Would Dolphins and Marino work together again?

Dan Marino is out of the Sunday morning pregame show game. (USATSI)

With the news Tuesday that Tony Gonzalez would appear next year on The NFL Today, the flipside of that addition is that Dan Marino and Shannon Sharpe will not be returning to the show.

That might stir up some fantasies from Dolphins fans that perhaps the Miami organization -- where, of course, Marino starred as quarterback in the 1980s and '90s -- would bring home its old fan favorite in some kind of front office leadership role.

Much in the same way John Elway is the main front-office face for the Broncos organization.

Yet, Marino and Elway are not a fair comparison.

As the Miami Herald points out, Marino has no experience in running a team or dealing with player personnel. Elway has shown a knack for making the right moves and landing the right players -- after all, his team just made the Super Bowl -- but Marino has been a TV talking head for the past several years.

Are his talent evaluating skills good enough for him to make a positive impact? Right now, there's no way to know.

That's not to say that Marino couldn't learn, but it's unlikely he could just waltz into the organization and make wholesale changes right away that would turn the team into a Super Bowl contender.

Writes the Herald: "So will the Dolphins chase Marino? As has been reported here, the club had informal conversations with Marino two years ago about joining the team in some capacity. Marino never closed the door. And neither did the Dolphins. But neither did either party pursue the matter further."

Marino worked in the Dolphins front office briefly in 2004, but ultimately, he decided he wanted to go back into the TV game. Now that's no longer the case, perhaps owner Stephen Ross will decide that hiring Marino would bring some goodwill to an organization that desperately needs it.

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Ravens want to get RB Ray Rice back on track, but they won't forget about RB Bernard Pierce either



Ray Rice really struggled in 2013. Perhaps he never fully recovered from a hip injury suffered in Week 2. Perhaps he simply wore down after a four-year average of 347 touches per season. You could definitely put some blame on his offensive line. Whatever the reason(s), offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak was very clear on what Rice still means to the Ravens' offense: "I think as he goes, we'll go," Kubiak told the team's official website. "... We've got to get him going. That's the bottom line."However, Rice won't be alone in the backfield work. Kubiak said "it's hard to hand it to one guy 30 times a game; they just get worn down." That's where Bernard Pierce comes in. While Rice could muster just 3.1 yards per carry this season, Pierce was even worse -- 2.9 yards per. But Kubiak wants to get him involved, similar to how he used Ben Tate to take some of the burden off Arian Foster with the Texans.



Pierce had 152 carries this season. Tate never topped 190 in any of his three seasons with Kubiak. So, Pierce might still an uptick, but Kubiak would probably like to give Rice 300-plus touches if possible. Therein lies the rub. Is it possible? Can Rice handle another year with a large workload? He is only 27, but there is a considerable amount of wear on his tires. And yes, that offensive line needs work. Plus, I thought the Ravens were interested in actually adding a running to this picture?Whether Rice's body is up for the challenge, and if this season was really the beginning of the end for him are concerns that will surround Rice's draft stock through the summer.