well as everyone who threw away money on a Henne jersey – was wrong about the supposed QB of the future. After showing promise at the end of the 2009 season and having a Pro Bowl WR at his disposal, Henne was expected to take a step forward and improve his decision-making. After throwing three picks in a crushing loss to the Baltimore Ravens in Week 9, Henne was benched in favor of Chad Pennington, and was then once again pulled for Tyler Thigpen in an embarrassing season-ending loss to the Patriots. Over the last 12 games, Henne threw 12 TDs and 18 INTs, and posted a QB Rating under 60.0 in four of his final eight appearances.

While most Dolphins fans never want to see him on the field again, it’s almost a given that Miami will keep the still 25-year-old QB for another year. It’s even possible that he’ll get a chance to compete for a backup spot with a veteran QB – Kyle Orton? Donovan McNabb? Er, Brady Quinn? – in training camp if the team doesn’t draft a QB in the first round of the Draft. Either way, it’s become clear that Henne is not the long-term solution as the Dolphins starter.

2011 Prediction: 1,127 passing yards, 5 TDs, 6 INT

Tyler Thigpen, QB: Thigpen was horrendous in his lone start against the Bears, a 16-0 shutout at home (albeit he was missing half of his offense), and finished the year with 435 passing yards (53.2% completion percentage), two TDs, and two picks. While he has mobility and can make plays out of the pocket, he’s unlikely to receive anything more than a training camp invite from Miami.

2011 Prediction – signs with Tennessee Titans: 1,630 passing yards, 9 TDs, 7 INT

Chad Pennington, QB: I wish Pennington all the best with his return from a fourth shoulder surgery, but considering that he played two snaps in 2010 before getting hurt again, the odds aren’t in his favor. In an ideal world, he’d become the Dolphins’ QB coach, but I have a feeling he’ll go back to where it all started and take Mark Brunell’s clipboard job in New York.

2011 Prediction – signs with New York Jets: 110 passing yards, 2 TDs, 0 INT

Ronnie Brown, RB

2010 Prediction: 893 rushing yards, 135 receiving yards, 7 TDs
2010 Statistics: 734 rushing yards, 242 receiving yards, 5 TDs

On the surface, my prediction looks fairly accurate, since Brown gained only 58 fewer yards from scrimmage and managed to play all 16 games for only the second time in his career. The problem is that Brown averaged a career-low 3.7 yards per attempt, didn’t have a single 100-yard rushing game, and his 45.9 yards per game were the lowest of any player with at least 200 carries. The soon-to-be-30-year-old is an unrestricted free agent who hasn’t been offered a contract by the Dolphins and has probably already cleaned out his locker

2011 Prediction – signs with Cincinnati Bengals: 697 rushing yards, 213 receiving yards, 4 TDs

Ricky Williams, RB

2010 Prediction: 906 rushing yards, 211 receiving yards, 9 TDs
2010 Statistics: 673 rushing yards, 141 receiving yards, 3 TDs

No one expected Ricky to even come close to matching his gaudy 2009 numbers (1,121 rushing yards, 13 TDs), but 2010 was certainly a disappointing season for the 33-year-old running back. Still, Williams averaged 4.2 yards per carry and busted off a 45-yard scamper, showing he has plenty left in those legs. After he recently bashed Coach Sparano and the organization, it doesn’t sound like he’ll be back in Miami next season either, and I’ll be shocked if he doesn’t sign with the Jets or Patriots just to stick it to the Dolphins.

2011 Prediction – signs with New England Patriots: 479 rushing yards, 96 receiving yards, 3 TD

Patrick Cobbs / Lex Hilliard / Lousaka Polite, RB:  Forget what I projected — guess who was the Fins’ third-leading rusher last season? Yep, Thigpen with a whopping 73 yards. Short-yardage specialist Polite managed to get 62 rushing yards and his first career TD, while Cobbs and Hilliard played mainly on special teams and combined for exactly zero rushing yards on four carries. The coaching staff reportedly loves Cobbs, and Polite converts on third-and-one situations as well as anyone in the league, so their roles are unlikely to change in 2011.
Hilliard, however, could opt for more playing time, especially with the impending return of the speedy Kory Sheets.

