Phinsider on Anthony Fasano, Phillip Merling

A couple days ago, we passed on Phinsider's review of Chad Henne and Akin Ayodele. Today, we present their thoughts on Anthony Fasano and Phillip Merling.

The Fasano review is quite favorable. Here's an excerpt:

"In my view, the acquisition of Fasano was a great move by the Dolphins because he's a low-risk, high-reward kind of player. The Dolphins only spent a 4th round pick to get both Fasano and Ayodele. And Fasano is only getting $975,000 total over the next two seasons. So there really is no downside to his acquisition."

The Merling report sounds promising as well:

"Regardless, it seems more and more like Merling is not here to be an eventual replacement to Jason Taylor or Joey Porter at outside linebacker. And I didn't think he would be considering he isn't really fast enough to. He's more of a run-stuffer, which is great because that's something the Dolphins desperately need. In fact, most draft analysts believed that Merling was the best run-stopping defensive end in this entire draft, making him an ideal fit for a 3-4 defense."

With each passing day, I'm growing more and more confident in the Dolphins' chances next year. When you consider the cupcake schedule and breadth of improvements, the word "Playoffs" doesn't seem so out of the question. That's pretty remarkable.