This is just the start, but hey, it’s the start of the 2019 Miami Dolphins season today. Once the pads come on, this is where it finally gets real. Long gone are 3-a-days and in 2011 the collective bargaining eliminated two-a-days as well, so the brutally hard practices of yesteryear are all gone. Still, this is the closest thing to action we got, so enjoy it!
The rookies have been here since Sunday, but tomorrow the entire team, both veterans and rookies will be together as one team. I think quite a few of the rookie class will make the team, which is already a pretty young roster. We lost DT Kendrick Norton in a terrible automobile accident which took his arm and his football career, but Kendrick seems to be doing well and is out of the hospital. The Miami Dolphins have decided to pay Kendrick Norton his entire salary, a nice gesture.
There are some big camp battles, including of course the QB battle between long time vet Ryan Fitzpatrick and newly acquired 2nd year QB Josh Rosen. To me that’s the headliner. Most fans think Fitz will start the season but I believe there is a fair chance if Rosen plays well enough he may earn the job. What happens at DE is big too, because it looks like a very deficient unit at the moment, unless some guys step up and do a LOT more than they have yet in their careers. The number of sacks from the current guys is truly woeful, Tank Carradine in 5 seasons has (5.5) sacks, Nate Orchard in 4 seasons has (5) sacks, Charles Harris in 2 seasons has (3) sacks and Jonathan Woodard in 1 season has (1) sack. That’s 13 sacks combined for 4 players. Obviously in our new hybrid defense we will be rushing the passer with LB’s as well as safeties and corners, and we will need guys like Jerome Baker, Kiko Alonso, Reshad Jones, Minkah Fitzpatrick, Bobby McCain and others to be effective occasionally when they blitz. In addition, I think we can get pressure on the inside with DE/DT’s Vincent Taylor, Davon Godchaux and Christian Wilkins. If not, it’s going to be a long hard season for this defense and we will struggle to get off the field.
We have a lot of DB’s on the roster but it’s imperative that we find an effective player on the opposite side of Xavien Howard. It may be former Patriot Eric Rowe, or maybe one of our own guys step up like Jalen Davis, Cornell Armstrong, Torry McTyer or hopefully Cordrea Tankersley who is currently on the PUP list. CB Jomal Wiltz showed some flash w/o pads, we’ll see how he fares with the pads on. At safety we’re in really good shape with Reshad Jones, Minkah Fitzpatrick, T.J. McDonald, Bobby McCain (who will share slot duties as well with Minkah), and Maurice Smith and ST’s ace Walt Aikens.
On offense, it’s going to be very interesting to see what our identity is on that side of the ball. I think a lot of that will depend on who the QB is. Ryan Fitzpatrick throughout his career has been a gunslinger for better or worse. He plays a wide open type of game and always looks to push the ball downfield, sometimes recklessly so. He’s a gambler. With our offensive line a huge question mark, nothing helps a beleaguered OL better than a consistent run game. It gives them more confidence and wears down the opposing defense. Will Fitz be a game manager? It’s possible, but I’d sooner see a power run game with a play action pass game although I can’t see Fitz reining himself in. Rosen would be the better candidate to operate that type of offense, and any QB would benefit from a strong run game.
Our WR’s corps really is another huge question mark. On paper it looks better than it really is because you never know what you’ll get from Devante Parker, and Albert Wilson is coming back from a season ending hip injury that robbed him of such a promising season. Wilson was nothing short of electric while he was healthy scoring 4 TD’s on only 26 receptions, that’s a TD every 7 catches. Kenny Stills is really the only given, you know he will make some big plays although he’s never been a volume receiver having more than 60 receptions only once, his 2nd year with the Saints and Drew Brees. Regardless, he averages routinely near 15 YPC and he scores TD’s. What about the rest of the WR corps? Jakeem Grant is exciting but so far has been used in small doses. I’m not sure he’ll ever be like a Tyreek Hill although I sure wouldn’t mind if they tried. Brice Butler brings another big bodied receiver and he showed some abilities last year but only had 6 receptions for us. In his 6 years in the NFL, he’s never had more than 20 receptions. We have a few other big receivers in house, Preston Williams, newly acquired WR Saeed Blacknall and Reece Horn. All of them are 6’2 or bigger.
Last season our LB unit really picked up, a lot of that due to the return of Raekwon McMillan’s run stopping prowess and the coverage and tackling ability of rookie OLB Jerome Baker. Baker had an excellent rookie season showing excellent pass coverage skills, and for all intents and purposes, McMillan had an excellent rookie season too (1st year I/R). Kiko thrived last year not being forced to cover quite as much and turned an underrated solid season. Kiko finished with 125 total tackles (79 solo), 3 INT’s3 FF’s, 1 FR and 6 passes defensed. This a strength on our defense, and if we can generate any pass rush at all, this defense will surprise a lot of teams.