2011 Prediction – signs with New Orleans Saints: 132 rushing yards, 160 receiving yards, 2 TDs

Please join for a memorial service for the 2010 Miami Dolphins at Third and Long this Sunday at 1PM Eastern Standard Time.  Join your fellow Dolphins fans and drink a toast to a severely mediocre Dolphins team that excited us at times but mostly just disappointed. Even in defeat at Third & Long we have each other to take solace in and this Sunday is the perfect time to say goodbye to you fellow Dolfans NYC members before we make our separate ways for the off season… besides we could beat the fucking Patriots.

Seriously.  The Patriots will probably play their guys most of the game because they hate losing.  They have no reason to play anyone so maybe we will get lucky, but honestly lucky has nothing to do with it.  The Dolphins play to the teams that play them. The Patriots are the best team in the NFL so if only for a Sunday I have a feeling the Dolphins will play pretty well too.  We have only lost one game on the road and we ALWAYS give the Patriots fits.  Honestly, even though we got killed by them this year, we really outplayed them on offense and defense.  Tragically our special teams had the worst game in history and then Henne threw a garbage time pick six.  Otherwise that game would have been very, very close.

So come out this Sunday, say goodbye to all the friends you have met this year and let’s root for our team like the quality Dolphins fans we are.

Our boy Solo D knows what’s up… check out his new track “Finish Strong”:

So yeah, the Dolphins season ended officially last week. It was a blower and it sucked losing to an AFC East rival and a team that is well… not very good. This season has been very trying for Dolphins fans everywhere but I think we at Dolfans NYC have had it a bit easier than most.  We have each other.

As much as the game sucked last week I think we as a group had a lot of fun.  Buffalo Trace Bourbon threw us a party with a “Shoot the Buffalo” theme.  They had 300 wings on hand and a lot of free and cheap Bourbon for everyone.  We raffled off a Anthony Fasano & Joey Haynos autographed football and a Larry Csonka autographed football.  Along with donations for the food we raised $200 for the I Will Foundation and had some money left over to add to our Dolfans NYC war chest for the off season.

Now this weekend coming up we have the Detroit Lions. This is our chance to get at least one more win at home and make all the Dolfans NYC fans back in Miami for Christmas happy.  This is a try out for all the players on this team that are on the borderline of returning next year.  Henne is going to continue to start the next two games so this will be a big test for him to see if he can show at least something that will make us think he is worth keeping around.  These games are important even if they won’t help us play past January 2nd.

We are out of the playoffs playing an NFC team, who is terrible, the day after Christmas.  I have a feeling Third & Long is not exactly going to be packed.  I know Michelle, Alex and I are all going to be out of town.  Still I know there will be some people in town for the holidays who have never been to Third & Long looking for some people to watch the game with so I hope a lot of you come out. I know the die hards will be there and hopefully there will be a decent crowd anyway.  I’ll be back for the Patriots game to end the season and I don’t want to hear from Curtis that the bar was dead!

So that’s all I got for you this week.  Check out the photos below and I will see you guys next week.  Go Dolphins!

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Hey guys! Amazing win against the Jets last week!

This week we play another division rival, the stinking Buffalo Bills. As bad as their record is they are actually playing pretty good offensive football and our line took a big loss this week losing Vernon Carey for the year. This game could be a tough one…

We are doing a special event for the game at Third & Long thanks to Buffalo Trace Bourbon. They are doing a campaign called “Shoot the Buffalo” and the woman who handles their marketing is a HUGE Dolphins fan and thought we could work something out. She provided five bottles of Buffalo Trace to our tailgate last week and this week for the Buffalo game she is buying us 300 Buffalo Wings and doing Buffalo Trace specials at the bar. It’s just $4 a shot and $6 for mixed drinks. I didn’t drink any last weekend but from what everyone told me it’s really, really good bourbon.

On top of the cheap Bourbon and free wings Nat Moore sent us a Larry Csonka autographed football to auction off during the game. We will be auctioning off that as well as some other Dolphins memorabilia during the third quarter of the game. Raffle tickets will be on sale for $1. As always all the sales from the fundraising go to charity and to raising money for the club so we can do things like tailgates and print more t-shirts.

Over the last few weeks we have made a lot of really good connections with the Dolphins organization and we have some really amazing stuff to look forward to next season. I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves but we should have some pretty awesome events and raffle prizes next year. Plus with the Dolphins coming to town next year to play the Giants we will have TWO Meadowlands tailgates.

