Larry Brown Sports

Bill Parcells has built a lot of successful football teams and has helped turn around several franchises. He has been part of rebuilding processes in New York, New England, Dallas, and most recently Miami. With the Dolphins, Parcells was lauded for improving the team by 10 wins in his first year (from 1-15 to 11-5). Since the major turnaround however, the Dolphins have slipped to 7-9 in consecutive years and they’ve been plagued by a lack of consistency at quarterback.

Now, several months after leaving the front office in Miami, he has opened up about a few questionable draft selections they made.

In an interview with The Miami Herald via Pro Football Talk, Parcells admitted some of his picks were questionable. On the decision to draft Jake Long first overall instead of quarterback Matt Ryan who went third to Atlanta, Parcells says “maybe, we should have,” drafted the QB.

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Former West Virginia quarterback Pat White has decided to give up his professional baseball career after playing a few months in the Kansas City Royals organization. White signed with Kansas City in September and played in the Arizona Instructional League in the fall. He was expected to play in the minors this year, but his agent informed the club that White would not be continuing his baseball career, making it his second perceived professional failure in two years.

White, who led West Virginia to four straight bowl wins, threw for over 6,000 yards and 56 touchdowns while rushing for over 5,000 yards and 47 career touchdowns in college. Several draft analysts believed he was destined for greatness and so did the Miami Dolphins who made him a second-round pick in 2009. White unfortunately did not develop as they had hoped, and the Dolphins released him after one season.

After his release, White decided to pursue a career in professional baseball but he has already given it up. There’s no word on his next move but one has to figure he’ll try a professional football career again, possibly with another like like the UFL or CFL. White is just too talented of an athlete to be done with sports and too close to recent success to give it up.

And if you think his baseball career was just a gimmick, he actually hit .487 and slugged .974 in high school and was drafted in the second round in 2004 by the Angels. The Angels drafted him again in 2007, the Reds took him in 2008, and the Yankees drafted his rights in 2009. If that many teams still had interest in him, it’s a pretty good sign he had some talent. The question is if we’ll ever see it develop professionally.

NFL rosters are being finalized as teams had to cut down to 53 players this weekend. That means many peoples’ dreams were crushed, feelings hurt, and patience tested over the past few days. Names like T.J. Houshmandzadeh in Seattle and Matt Leinart in Arizona were amongst the most surprising cuts. Another player to add to that list is former West Virginia quarterback Pat White.

White came out of college as one of the more highly debated players. A four-year starter with outstanding numbers, White went 4-0 in bowl games and specialized in running the spread attack. The Dolphins thought he would be an ideal weapon to add to their vaunted “Wildcat” offense. NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock feverishly agreed.

After hardly playing his rookie season, the former second round selection and 44th overall pick in 2009 looked awful throwing the ball in camp according to most reports. He had fallen to fourth on the depth chart in Miami and the suggestion was that he would have to find a new position. White actually joked that he might try playing baseball professionally instead of a new position in the NFL. If he wants to continue a professional football career, a change is likely. So what does this all mean?

The debate is over: White was a flop in Miami and is not an NFL quarterback regardless of how good he was at West Virginia. For the second time in three years (John Beck in 2007, Chad Henne in 2008, White in 2009) the Dolphins made a big mistake with a second round quarterback selection. Lastly, it also shows us that regardless of how good of a personnel evaluator Bill Parcells may be, even he gets it wrong sometimes. Badly. Spread guys in college generally don’t translate in the pros.

Dolphins backup quarterback Pat White had to enter their final regular season game after Chad Henne left because of an eye injury. Late in the third quarter, White took off running down the left sideline. He was met by a Steelers defender head-on and was immobile upon impact. There was a lengthy delay in the game to put White on a stretcher but luckily he was moving his hands. It appears as if White sustained a concussion at the least. Here’s the Pat White hit video: