Carey fine with moving back to right side of line

Jul/13/08 12:48 PM Filed in: Vernon Carey
VernonCarey
DAVIE - Life has changed quite a bit for Vernon Carey since the end of last season.

He watched as the Miami Dolphins said goodbye to three starters on the offensive line. And he paid close attention as the team made University of Michigan left tackle Jake Long the No. 1 overall pick in this year's draft.

Long's arrival means that Carey is playing right tackle again.

The departures of L.J. Shelton, Chris Liwienski and Rex Hadnot mean that he is also now one of the crusty old veterans of the Dolphins offensive line.

"Yeah, it's a little strange, but ... I feel a little old," the 26-year-old Carey said. "I've been through a lot, a lot of rough times. Hopefully, we can have some good times. That's the part I'm trying to focus on now.

"We weren't winning with what we had, so it was time for a change. And that's what we did. We made the change."

Carey didn't put up much of a fuss after being told that he was moving back to right tackle.

After all, that's the position he played his first three NFL seasons after the Dolphins made him the 19th overall pick of the 2004 draft. It's the position where he feels most comfortable.

When Miami decided to move him to left tackle last season, he expressed an initial reluctance before ultimately embracing the switch and taking it as the ultimate challenge.

Now that's Long's problem.

Carey has something else to prove.

"I always told myself if I get a chance to go back to right tackle, I was going to play my best," said Carey, who is in the final year of his contract.

"That's what I want to do. I want to make it known I can play right tackle. That's my best position."

The transition wasn't completely smooth in the offseason. Carey admitted that there were a few technique issues he needed to brush up on as the team went through its workouts, but he was confident that he would get them worked out in plenty of time before the season starts.

Dolphins rookie coach Tony Sparano, a former offensive line coach with Dallas, didn't seem overly concerned either.

"I think that if you can play left tackle in our league I think that you can play right tackle in our league," Sparano said. "The other transition is the hardest. If you took a right tackle and moved him to left, now you have a little bit of a problem. You have to really see whether or not he can make that transition.

"With Vernon, he's a big, strong guy, and the right tackle is a more powerful position. I think that's a little easier transition, certainly, for him to go from the left side to the right side."

Carey, who showed signs of emerging as a leader on the offensive line last season, has also become somewhat of a mentor for Long, along with another fifth-year pro, guard Justin Smiley.

That's another transition that he's happy to make.

"I know when I first came in, I didn't have guys come and tell me, help me out and stuff like that," Carey said. "That's why ... when I see a young guy coming in, I'm going to try to help them, because I didn't have that when I came in as a rookie. I had to catch it on my own."

(news-press.com)