Lastly, I leave you with another sick Solo D song: “Beat The Bills”! Go Dolphins!

Dolfans NYC rode in to the belly of the beast last weekend.  It is our third group to the Meadowlands to watch our Dolphins take on the New York Jets.  The first year there were only a few of us.  Last year we had about a dozen… This year we bought 63 tickets to the game and held a huge tailgate with tons of Dolphins fans from all over the greater New York area.  The size of the group may be different but the results have been the same time. Dolfans NYC has walked out of that stadium with a victory.

When we showed up to Giants Stadium at 11:30 in the morning it was pouring rain. We had bought a little tent but the wind was blowing so hard we didn’t have any idea how we were going to set it up.  We had a bunch of meat in the car that was getting warm so I got out and put everything into these cheap coolers we bought.  The first cooler ripped to bits when I dropped the ice in and started blowing away. After a fierce struggle I got everything into the other cooler and returned to the car freezing and completely soaked.  Around 12 another car showed up and the rain had let up a little bit.  They were ready to face the elements so we tried to set up this tent tying the thing to the cars with ribbon that Michelle bought to hang up balloons. It was a very haphazard set up but it was good enough to get the grill set up.  When the wind picked up a few minutes later the tent almost blew away but we held it down until the wind actually bent the poles so badly that we had to throw the thing away after the tailgate. At some point the rain slowed to a drizzle and a bunch more Dolphins fans showed up and we had ourselves a party.

Thanks to Buffalo Trace Bourbon for providing us with a lot of free booze for the tailgate!

The game itself was a mess but I had 16 tickets in my section and we just happened to luck out and were sitting with another handful of Phins fans.  We had some very big dudes with us and some very drunk dudes with us and we just ruined the game for every Jets fan around us and that is exactly what we came to do.  In the end the Dolphins won and we were completely drenched and freezing, but we couldn’t be more content as we walked out of Giants Stadium singing the Dolphins fight song.

I uploaded all the photos to my other website.  So click here to check out all the pictures from the Dolfans NYC tailgate.

Ps. Check back tomorrow for info about the big party this weekend at Third & Long!  Raffles, free Buffalo wings and serious drink specials from Buffalo Trace!

Just a few more notes on tomorrows game…
It is going to rain tomorrow. If you are tailgating with us, if you have any sort of tent or covering you can bring please do! We will be doing the tailgate rain or shine but if the rain is really bad we might park in a near by parking garage.

Also remember we will have some food and and some booze but we are looking at probably 100 people for this thing assuming the weather isn’t horrible so we need everyone to bring your own food and booze if you can. If anyone has a grill or any of the normal tailgating stuff bring it. We can’t have too much stuff.

One thing we will have at the tailgate will be Orange Miami Dolphins Rally towels. We had the Dolphins send us a box of 50 towels that they were giving out at the last Jets game. We will be giving them out to anyone who bought tickets with us and hopefully we can fly those Orange towels all day.

If you are planning on tailgating with us and have not done so already email DolfansNYC@Gmail.com with your contact info. We will be emailing everyone as soon as we park and know where we are going to be. We are planning on being there between 11 and 11:30. If you can’t get email on your phone give us your phone number and we will text you. We will also be updating the @dolfansnyc Twitter and updating the Facebook group as soon as we park.

Now, very important. I know with the weather and the Dolphins record some people are trying to get rid of tickets. If you bought your tickets with us you are with a group of Dolphins fans. Do NOT sell your tickets to stub hub or let them fall into Jets fans hands. That would be really unfair to the rest of the group. People bought these not so great 300 level tickets so they could be surrounded by Dolphins fans, people want support in enemy territory. If you have extra tickets please post a message on the Facebook group. If anyone needs tickets, please check the Facebook group. Hopefully we can figure this out.

AGAIN… If you need tickets, please check the Facebook group! Someone will be able to help!

And finally… I just wanted you guys to check out this song by a Miami rapper named Solo D. He writes a song every week about the Dolphins upcoming opponent. His song about the Jets game is amazing. We have already hit him up about doing an official Dolfans NYC song.

Can’t wait until we take over Giants Stadium tomorrow. Go Dolphins!