Tony Sparano looks the part of a Mulberry Street tough guy, with his buzz-cut hair and rough-around-the-edges talk, so the hope is that he will be strong and sturdy and determined enough to survive what is about to befall him.
The Dolphins' flawed roster is now Sparano's baby, a package left at his door by other tough men who tried to overcome the team's lack of talent and failed.
Nick Saban, a man his assistants feared and players called Nicktator, fled that roster after two years, convinced it was beyond repair. Cam Cameron, who survived playing for Bob Knight, survived only one season with that roster.
Now Sparano is coming to grips with how awful these Dolphins, his Dolphins, look four weeks before a necessary talent infusion from the draft.
''We have a lot of needs,'' Sparano said Tuesday during a 64-minute interview session at the NFL annual meeting in Palm Beach. ``We were 1-15. When you are 1-15, you have a bunch of needs. In my mind, there are a couple of areas on the team that are probably greater needs than others. But we have a lot of needs.
``We've tried to address some of those needs, but as we go on, we're going to try to fill as many holes as we possibly can. We need linebackers, we need secondary players, we need receivers, we need linemen. We need a bunch of things right now.''
To hear Sparano tell it, the Dolphins today cannot field an offensive line. There is a hole at left guard, where Drew Mormino, injured last year even before he played a game, is the leading candidate to start.
There is a bigger hole at right tackle because the Dolphins don't have a body on the roster to fill the spot. Of course, that doesn't account for the upgrade air would be over L.J. Shelton.
That right tackle spot, by the way, eventually could be filled by veteran Vernon Carey. But that would create a bigger hole at left tackle. So one of those tackle spots will be filled by a rookie, and that should be exciting news for the starting quarterback.
Oh yes, the Dolphins don't have a starting quarterback today. No one seems to be panicking about that because the team has conducted spring searches for a starting quarterback every offseason since 2004. Sparano expects to find a starter in a promised competition between Josh McCown, who has washed out with three other teams, and John Beck, who is dealing with his own issues before the start of his second season.
''Mechanically there are some things we're trying to help John with a little bit,'' Sparano said. ``He's a low-release guy and gets some balls knocked down that way, and we're trying to change some of that.
``More importantly, we're trying to get the game to slow down for him. We haven't had as much opportunity as we'd have liked to spend time with him in the meeting room and the classroom right now. But we want to get the game to slow down for him when he gets out to the line of scrimmage.''
Miami's quarterback picture is not pretty. And the picture Sparano paints of his defensive front is no more attractive.
Matt Roth, who failed as a starting left end last year, is slated as the starting left end again, according to Sparano.
Jason Ferguson and Vonnie Holliday seem solid enough at nose tackle and right end. But the Dolphins aren't certain Reggie Torbor, an outside linebacker much of his career, can become an insider linebacker, while Channing Crowder, an outside linebacker much of his career, moves inside. Joey Porter and Jason Taylor are the outside linebackers, but there are serious questions whether both will be on the team when the season starts.
Sparano strikes a chord of optimism when he said running back Ronnie Brown should be ready by the start of training camp in late July. But the more important question with Brown hasn't always been when he starts, but whether he can finish.
Brown has not played 16 games in any of his three seasons.
The good news is the Dolphins have high picks throughout the upcoming draft and practically any player they pick should fill a hole. That, of course, is because Miami's roster has more holes than a doughnut factory.
''There's no one position more important than any other for us going into this draft,'' Sparano said. ``There really isn't. We're 1-15. We have a lot of needs. As we get to our picks, it will depend on what is out there and where we go from there. But we have a lot of needs right now.''
