Found a nice seat above the crowd, so I could speak into my iphone gs niner banger, recorder...I'm a dork...but I don't care..I love our team, and I'm gonna call it like I see it for the next four days. I have to tell you, when you hear reports from our newspaper guys, take it with a grain of salt, our guys are in shorts and helmets, and their guys in the business of overreactions..The angle for this first practice seems to be about repetition and timing, and what that does for you as a foundation, so when the pads come on, and the intensity rises, the timing and rhythm is already on point. This is not play by play, this is some of the plays that I caught, some I missed while watching some other things, It will get more scripted on my end as the practice continues, but i'm reporting it like I saw it...Lets do this. Bandits in the house..those guys are some scary looking mother grabbers in makeup, but very kind hearted, and good for our team and spirit. 1...First play in the very light scrimmage, 11 on 11, Moore with Chad and Legadu split wide, makes a 7 step drop, throws to to Legadu on a deep slant, Reshad Jones breaks on the play, reads it perfectly and breaks it up..In real time, he would of picked that up or separted the head from the body..It was a very nice play, because, it was the first play, and it was on time from Moore, and it was his first option...Good recognition. 2..Chad Johnson runs a 15 yard square in towards the sideline, Moore in a 7 step drop, releases the ball, very good timing, Chad has seperation on a double deek, catches the ball with good hand technique, away from the body, looks it in, taps his feet, 15 yards. 3..Garrard with 2nd team..Drops, hesitates, throws a pick on a crossing route, didn't get the number of the player for the pick. 4..Moore to chad on a 5 step timing route, again towards the sideline, well executed..complete. Cam Wake, the only guy wearing his pants.. I'll Talk about his beautiful *** later. 8 min intervals, then they all run to different spots on the two fields to set up their drills. First flash of the day...SS24, has put on some muscle, I would say 8 lbs. and he practiced today completely focused on his technique, and it was impressive for a man that size... He was serious, Hes bigger, he's stronger, and he's quicker..no doubt..Very impressed by his balance during forty yard back pedal drills, the head placement, the posture, and he was flippin his hips quicker than the smaller cats. Karlos body flash..Lets get it out of the way...The dude is in great shape, I mean so much better than any year since hes been in the league, maybe he understands that the linebacker game is changin a bit, and he needs to be able to run fast...Great shape, me happy.. Kevin Burnett, also in outstanding condition, looks like he's added 5 to 8 lbs, but I thought he was a bit light last year, and its good weight because his composition is completely fast twitch, dude is shredded right now, and a bit bigger.. From the looks of it, those two I would guess trained together, there was an excellent shot of them two kneeling down, talking to each other while the rest of the team was working, were good on defense when it comes to leadership, Cam Wake also is vastly becoming one himself, like I said, I'll talk about that freakin beast later. Josh Kaduu...Great frame, needs a bit more muscle, but he's a big boy, and looks pretty fliud in drills, especially in coverage.. 6..Moore fumbles snap...no big deal.. 7..Garrard drops, hesitates, steps up, throws deep to Gates, underthrown, gates goes up and can't come down with it..not gates fault though. 8..Garrard to Wallace on a 10 yard quick slant..wallace uses his hands, turns upfield immediately, good play. Defense on both the ones and twos, basic 43 setup, Westerman playing the wake position on the 2nd team. 9..Moore rolls left, waiitng for the tight end to come open on his crossing pattern, throws across his body incomplete, not close.. FlASH...Lamar Miller...Here's the thing with this dude..He's not just fast, he's fast while he's processing where to go..His vision and speed are cohesive, he just doesn't slow down when he cuts and knives his way thru the holes and traffic, keeps a nice low center of gravity....after the play,I laughed and said to my iphone, that was pretty cool.. Let me tell y'all somethin, i'm the coolest dork you all know.lol 10..Javorski Lane on a little 5 yard out pattern coming from the backfield, supinated his hands nicely, turned it upfield..big dude is not fat, looks to be solid. 