Finsmob Unleashed

The big news for the Dolphins preceding the joint practice with the NY Giants was the Miami Dolphins removing WR Chris Bell from the NFI (Non Football Injury) List. That’s great news for Dolphins fans. This doesn’t mean he’s playing Week, but he might. Once a player is healthy, and he’s logged in some contact, and he can handle that contact without any issues, that’s it, he’s ready to go. I can guarantee you the Dolphins are not going to be careless with Chris Bell. He will get playing time here and there and ramp it up to the point where he can be a real contributor by October, providing he’s feeling good.

The other big news is the feisty joint practice between the NY Giants and the Miami Dolphins. Seems like Malik Willis got sacked on every drop back except for one where he got the ball out quickly to RB De’Von Achane who was set free by a big block from TE Will Kacmarek. Achane was off the to the races, and once that happens, Achane doesn’t lose many races. Is it concerning that the O-line took a beating against a very talented Giants front 7? Yes, and no. Let’s see how they look during the game. Yes, it’s a preseason game, but bet your ass the Dolphins will want to look better at home, in front of the fans at Hard Rock. I thought the first series with the starters last week against Washington (who held out 20 or so starters in total) looked great against the Commanders 2nd teamers. I felt like the team look disciplined and organized. We’ll see how they look in Game 2.

Once again, accountability is a strong point with HC Jeff Hafley. You step outside the lines, you get pulled. There are ramifications for your actions. The sooner you learn that, the better off you will be or you will routinely be grabbing pine. There are the advantages of not being in immediate contention. You can penalize your best players if necessary to make a point and set the tone. It’s obviously a refreshing change from the lounge-like atmosphere we had with Mike McDaniel as Head Coach. This is a very young team, and these young players are going to learn to do things the right way. That’s how you build a strong core. Of course you need talent to do that, and despite being cap-strapped by former GM Chris Grier, we re-signed the right veteran players with talent such as RB De’Von Achane, OC Aaron Brewer, and LB Jordyn Brooks.

I would love to see some improvement from the 2nd, 3rd and 4th team players in preseason game 2 at home against the NY Giants. There was quite the dropoff last week at Washington once the starters came out. I’d like it to be a less noticeable that the starters are resting and that some of the 2nd and 3rd teamer’s show up a little better. I’d love to see in an improvement in the pass rush as well, whether it’s Chop Robinson, Joshua Uche, David Ojabo, Robert Beal or Clelin Ferrell. Chop has been getting a lot of hype, but wouldn’t it be great to see him actually sack the QB rather than be in the vicinity, much like his former teammate Jaelan Phillips?

I think this team is going in the right direction, and that’s a great feeling to me. How many wins that translates into is difficult to say, but to think that we shed two veteran Top 30 WR’s, and may have actually drafted their replacements in the very next draft without using a 1st or 2nd RD pick is pretty impressive. Also, don’t count out slot WR Kevin Coleman, who will have a tough time stealing opportunities from WR Malik Washington, but I think he will get some chances, and if he makes the most of them, will see even more opportunities. The 2nd year D-linemen who came from Chris Grier’s final draft are going to get plenty of playing time. DL Kenneth has to be better as a 1st RD pick, but while he’s not playing up to his draft position, 5th RD pick DL Jordan Phillips and 7th RD pick DL Zeek Biggers have exceeded their draft position by a good margin.

We’re not going to see a lot of strategy, in fact, it’s vanilla all the way through the preseason, but once the season starts, we’ll get a much better idea of how Jeff Hafley will implement his chess pieces, all the tweeners like S Kyle Louis, DE/LB Trey Moore, Outside CB and Slot CB Chris Johnson, LB Jacob Rodrigues, S Michael Taaffe. When the cutdowns occur, guys to keep an eye on are LB’s Willie Gay Jr., ILB Tyrel Dodson, and LB Cameron Goode who has special teams prowess, but no much beyond that. I’d like to see TE Seydou Treore show some receiving skills, and I will try to keep a close eye on backup RT acquired in the trade with New England Patriots a week or so ago, RT Caedan Wallace, who has looked good early on. So very important, considering RT Austin Jackson’s track record of missing lots of playing time. Being a Dolphins fan and living in NJ, the Giants are the only other team in the NFL I can root for, but not tomorrow!

GO DOLPHINS!!!