The O-line, a perennial worry, once again is exactly that. Starting LT Laremy Tunsil is one of the leagues best, but after that if could potentially fall off a cliff. Will it be Wisconsin rookie Michael Deiter at LG or swing man Chris Reed from JAX? Can Dan Kilgore hold down the C spot and be effective? It seems like Jesse Davis is going to play one of the spots on the right side but it’s yet to be determined whether it’s RG or RT. We acquired RT Jordan Mills from Buffalo, a starter of every game for the last 3 years. He was underwhelming with shorts and t-shirts, but I have a feeling once the pads come on, he’ll look a lot better. While Mills isn’t an elite pass blocker, he’s got experience and shouldn’t be a turnstile. If he does falter, Jesse Davis just might play RT and maybe of Deiter looks adequate, Chris Reed could slide over to RG with Davis playing RT. In any case, a lot has to happen to give me any kind of confidence in this unit going forward.
At RB, Kenyan Drake is primed to have a big season. Whether he’s the big volume guy as far as carries isn’t important, he should be getting more touches. He’s a HR hitter and we simply need to score more points. Scoring less than 20 PPG won’t cut it, and Drake can help with more touches. What will be fun to watch is who, if anyone, is the volume back. Kalen Ballage is back for his 2nd season and he showed some promise last season. We drafted extremely high volume back Myles Gaskin from Washington. Gaskin had nearly 1000 carries there and over 5300 yards. Lots of miles for Myles, but he potentially could get the lion’s shares of the carries. We have a couple of bowling balls on the roster as well in Kenneth Farrow and Mark Walton (who may face disciplinary action from the NFL for an off the field incident). We’ll see if either guy makes the roster.
ST’s was a solid unit all around, from place kicking with Jason Sanders and punting with Matt Haack, (Rock’s beloved) LS John Denney, and the return team of Kenyan Drake, Jakeem Grant and Kalen Ballage. All were better than average last year and hopefully that will either continue or improve.
After taking a look at the entire team, there’s a few good things that stand out, and a few problems that are hopefully fixed. DE and the O-line are the potential weaknesses, while LB, S and DT a strength. RB and WR are wld cards, because you just don’t know what you can get from this group. If Devante Parker ever plays like we thought he could when we drafted him and catches 60-80 balls with a 12+ YPC average and 8-10 TD’s, along with Stills getting his usual 6-10 TD’s, and we have a consistent run game with the trio of Drake, Ballage and Gaskin, we can be a very competitive team. As usual, lot’s of ifs. No pass rush and no DB stepping up to average or better than average opposite X and we will be in trouble. O-line incapable of either generating a consistent run game or protecting the QB and again, trouble. Here’s hoping for the best!
GO DOLPHINS!!!
#staythecourse
Finsmob Unleashed 
OL talks about Guglielmo:
https://www.miamidolphins.com/news/offensive-line-s-goal-doesn-t-change-with-new-coach
Why this coach is different? A few observations I share and some I had no clue but could have guessed:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/dolphinswire.usatoday.com/2019/07/30/why-new-dolphins-coach-brian-flores-is-the-antithesis-of-adam-gase/amp/
Good read. Thanks, Krishna.
One’s recap version of day 5:
https://www.phinsnews.com/miami-dolphins-news-phins-camp-day-5-darkest-before-dawn/
A thorough recap of day 5 by Winfield:
https://www.lockedondolphins.com/dolphins/miami-dolphins-2019-training-camp-journal-day-5-july-30/
Rosen doesn’t seem to be a leader.
we go through ths every season, 90 players cut down to 53
i see folks, what if we keep 6 rb, 7 or more WR, 10 OL, 4 QB, 4 TE, and so on
if we did that, we would have to start sending defensive players down the road, lol
the coaches will figure it out, 53 is the goal, and unfortunately some of the last cuts are always, o man, that guy? yup , that guy
I’M GENERALLY NOT IN FAVOR of political issues on sports oriented websites. But today’s front page article in the Tampa Bay Times titled “Theories Misread Melting Glaciers,” caught my eye. –Bottom line? The ice loss into the oceans is happening faster than researchers previously believed.
This article will also be in the Sun-Sentinel, Miami Herald and the Palm Beach Post at some point in the near future (perhaps today). Those on this board who own homes close to the Atlantic or the Gulf of Mexico NEED TO READ THIS ARTICLE.
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A cartoon I saw features a 90 year old Trump seated in his office at Mar-A-Largo with water up to his hips and a fish staring at him. Trump says to the fish, “Looks like some of us might have been wrong about climate change!”
