The Dolphins soap opera at QB has now begun

It could be argued that after nearly three months of posturing and brinkmanship, the Dolphins and Chiefs finally ended their soap opera of sorts by finally getting the Trent Green trade done this evening.

But I would tell you the drama has only just begun.

It's going to get veeeery interesting around Dolphins camp as early as today. Green will be in town sometime Wednesday to take a physical and sign his new contract -- one by the way that pays him like a starter if he is the starter.

That means the Dolphins will have five, countem', five quarterbacks on the roster assuming Gibran Hamdan is not sacrificed to the waiver wire. That also means the Dolphins will have on their hands two quarterbacks who fancy themselves the team's 2007 starter.

And that means the Dolphins have a problem on several levels.

There is only one of two ways this can now play out. The Dolphins welcome Green while either releasing or trading Daunte Culpepper. Or the Dolphins welcome Green and hold on to Culpepper and let the two go at it in a legit may-the-best-man win quarterback competition.

There's trouble with both scenarios.

If the Dolphins let go of Culpepper, by either releasing or trading him, they effectively establish the pecking order for the quarterback position. They settle an unsettled position. But they also expose coach Cam Cameron as someone who was not sincere when he said that every position is open to competition.

If every position is indeed open to competition, you can't just waive or trade a player such as Culpepper without giving him a chance to, well, compete. And you really can't do it if he's not on the field and 100 percent healthy because that shows you had no intention of ever having a legitimate competition in the first place.

Aside from casting an aspersion on Cameron's word, such a move would also send a bad message to the players competing at other positions. How can they believe it when the coach says there's open competition if he just showed you he doesn't really mean it when he says it?

On the other hand, if Cameron decides that he has two valuable commodities on his roster and lets them actually compete, it saves his reputation and makes him seem true to his word. But it exposes the locker room, particularly the quarterback room, to an unnerving situation.

There simply isn't enough room on the Miami roster for two egos like Culpepper and Green, even for a short amount of time that would include the upcoming minicamp and training camp and preseason. There simply aren't enough practice snaps (assuming both are healthy) to make both feel comfortable. There simply doesn't seem to be a way to keep them both engaged while also avoiding the team from fraying into two camps.

And that's what would happen. One camp would back Green, the guy who knows the offense better. The other camp would back Culpepper, the younger guy whose been here longer and whose only sin in possibly losing his job has been to be injured.

I've seen such a split in the past -- when Jay Fiedler and A.J. Feeley were around, and when Gus Frerotte and Sage Rosenfels were around. I even saw some of it when Scott Mitchell and Steve DeBerg were around. (Yeah, I go back that far.)

The Dolphins will have to make the better of two tough choices in the coming days and weeks.

My prediction? Well, let's see, I reported sometime in April that once Green got here, Culpepper would be either released or traded. I believe that route is the one the Dolphins will travel.

Yes, it will make people question Cameron's credibility for a while. And yes, it will lead to second-guessing, especially if Culpepper winds up recovering from his knee injury and playing well for someone else.

That's why it looks like the drama is only now getting started.