11..Hartline on a reverse, they give him the ball and he runs around the edge..took him a minute to get there, and it was an awkward looking stride you would see from a receiver..I see why there are balance issues with him, he doesn't have a sleleton under his skin..What the hell kind of appendix surgery did this dude have, geez louise, I'm gonna call him rubber man from now on.. 12..Garrad drops, hesitates, hesitates, and throws up a duck 30 yards downfield...incomplete..Terrible play. 13..Moore with a deep drop, goes thru one, two third progression finds Chad on the cross..Moore kept his feet moving while going thru those, nice play. 14..Garrard on a nice cross pattern to Wallace. 15..Garrard with a little curl route to BJ cunningham. 16..Moore, tries to throw deep on SS24 down the sideline, wobbly pass, Sean breaks it up.. 17..Moore comes back on next play..goes deep in his progressions, and hits a nice pass to Bess who makes a diving catch, bout a 20 yard play..Marshall on the coverage. Matt Moore had added some size..he needed to, and he did..His mechanice look a bit better, tighter I should say. 18.. Garrard throws a deep 25 yard out to Fuller, well executed..gonna have to watch that kid a little closer, I thought it was an outstanding free agent pick up, but I wanna see if he has explosiveness in his hips. 19. Moore with Nanne and Reggie split left, one behind the other, thrown to gates on a slant, Jimmy broke it up...Good break on the ball by him. 20...Moore tries to find Clay, clay drops it, had to turn around a bit, but a legit drop. 21..Matt Moore, rolls right, his check down to thomas is covered, Chad breaks off his route, Moore finds him for a nice play...They meet each other to fist pump. 22..Matt Moore, deep drop, 1st and 2nd read not there, throws another crossing route to Bess who makes another diving catch. 23..Moore showing poise in the pocket, but remember, its tshirts out there. 24..Devlin with some nice play action, Fuller with the outside pylon Post pattern, perfect execution..Td...bout 35 yards I would say. 25..next play, all eyes on Devlin, throws a duck to the sideline with no pressure..inc. My whole body is covered in sweat, not sure how these QBs are gripping the ball. 26..Moore, back to pass, deep drop, hesitates to allow Chad to finish his route, throws a deep out, nice pass and catch, good solid rhythm and timing againt Sean Smith. 27..Odrick tips ball at Los. 28..Garrard with a play action pass to gates, 12 yard gain, half speed that one looked like. 29..Moore to Hartline on the sideline, rubber man got his feet in bounds, bout a 15 yarder. 30..Moore to Bess..drop. Its hand off time...nothing to see here, driving along driving along. Burnett and Wake showing good play behind the Los pursuit on some of those runs..Wake can play the run son. 31..7 on 7's..Moore drops, tries to thread good coverage by Misi to Fasano on a 10 yard out pattern, koa pursues, breaks in front, and houses it for 6....Philbin goes out of his way to find Koa..bum slapper. 32..Moore back to pass, underneath route, davone with another tough catch. 33.. Garrard with a three step drop, finds that lane to Lamar, nice catch with the hands and turns on the speed, would of left his defender in the dust on that one, and into the open field. 34..Moore to hartline on a deep throw, Hart is slow to adjust, ball looked overthrown but it wasn't. 35..Garrard to Fuller, quick out.. 35..Moore on another deep out to Chad..More good timing with those two, Johnson showing good pass catching technique, really using his hands well today.. 36..Roberto with a drop from Devlin 37..Hartline with a slant catch.. 38..Garrard to Clay who sits in a soft zone, catch for 15. Literally there is no more than 5 secs in between plays going from the first team to the 2nd...back and forth, back and forth, its like watcing a tennis match. 39..Garrad rolling right, throws Out of bounds.. 40..Call this a 6 and go in high school..Devlin with a pump fake and hits Marlon Moore for 6, bout a 35 yarder..Very nice trajectory, tight spiral.. a break.. I haven't noticed this tempo change that was talked about between Moore and Garrard..if anything I feel that Moore has had the better day. Body flash time..I know y'all love this time..Jacquies Smith..Great physique, 6'2 252, but what stood out to me was that he was one of the guys staying after, working on 1 on 1 pass rush drills..I mean its not like we got all kinds of depth around here, Maybe he and Kaduu can push trunsik and Spitler..Theres definitley more speed and explosiveness there. Olivier Vernon with the honey badger ram rookie hazing cut and dye..funny...That dude is a big mother..built well, no wonder he's strong as hell.. 41..11 on 11..43 look, Moore drops immediate pressure by Odrick..Martin whiffin on his assignment. 