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HAVE A GREAT DAY!
now he is blaming obama for the air conditioning, lol
obama doesnt do a/c and he isnt one of my former subcontractors, lmao
this was only 1 of 78 lies he has told in the last week, he has zero credibility left
From some of these AC posts you shouldn’t be talking about lying.
i never lied about the ac, if you are so ignorant and think a 7 year old install means a lifetime of free labor by anyone posting on a football blog, maybe You shouldnt be commenting
did You see the invoice? do You think a bad job got ignored for all these years, no complaints, then all of a sudden lets whine about it on a football blog many years later? there was never a service contract, only an install which is typically a one year guarantee. you think You khow how business works? lmao from Your post, i cant see You do NOT understand
, if i owe anything, i would pay, but my bill collectors, which i have many, never post anything due on the football blog, they call or send letters like real business works.
i was only joking earlier , yet You seem to have alot of bitterness going on over there
i cant do anything about that , and thats the truth
mando says the dolphins are so stupid they cant spell cat if they were spotted the CA
mando that dog wont hunt, one cliche deserves another
sorry you are all but hurt about it Matthew. Rosen sucks.
Thanks Wyoming for the great updates.
Wilson isnt going anywhere. You don’t get scrap your BMW and replace it with a VW, because it has a flat. We got rid of too many good players during the Gase years, for reasons almost as stupid as this one, we can’t afford to void the roster of more.
Sounds like we’re deep as hell at LB. I keep hearing good things about the young guys.
Wow, I don’t remember hearing that story about the warmup disorganization before a game under Gase.
It’s pretty bad when your team can’t even get organized for warmups. So glad that tool is gone.
too bad it’s just during 1v1
Ford and Horn? neither will make the team, when does Rosen get to work with Stills, Parker, Grant, the first string?
Parker is likely our top receiver right now
he seems to be working hard to improve his game
i wasnt excited about Parker the first couple of years, but im hoping this is the season he makes us all happy he is here!
are they still wearing red jersies today?
RIP
He was one of the good ones…. on the field and off.
RIP – Nick Buoniconti
btw
David
this is the use of the term “end-around”
It is when a split end runs back into his own backfield and takes a handoff and runs around the end of the line opposite to where he started.
End-around does not refer to a speed-rush move by a DE.
minor detail, though; we knew what you meant about Cam Wake.
i gotcha, thankfully everyone remembers the mighty Cam Wake!
Thing about the Rosen reports is that he has been working almost exclusively with the 2nd team OL, 2nd team WRs, and 2nd team TEs.
At least that is the way I am reading it, judging by who is catching the ball and who is getting beat for “would-have-been” sacks.
thats correct, also the QB’s were wearing red jersies
i do find it disappointing Rosen hasnt displayed a better work ethic though
its still early, but i feel he should be developing good habits from day one
his attitude needs adjusting
I always said Rosen has a great arm and is smart as hell but my knock on him and the reason I didn’t want to draft him was he sucks under pressure. He never got past it as a 3 year starter in college and possibly never will. I do think it was worth the shot to try and fix that though. Keep working with him.
RIP Mr. Buoniconti
RIP Nick Buoniconti
Kong, what’s the deal with that warmup fiasco?
Rosen had 3 OCs in college and 2 in one yr in the desert.
PLUS Kinsbury’s weird shit this past spring.
Now he has an OC who has never been one and a HC who has never been one.
They are still devising their nomenclature and formations themselves.
Give Rosen time to learn yet another playbook. The NE offense is both complex and QB – centric.
I look at his pure arm talent during these practices, and he still seems to throw beautiful balls that hit the receivers right in stride and / or where the D can’t touch them. (Mostly.) (All QBs throw INTs sometimes, especially in July.) He has a really nice deep ball. I thought in the past the semi-short stuff was his weak part, and that seems to still be the case (See Day 4 struggles.)
I think the “replacement timeline” is coming into focus a little bit better now. Rosen will replace Fitz when he has command of the offense. Meanwhile, Flores maintains integrity with the locker room by not handing the job to him while Fitz looks better.
So I do think him saying Fitz is ahead right now is for the locker room and for the beat reporters to spread out to the opposing coaches and to remind Rosen to work his ass off.
Also, the defenses are always ahead of the offenses in TC and even in the first part of the season.
Right now, DBs are trying to make plays to get noticed, and there’s no scoreboard with a 1 in the Loss column if they miss a pick, so they are gambling more than they might in a real game.
So our OL was struggling. So what does the HC do? Cans the OL coach and brings in a known OL guru. I predicted that when they hired Coach D after Indy stupidly fired him. Flores had to assembe a staff fast, so he got the best he could, but Flaherty was always the weak link in my mind in terms of pedigree.
