Channing Crowder is what fellow linebacker Joey Porter likes to call "a big cat."
Crowder's combination of size (6-foot-2, 250 pounds) and speed allows him to pounce when other linebackers might not even get a sniff of a ballcarrier.
But too many times he has let his athletic ability get in the way of his job.
Even the Dolphins' top football executive, Bill Parcells, has tried to break Crowder of his habit of freelancing rather than playing within the defensive scheme.
"Parcells talks to me a lot about it, to be honest," Crowder said. "He always says, 'Don't go out there playing street ball.' He'll say it Thursday or Friday, 'Don't go out there playing street ball now.'
"I'll give him a little laugh."
Crowder also has listened.
"If you try to do much, that's when you end up not doing anything at all," said Crowder, who in the opener Sunday in Atlanta will begin his fifth season with the Dolphins, and the second as their defensive signal-caller.
Crowder could be the key to slowing the Falcons' high-powered running game, which finished second in the NFL last season with an average of 152.7 yards.
The main weapon was 256-pound running back Michael Turner, who had 1,699 rushing yards. Speedy back-up Jerious Norwood offers a change of pace. In three seasons he has a career average of 5.8 yards per carry with nine runs of 30 yards or longer.
If Atlanta's run game gets going, the Dolphins could be victimized by quarterback Matt Ryan, last season's offensive rookie of the year.
"Their pass game is based on their run offense," Crowder said. "They want to bootleg, they want to play-action you because you're sucking up nine, 10 (defenders against) the run."
