What do you do with a Ricky Williams if you're the Miami Dolphins. On one hand, you can consider him to potentially be one of the more talented running backs in the league today. On the other hand, you can consider him to be nothing but trouble.

If I were Nick Saban, this would be a very tough call for me on deciding whether or not Ricky should play for the Dolphins this season, or whether he should break all ties from the running back.

Some people may question the fact as to why the Dolphins would select Ronnie Brown with the second overall pick in the draft if they intended on giving Williams another shot. I think the Dolphins made a wise decision in taking Brown, simply because you can not count on Williams returning and even being as good as he once was. The Dolphins were atrocious at times with their running game last year, so they could not afford to take a chance that Williams would be their guy.

Now leads to the controversy though. Ricky Williams' agent has already stated that Ricky has full intentions on attending the Dolphins training camp in July. If Ricky does indeed show up and performs to his fullest potential, what do you do? Would you dare make him a starter over Brown? Not a chance. I doubt that Ricky would be able to get on the same page as the rest of his teammates so quickly into the season. That whole team struggled last year as a team and not a whole lot of them were happy about what Ricky did. That leaves the Dolphins with two options. They could keep Williams as their backup running back or trade him.

As a backup, I don't think the team would have as much as a problem with Ricky. They would feel that Ricky wasn't handed the job, and it would give Ronnie Brown some much needed breaks as a rookie without losing any of the teams momentum. And then, and only then, if Ronnie Brown struggles or gets injured during the season, should Ricky be called upon to be the teams leading rusher.

Now the other option for Miami is to trade Williams. I'm not too sure how heavy the market would be for Williams after all that's gone on with him, but I'd have to believe somebody would be interested. I don't think the Dolphins would want to make a deal unless they get something in return that will benefit them directly this season.

And the final option, which I didn't mention yet, is that the Dolphins could simply ignore Williams. They could cut him, release him, sever all ties, or whatever you'd like to call it. If Nick Saban believes Ricky can help his team in it's rebuilding process, he'll give him a shot. If Williams looks like Maurice Clarett did in his first workout before the draft though, Saban should avoid the controversy that comes along with Williams and just forget it.

-Chris Pokorny
pokorny@pfcritics.com