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Green believes he is fit enough to be Miami’s starting quarterback through 2010 season.
By RANDY COVITZ
The Kansas City Star

Trent Green has bigger plans than merely being a short-term starting quarterback for the Miami Dolphins.

He’ll turn 37 next month, and he’ll have a second-round draft choice breathing down his neck, but he told Miami reporters on Wednesday that he plans to play — and start — for the Dolphins for as many as four years.

“From a body standpoint, I feel really good, and whether it’s two years, three years, four years, whatever it might be, as long as I feel good and I’m playing at a high level and I’m contributing to help this team win, I want to keep playing,” said Green, whom the Chiefs traded to the Dolphins on Tuesday night for a conditional fifth-round draft pick.

“My mind-set is to be a starter. There are a lot of quarterbacks who have held on three, four or five years in a backup role, but if I had that mind-set, I would have stayed in Kansas City. That was a role they wanted me to take.”

Green, a two-time Pro Bowler, struggled during much of last season and in the Chiefs’ playoff loss at Indianapolis after missing eight starts while recovering from a concussion in the season opener. During the offseason, the Chiefs re-signed veteran Damon Huard, who went 5-3 in Green’s absence; decided to give second-year quarterback Brodie Croyle a clear shot at the starting position; and gave Green permission to strike a deal with another team.

Green said he has suffered no residual effects from last year’s concussion but said missing so much time had an effect on his continuity with the offense.

“Anytime you take two months off, it’s going to affect you,” Green said. “The timing is different. A lot that had changed was our offensive philosophy. New head coach, new offensive coordinator. They tried to maintain the offense in the preseason. Then I get knocked out the first game. The focus changed on offense. When I came back, I came back to a new offense. We never really got in sync.

“We had a few games here and there, Cleveland, Jacksonville … but there was no real continuity or fluid sustained drives. A comfort zone was missing. There definitely was a change in the atmosphere on the offensive side.”

Still, Green was grateful to the Chiefs for the way the organization handled his comeback from the concussion.

“That’s one thing I’d like to thank the Chiefs on,” Green said. “They really set the bar in terms of how the league should handle concussions. The fact they gave me the amount of time to recover that was necessary … I was anxious to get back weeks earlier than they let me. They handed it over to the neurosurgeon and said, ‘You tell us when he’s ready to come back, because if it’s up to him, he’ll come back a lot quicker, because that’s the way most football players are.’ And I did.

“Three weeks prior, I was like, ‘I need to get back on the field,’ but they told the neurosurgeon, ‘When you give him clearance to start practicing, to start running, to start lifting, to take contact, we’ll go on your guidelines.’ I commend them for that.”

A week after participating in the Chiefs’ minicamp, Green will take part in the Dolphins’ minicamp this weekend and begin the move to Miami.

“I want to thank Kansas City and Carl Peterson and the Hunt family,” said Green, who will return to Arrowhead Stadium for an Aug. 16 preseason game against the Chiefs.

“It was a great six years there that were very special to me. It was a situation where they wanted to move on and get younger.

“My wife and I are extremely excited to come to Miami and make this our home. I always thought an important part of being a quarterback is to be part of the community. We’re looking for a fresh start and to be a part of something really special.”