Miami Dolphins Training Camp Week in Review (Week 2)
July 28, 2024
Eventful day at Dolphins training camp. David Long Jr. is activated off the PUP but does not participate. Tyreek Hill is not active and on a rest day. Practice kicks off with an excited Calais Campbell revving up the crowd. Malik Washington does a back flip. Tua Tagovailoa grabs the mic and utters one phrase: “Show me the Money!” (He later revealed that he was dared to say that.) Practice runs through it’s normal course, and in an early drill, Cam Smith leaves the field accompanied by a trainer. No word on what the injury was. He missed a couple of weeks with a shoulder injury last year in camp.
Tua checks in on 11v11, and quickly tests the defense deep, broken up by Elijah Campbell. Very nice play on the deep corner route to Jaylen Waddle. The next play Tua finds De’Von Achane deep, and Achane drops it. Some good play by OLB Quentin Bell has earned him an expanded role early in camp, and he later spoke to it in his brief media availability after practice. Chop Robinson continues to show his eye catching athleticism, although he overran a toss play that created space for Salvon Ahmed to gain the edge. Defense won the day, as several defenders made plays. None better than the play Isaiah Mack made on a deep dig route thrown by Mike White, that got bobbled by UDFA rookie Je’Quan Burton, and Mack then intercepted off the bobble. Mack traced back to the play after going up field on the pass rush and managed to make the play 14-16 yards down field.
Tua Tagovailoa spoke to the media in a post practice presser, with QB Coach Darrell Bevell, OC Frank Smith, Cap Guru Brandon Shore, GM Chris Grier, HC Mike McDaniel accompanying his wife, with Tua’s 7 month old girl Maizey (who Bevell carried all presser) and the very cute 2 year old boy Ace. Tua gave special thanks to Mike McDaniel, and spoke to the process, and how they came to agreement on his new contract. Pads come on, Monday, the 29th.
3YPC Player of the Practice: Jevon Holland
July 29, 2024
Sloppy play on this day that featured 3 bad Center/QB exchanges between Aaron Brewer and Tua Tagovailoa. These seemed mostly due to the timing for the operation and orchestration being off. On this 1st day of pads, the defense shined and the offense sputtered all day. Tua Tagovailoa did however run off a hot streak of completions inside one of the middle periods of 11v11. He had consecutive completions of (estimate) of 25, 18, and 12. Zeke Vandenburgh, and Mo Kamara flashed a bit, as David Long jr. came off the PUP to get the lions share of snaps. Anthony Walker, and Kendall Fuller had a days rest as Cam Smith was a non-participant due to injury.
On a pure physicality basis, Liam Eichenberg had a bad day and it was mostly due to Tart and Hand shooting the A gap past him to clog up movement in the run game. Jalen Ramsey had an interception off a Jody Fortson bobble, from a perfect ball from Skylar Thompson. Chop Robinson was essentially shut down on this day by Patrick Paul, until one flashy rush from Chop, where he beat Paul badly with speed to get “what would have been” in my opinion, a strip sack. The result of the play? A majestic 50 air yard bomb from Skylar Thompson to Tyreek Hill that went for a 60 yard TD. But scratch that. Chop…sack. Much improvement, and some get back is expected from the offense on Tuesday
3YPC Player of the Practice: Da’Shawn Hand
July 30, 2024
Day 2 of offensive struggles. Aaron Brewer, Andrew Meyer, Jack Driscoll, and Ireland Brown all had bad snaps, although all of Brewers bad snaps with Tua occurred under center. Terron Armstead in a post practice press availability mentioned that all these guys have different snap points and sometimes the QB has to adjust. He mentioned that Tua might have to crouch down more, or maybe reach for the ball to time up with Brewer under center. These issues have consistently been the worst part of the offensive performance since the pads came on.
Elijah Campbell was in orange today, and also mentioned in a post practice availability that Head Coach Mike McDaniel appreciated the “hustle” during camp. Campbell has made plays and has had a very good camp so far. As for other young guys that have impressed on the defense, Ethan Bonner, Quentin Bell, and of course, Chop Robinson have had very good camps so far. We had a Channing Tindall sighting on this day, as he filled the boxscore with 2 sacks, and a run stop. We also had a fracas break out as Jaylen Wright got into it with Kader Kohou as they came together on a block. The “fight” was quickly extinguished when rookie tackle Patrick Paul arrived to grab Kohou and give him a “semi-suplex” to separate him from Wright.
