Jeff Ireland is a safety first kind of guy.
Let's hope the safety is on any weapons in the hands of Miami Dolphins fans once the NFL draft is over this weekend.
Unless the Dolphins do something totally out of character like trade up and get a pick in the second round, Miami will be miss out on a top-flight quarterback prospect.
That fate was all but sealed Thursday, when Ireland decided to select center Mike Pouncey with the No. 15 pick instead of rolling the dice on a potential franchise-changing signal caller like Ryan Mallett of Andy Dalton.
“I don’t want to use the word safe, but since I already used it, I’ll use it. I think it’s a good, safe pick,” Ireland said about Pouncey.
Miami doesn't have another pick until Saturday.
The move may mean that the team plans to stick it out to the bitter end with current starter Chad Henne, but that will likely make the 2011 season like watching a car stalled on the train tracks with a locomotive barreling down the tracks.
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Dolfans know how it will end, but are forced to look anyway.
There's always free agency and quality quarterbacks like Vince Young, Philadelphia's Kevin Kolb and Cincinnati's Carson Palmer are on the block, but with the NFL labor situation so unsettled, teams can't count on player movement.
Labor unrest also hampers the Dolphins chances at trading current players on the roster to move up in the second round to get at one of the prospects.
Picking for safety really does mean sorry in Miami.