42..Garrard throws deep, incomplete..not close. 43..Moore drops...Cam Wake would of taken his head off, didn't see who he beat. 44..Chad Johnson with a good catch on a quick curl. 45..Jon Martin gets beat, would of given up TfL. 46..Handoff 47..Garrard goes deep to Roberto Wallace for about 40 yards..nice play, pretty easy, no real rush from the defense.. 48..Follows it up with a 35 yarder to chad Johnson on either a back shoulde,r or an underthrow, good adjustment by chad. 49..Egnew from Moore with a quick curl,bobbles but holds on. 7 yards. 50..Garrard with a short crosser to miller...were gonna see him and bush on crossers all years. 51..Garrard with a fumbled snap...Sherman barks.. 52..Garrard to Bj cunningham for 15, good pitch and catch. in terms of just overall impressions for the day.. SS24 Chad Johnson Lamar Miller Cam Wake Davone Bess. I have Matt Moore winning day 1 by a liitle..I saw no descepency of tempo when he was in there, he's noticably bigger, and just seemed like there was more communication from his end to the players...just day 1..Tell you what though, this camp needs Tannehill, I think he could shake things up with his raw talent. Thats not to say other guys weren't doing their thing, just that I noticed either good technique and some focus. Reggie Bush..last player on the field, pacing the goal line, talking to himself, starts doing up and downs, finishes at the sled.. Cam Wake...signed every single autograpgh..last player to leave..Just went up close to see what he was saying to fans..Very humble guy, appreciated the fans being out there in the heat, just an unbelievable specimen, if there is a more impressive physique in the league id like to know who it is..The man is a superstar and the face of the franchise.. Right at the end it was Reggie and Cam as the last two., with the hard knock cameras on..Its obvious they have identified Cam as a main storyline, and what a script it is. Philbin Looks the part, is in great shape, has a presense about him, fans really showed their appreciation of his abilities to move on from a tragedy and take this job..looks like both parties made good impressions on each other in that case...Pretty cool moment.. The practice itself was light guys, its hard to get a read on who's playing well or not playing well, I hope their in pads 2maro, hopefully by monday nite I can identify some players that will come thru for us, and some who won't. Dpate, they were just vanilla today in their shorts..but for the most part it was strait up 43. Padre...when I was next to Wake just checking out his magnificent glutes, rhomboids, and pecs, I said a buddy of mine says, ''release the kracken'' {thats right, I said it was you instead of me} when you get a sack..He looked at me and smiled, didn't say a word...Told him I appreciated his work ethic, he said thanks,'' I appreciate y'all being out here in the heat..'' camera followed him all the way to the clubhouse.. See y'all 2maro..
awesome writeup DJ, you got me all amped up now, lol. I appreciate you taking the time to share all this.
Tempo seems to be the name of the game....fast fast fast, u can tell in the interviews as well they want to impress that as a theme in Camp..... I like it, because that's today s game.....score quick, fast, and be explosive......forget TOP....TOP matters in the 4th qtr, until then score at will, score so much that it puts the other team in a position that THEY have keep up then that is when mistakes happen and turnovers occur in Miami's favor.... I hated the TS ground and pound TOP offense that Miami ran which took forever to score....heres to those days being gone
The pace is pretty much the one significant thing I take from any of this, between OTAs, Mini Camps, and our one day of Training Camp. The other stuff I take with a grain of salt, who is winning what competition, etc...but the pace is the one thing that's persistent and significant to me.
Great work, DJ! I could listen to (read) you talking about players bodies all day! One part concerned me - Did they let Dan Henning back on the sidelines?
Thank you so, so much for the report, we've all been waiting, as this is much more reliable than the beat reporters. One question. It was reported that Chris Clemons hurt himself and was limping pretty bad. Did you see what might have happened and how bad? Thanks again!