Channing Tindall was a serious contender for my practice player of the day, but I could not ignore how impressive Chop Robinson was off the edge on this day. Chop now wins his second 3YPC player of the practice award of training camp.
3YPC Player of the Practice: Chop Robinson (2)
August 1, 2024
No pads today. The Offense was much better in operation, and execution. There were no under center, or shotgun snapping issues either. The defense did a lot of simulated pressure installs, and the writing is on the wall already for what seems will be, a very aggressive defense. Tua Tagovailoa also had a very good day, hitting a 52 yard completion on a deep corner route to Tyreek Hill (although Zach Sieler likely had a sack), hitting a 34 yard seam pass to Julian Hill for a touchdown, and then hitting Jaylen Waddle on a slant that went for a 43 yard touchdown on 3rd and short with Jalen Ramsey in coverage.
Storm Duck has emerged as a contender for a 53 man roster spot with yet another solid day in coverage as he had two PBU’s, both on Braylon Sanders. Chop Robinson continued his solid play with a sack, and Quenton Bell did as well, as he beat Kendall Lamm for another. The Jalen Ramsey – Tyreek Hill 1v1 battles are fun to watch, but mostly due to the level of competition that Ramsey brings on a daily basis.
The player of the practice award came down to a tough choice between Storm Duck (emerging young player), Jaylen Waddle (having a great camp, and just had his best practice, and Tua Tagovailoa (also his best day so far). I settled (with a little help from Kyle Crabbs, on Jaylen Waddle, who had the big play in the simulated game part of the practice, and also had several other notable receptions, including a toe tap TD in the corner of the end zone.
3YPC Player of the Practice: Jaylen Waddle
August 2, 2024
Tua Tagovailoa in Orange. After extended installs and 1v1’s, the 11v11 portion starts off with some physicality. Raheem Mostert takes a toss left, finds room, and.. big hit from Ramsey, Holland and company. Fumble. Recovered by the defense. A few plays later, Mostert takes a handoff up the middle and lowers the shoulder into Holland. Robert Jones had a very good day and is quickly cementing himself as an important piece on the offensive line.
The defense carried the day, with several pressures from blitzes, 1 Ramsey sack (or Tua dump off) that he vociferously argued for, and a Ethan Bonner interception on a Tyreek Hill deep ball. Another time, Tua Tagovailoa tried to put a ball past the 2nd level over a safety in an intermediate zone. Elijah Campbell got two hands on it, but dropped it. The offensive tackles played much better on this day, even though Chop Robinson and Quenton Bell recorded a pressure/sack. Jalen Ramsey set the tone early and made plays consistently to earn the Orange Jersey in my estimation.
3YPC Player of the Practice: Jalen Ramsey
August 3, 2024 (scrimmage cancelled)
The stadium scrimmage was cancelled for inclement weather, but as often happens in South Florida, we received no rain, and the forecast suddenly changed, to where we were moved from an indoor practice to a regular outdoor practice. Jalen Ramsey was indeed in orange, so chalk one up for me, although I should have had 3 of these so far as a couple of my runner ups have already donned the orange jersey. It’s going to be hard to top the 5 Orange jersey calls from a year ago.
Today’s practice featured some situational spots, and finished with an interesting setup. Down 4. 1:45 left. 2 timeouts. Ball on your own 35. Tua to Braylon Sanders for 11. Tua to Jonnu Smith for 6. Screen to Jonnu for 7. Achane checkdown to the 34. Malik Washington with a diving catch to the 11. 3 plays later, a Achane smoke screen on 4th and 1 finds them in the end zone. Mike White did not have as much success in the same situation as 4 and out was his fate. Hard to discern an orange jersey on this day, so Robert Jones wins the camp long achievement award. In a post practice presser Tua Tagovailoa sounded a more serious tone about his leadership style this year, as he spoke about accountability, and how he will demand it. Odell Beckham Jr. worked on the side all practice. Next week, joint practices with the Atlanta Falcons.
3YPC Player of the Practice: Robert Jones
Listen to the 3YPC Camp Reports on the 3YPC feed:
https://podfollow.com/3-yards-
https://podfollow.com/3-yards-
JOIN US ON OUR @Discord : https://discord.gg/onlyfins
(only $3 a month!)
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!