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Dolphin Matter

Couple Phin tidbits for the week…

• Quarterback Daunte Culpepper, on the mend from major knee reconstruction in November, is feeling so frisky he actually scrambled during a broken play at this past weekend’s mini-camp. On Wednesday, coach Nick Saban said that Culpepper, “has done more than we ever thought he could do in terms of his physical ability,” and that he has been given clearance to practice his 3-,5-, and 7-step drops, as well as move laterally.

“He’s not inhibited in his development right now in anything that he could do at his position,” Saban said. “He may not do it quite as quickly, but he’s doing it and effectively enough to participate.”

• With Culpepper, Harrington and an improving Cleo Lemon expected to be his three quarterbacks on the final 53-man roster, Saban said that it’s too early to determine what position rookie free agent Marcus Vick will play, but that he was a “natural” at wide receiver.

“We might put him at quarterback and put him in to run some gun runs,” Saban said of the former, and oft-troubled, Virginia Tech quarterback. “We might play him at wide receiver, might make him a punt returner. He said he played safety in high school.”

• Running back Ricky Williams, who turned 29 on Sunday, still has not received permission from the Dolphins to play for the Toronto Argonauts while serving a one-year suspension from the NFL for violating the substance-abuse program for the fourth time. The Argonauts are supplying the Dolphins with a written assurance that they, and the rest of the CFL teams, would return Williams to the Dolphins after the season.

“We tried to work with and cooperate with Ricky and his people,” Saban said. “We’re supporting him in this time every way that we can, but at the same time we haven’t made a decision because we don’t have all the information.”

[SUN-SENTINEL]