Right, and what's the reason for the tempo and the quantity of the reps? IMO Timing......this offense is going to resemble New England's in that respect....again I love it....timing it should be like muscle memory at that point, almost to the point where the QB can drop with his eyes closed and know the guys are going to be in their respective positions at a certain time.... That is ultimately why a guy like Brady, Rodgers, Brees etc..do not stare down receivers and ints are few because they know exactly where they are going to be, so in their heads why stare down a target you want to go to, when you know in the end he will be there and all it takes is a last second turn and pop....simple man simple... offense is simple nowadays.....
There's no one reason for it, IMO. There are many reasons for the pace. There's only one down side to me, and that's the quality of learning goes down if you're going so fast that players can't keep up. If the Dolphins are able to make sure that's not an issue, then there are a number of benefits to this pace...conditioning, non-verbal communication, tape evaluation, two minute, etc.
Nice report DJ Let me ask you this: Why do you say Moore won? By tweets that I saw it seemed Garrard and Devlin were better. What did you see that made you think Moore was better?
my grill was in there, just look for the best looking guy there with a dolphin hat on backwards and some sunglasses, sleeves rolled up, blue shirt..lol
they...were ..beauuuuutiful Luckster.you should of seen em... Thats funny man, I wasnt actually talking about his glutes when I said it first, just him in general, but I see what what happened there, and I like what you did with it..lol
your right, and I see the conscious effort to keep from making mistakes that you make when you are purposely delaying your rhythm just to eat clock..think about that, we purposely delayed rhythm to eat clock..The body wants to move, it craves rhythm, and we monkeywrenched it all the time.
I really agree with that, I don't know if y'all were picking it up, but I'm almost hesitant on writing about players in that type of practice..maybe when the pads come on we can get be more precise with the evals.
lol..I can find 8 other guys to run a reverse for us..I don't get it...Remember that game against Pitt i believe, hart got hit a couple times behind the los, fumbled like he was a silly girl, and the housed it..thats what comes to mind when I see him run back there...Once again though, I dont want anyone to take a negative image from anything, this was not indicative of performance to come..
Who amongst the guys nobody would suspect do you think will turn it on when the pads come on? I think #79 Derrick Shelby the UDFA DE from Utah.
Thanks, it was mentioned early; maybe it was even when they were still in the bubble. Didn't hear a thing later on.
Thanks NJ, thanks to everyone for the kind words.. They did not win NJ..Devlin made two nice throws, and Garrard hit those back to back big plays.. To me, it was about being in charge, and the rhythm I saw develope with some receivers, I would estimate that between Chad and Davone, they must of had 15 catches, I did not see the same timing and rhythm on the deep outs with Garrard, and that part wasnt close..Moores arm is stronger this year..It was close, Garrard is accurate on the short stuff and has better footwork on the shorter routes.. Devlin was better than expected, he also stayed after practice with Moore, and threw reps to davone and Les brown, about 20 mins extra work.
I could definitely sense that, yes. And I think you're right to emphasize it. Today was kind of a continuation of OTAs except even worse because everyone was still rusty after four and a half weeks off.
Nice report DJ, enjoyed reading that. Just curious, was Koa Misi playing the Sam LB spot for the most part? I know you said the defense was pretty vanilla, but I'd be curious to see if he's predominantly playing there, or if he and Kevin Burnett are playing both Sam and Will as some reports indicated. Thanks again!
From what its been sounding like, and from what I gather from DJs report, I think the players are behind Moore as the starting QB. It's not surprising really. He rallied that team to a string of wins last season after he became the starter. That likely won him a lot of respect.
I will watch that dude for you 2maro.. I liked what I saw in one on one pass rush drills after the practice from Jacquies Smith for three reasons, one he was was out there working extra time without coaching supervision, two he displayed a small repertoire of moves, three, his physique is excellent for the position.. I wont say that he'll make the roster based on some drills, but I don't think he'll shrink when the pads come on.
The place emptied out, but Moore, Devlin, Bess and Les came out to throw some trees...so I stayed..I said to myself, man, he doesn't have an imposing physique, but he can run, and hes fluid..Had to go low on a couple of catches but did not flip his hands, caught them by his knees, palms down, and kept his stride..thats all I pretty much seen.
