Culpepper not sure about being ready for Miami's opener

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Daunte: Return might be later

In Daunte Culpepper's first news conference as the Dolphins' quarterback, he said he might not be ready to start the season.

BY ARMANDO SALGUERO

asalguero@MiamiHerald.com

JARED LAZARUS / MIAMI HERALD STAFF

NO LET-UP: 'I am going to go at this thing full force,' Daunte Culpepper said of his knee rehabilitation.

Daunte Culpepper thinks the Dolphins have enough talent to be ''great,'' and realizes he represents the hopes of an entire organization. But Miami's new starting quarterback doesn't seem as certain about playing in the regular-season opener as he once did.

Those were the major points Culpepper made during his first South Florida news conference Monday.

''I think that with the players we have right now, we have a great opportunity to be a good football team, even to be a great football team,'' Culpepper said in a matter-of-fact tone. ``Not just with the players, but with the coaching staff we have in place.

``I think everything's in place. Everybody needs to fall in line and get to work. And I am very excited about what we can do right now, not in two or three years.''

Nearly a month after coming to Miami via trade from the Minnesota Vikings, Culpepper seemed at home, wearing jean shorts, a white T-shirt and a big smile.

IN NO RUSH

Culpepper answered seven questions about his rehabilitation from surgery to repair three torn ligaments in his right knee. But in answering those questions he backed off the statement he made last month on ESPN, when he said, ``I definitely will be ready when the season starts, without a doubt.''

''Well, me personally, that's my goal, but there really is no timeline on when I am going to be 100 percent or ready to play,'' Culpepper said Monday. ``Me personally, that's my personal goal, but I still have a good picture of the whole thing, and I'm real good with reality and I know that an injury like this, it's tough to come back from that quick.''

Culpepper said he is running straight ahead but not making cuts yet. He is trying to strengthen his knee with ``squats, leg extensions, leg curls, things like that.''

He is scheduled this week to visit Dr. James Andrews, who performed the surgery. In previous visits, Andrews has told Culpepper his progress is more than satisfactory.

''He said to me jokingly, and also seriously, that if he had done the surgery 100 times, he didn't think he could have done it any better,'' Culpepper said. ``That's all I really needed to hear. I am going to go at this thing full force. I am going to play the way I have always played with the same tenacity and the same eagerness to make plays and get it done either way, running or throwing. Whatever it takes.''

Culpepper said he has transitioned his rehabilitation program to South Florida, moving from the Orlando facility new Vikings coach Brad Childress had concerns about when Minnesota trainers visited this year.

Childress has been critical of Culpepper since the trade to Miami, once comparing him to Terrell Owens because of what Childress has characterized as selfishness.

Culpepper declined to answer Childress and through clenched teeth downplayed the personal importance of the Nov. 19 game between Miami and the Vikings.

`JUST ANOTHER GAME'

''People say what they want to say, and people are going to make their own opinions, but people who know me know the type of guy I am and know what I am made of,'' Culpepper said. ``As far as the Vikings on our schedule, that's just another game on the schedule. I am going to take it one week at a time. Every game, that's the most important game, that next game. When that time comes, when we play the Vikes, I am going to take it just like I do every other week.''

Culpepper brings to the Dolphins the best credentials of any quarterback since Dan Marino retired. That is one reason season-ticket renewals are ahead of last year's pace, and club owner Wayne Huizenga has talked about the team's Super Bowl expectations.

But though not deaf to such hype, Culpepper is apparently not moved by it.

''I just got here. I haven't been out in the community that much besides to stop and get gas or something,'' Culpepper said. ``Somebody might say `Hey man, good luck this year. We're glad you're here.'

``People are welcoming me back to Florida. It's pretty exciting, but like I said, nobody, I don't think, can put any more expectations on us more than we should put on ourselves.''