The Dolphins were not helped by the three-week holdout of No. 1 draft choice Ronnie Brown. He's in the fold now, but rookie coach Nick Saban is still trying to sort out whether Brown or returning Ricky Williams should carry the load.

One thing is sure. They both can't.

But the biggest news is Saban's apparent plan to platoon his quarterbacks to some extent, using both A.J. Feeley and Gus Frerotte. Wise NFL personnel men will tell you if you think you have two starting quarterbacks, what you really have are none, but that is not totally accurate in this case. What the Dolphins have are two backup quarterbacks, which is a significant problem on a team that has had six different starters at that position in the past six years.

It seems most likely Frerotte will become the seventh because he is close to new Miami defensive coordinator Scott Linehan and understands his approach. But if he's splitting time, who's the starter? Maybe it won't matter if Saban sticks with an apparent plan to give the ball to whichever guy is hot. Can that work? Probably as well as anything else Saban could try this season, because the Dolphins remain a team with an aging defense and an offense littered with question marks.

The big offensive improvement must come in the running game, which finished 31st in the league a year ago and averaged 83.7 yards a game. That figure is misleading because the problem was an outgrowth of Williams' surprise "retirement.” Now he's back, but is he the same back? One has to wonder because he keeps saying he's not having any fun but says that's all right because it's a job after all. If that's how he's looking at it, what happens when his body starts aching? Will he ask for workman's compensation?

Brown has better speed than Williams and showed some of that at camp. He runs a 4.48 40 and he's more of a breakaway threat than Williams, but Williams is a proven masher who gets hard yards.

Of course that was when football was still a game to him. If it's just a job now, Saban's job got a lot more difficult because the one concern about Brown is that he never carried more than 175 times in a season at Auburn. That would barely get him to the bye week this year.

HOT SEAT: Keith Traylor. Saban wants to play the 3-4 but doesn't yet have the players to do it, so he's going with a 4-3 front as a base but doesn't really have the tackles for that either.

Vonnie Holliday has been a defensive end most of his career and Jeff Zgonini is a 35-year-old journeyman. That makes the 35-year-old Traylor a key player because he's the most experienced tackle they have.

Saban will have to carefully monitor how much playing time Traylor gets because he's physically not what he once was but he also must play steadily, especially against the run, for the Dolphins to keep opposing running games in check. On a team that allowed 143.9 yards rushing a game and 4.3 a carry last year, Traylor must show he can still do for the Dolphins in reserve what he did for the Patriots a year ago, which was be stout in the middle for 15-20 plays a game. If he doesn't hold up in their rotation, teams will control the ball with the run, wear down the defense and ultimately put too much pressure on Miami's quarterbacks because they won't be able to grind it out themselves if the defense can't get off the field.

OVERHEARD: Saban is ecstatic over the play of linebacker Donnie Spragan, who has come in to replace departed Morlon Greenwood. Although Spragan did little as a pass rusher in Denver, he's bee effective when asked to do that this summer while also playing well in pass coverage and thus far being solid against the run. The Dolphins feel he could be an upgrade at that position.

OUTLOOK: Grim but they'll beat somebody at some point this season because the defense has been in the top five in fewest points allowed three of the last five years and although it's aging it's not aged yet.

PREDICTION: Fourth.

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