Dolphins add Sage Rosenfels, throw in towel

Chad Henne's season-ending injury doesn't bode well for an already reeling Dolphins team. (ZUMAPRESS.com)

No offense to Sage Rosenfels, but the Dolphins may as well just put a white flag on his jersey where his number's supposed to be.

With Chad Henne done for the year due to a shoulder injury suffered in Week 4, Miami reportedly chased after David Garrard and Jake Delhomme. When both of those QBs spurned the Dolphins' advances, they turned to Rosenfels, who hasn't thrown an NFL pass since 2009.

That move means that Matt Moore will be Miami's starting QB for the foreseeable future. It also means that the Dolphins are pretty much throwing in the towel on this season after an 0-4 start.

Moore's probably not a major downgrade from Henne -- the latter seemed to take some steps in the right direction this preseason, then struggled to translate it to the regular season. Moore has 13 career starts under his belt and a lifetime passer rating of 73.5; Henne's is 75.7.

But at 0-4 and three games back in the AFC East, Miami entered its bye with one last chance to regroup and try to make something on 2011. Instead, with the calls for coach Tony Sparano's head growing, the Dolphins took a tiny step back at their most important position.

Even if Delhomme had no interest in coming to Miami, all indications were that Garrard probably would have made the leap if the Dolphins had met his financial demands. They could have, too, if they had any intention of trying to make a run this season.

Now, the writing on the wall is even clearer than before.

That's not to say Garrard would have stepped in and won 12 in a row to take Miami to the playoffs. What ails this team goes beyond the QB play.

Still, a Garrard signing may have given the franchise a little momentum coming out of its bye next week, something for the frustrated Miami fans to rally around.

Settling for a depth chart of Moore-Rosenfels puts the Dolphins neck-and-neck with the Colts, at least right now, in the race for the 2012 No. 1 overall draft pick, which figures to be Andrew Luck in either case.

And all things considered, that might be the best-case scenario for Miami -- even in comparison to rallying after the bye and getting to 8-8 or better.

With each passing day it becomes more and more likely Sparano will not be the Dolphins' coach in 2012 and possibly that GM Jeff Ireland will follow him out the door. Bringing in a new coach, a new GM and a potential superstar rookie quarterback could push Miami back in the right direction.