The only bad year Coach D had was when Brady got hammered in the SB loss to Philly, for which Bellichek fired him. However, Flores was on that staff, so he knows the truth of how that went down, and he pounced on Coach D as soon as he became available to become a “consultant,” meaning a fall-back if Flaherty was sub-par.
That might be a good indicator of the minute degree to which Flores is a planner, as they say he is.
He also built in redundancy at OC with Caldwell. Not his fault the man fell ill.
Very valid points Naples. We should be more patient rather than tearing him up at this point
RIP Nick Buonoconti
Tim,
It was from the article Krishna posted about some differences between Gase and Flores in discipline and structure.
From the article:
“Paul Allen, the Minnesota Vikings’ renowned play-by-play call, was so baffled by the Dolphins’ warm-ups that he made a point to bring it up during his Monday morning radio show the next day. Allen referred to it as the most bizarre excuse of a warm-up he’d ever seen in his 18-plus years of covering professional football. Lackadaisical and structureless. Fifteen minutes after they were allowed to begin their warm-ups, Dolphins players and coaches trickled out of the locker rooms at a seemingly random rate, did some light stretching and ball-tossing before calling themselves ready.”
That was a game we allowed nine sacks, 418 yards, and lost 41-17.
And how often did we say it seemed our team wasn’t ready to play in the 1st half?
Wow! I guess the rumors that Gase lost the team are true. That Vikings game was the beginning of a 3 game losing streak to end the season being outscored 100-41. Sigh…
Yeah, that story kind of blew me away. Warming up and getting into game mode is such a simple and fundamental thing. I think it illustrates there was a lot of disorganization on his staff. In retrospect, I guess we had a lot of hints, and Gase was clearly overmatched for the position. Hopefully he hasn’t learned and corrected too much now that he with the Jest, lol.
Cav I think (hope) that that tunnel vision is innate to Gase and can’t be fixed.
Ppl say he works late and stuff, but maybe he is one of those ppl who can only focus on one thing.
We can hope. He wasn’t able to adjust his game planning, so no reason to think he can adjust as a HC, lol.
My strike one for Gase was his nishandling of Ajayi.
the second strike was losing to Detroit at home for no good reason. (Fest game)
(things like having minkah on the bench in crucial moments and us looking like the HC was a no show and left game management to the groundskeepers.)
and the third strike was him doing nothing when Burke said he was watching the World Series instead of preparing for our game on Sunday.
Did Burke say that?
yep
RIP, Nick.
One classy guy for sure.
And, if I recall correctly, he was instrumental in the research and study of spinal cord injuries, specifically in how to prepare the body on the first 24-48 hours to minimize further damage and aid in recovery.
His son was paralyzed from the neck down playing football.
LOL @ Kong, yes let’s hope Gase continues with his ways.
Why is it that our OL has taken so many non-football hits in the last few years?
bully-gate, a coke sniffer OL coach, and now this guy who can’t teach the blocking assignments
“Durval Queiroz Neto has been getting 1 on 1 attention pretty much all practice. He’s officially attempting to make the transition from DT to guard.”
Seems they wouldn’t be putting the time in unless they saw something. Maybe ends up on the PS.
Steve, dont talk to me anymore all pissy and whiny
, im always in a good mood, and you are always ranting, attacking and arguing like an angry fool
i will not join your party of what u got going on over there
if You dont like my jokes, dont laugh, capiche?l
im in a great mood, give it a try someday
Fuck off David, if you cant take the heat, quit writing posts like that.
try anger management, You need it
You have more problems than anyone on here. Your retarded rant with Orob, was not only unjustified (why you brought it up), but no one believes what you wrote, because it made no sense.
Let alone trying to blackmail him.
You have this two-sidedness about you that think you can go off on people, then act like nothing happened, followed by the canned anger management line, like an old lady rant ended by bless her heart.
RIP #85 HOF Nick Buonoconti
RIP Nick Buonoconti. It was a matter of time before that team started losing guys. Sad day and sad to know more will be coming. You start to feel your age when your hero’s start dying.
“I think you really gotta be careful about bothsiding yourself to nihilism”
I love this line. We all need news and we all need media in spite of the current backlash against it. Media is a cornerstone of democracy. I have my own opinions about bias, but D said it best when he said (paraphrase): The only thing you can be sure is true is that there is bias.
Bias is human and natural. A successful democracy requires an educated electorate, so sorting through the bias is something we intelligent people must do because you aren’t going to educate yourself in an echo-chamber.
So whether you agree with me in politics (I bet you everyone on this board agrees with me on something political btw, and everyone on the board disagrees with me on something political) or not, I implore you, avoid the nihilism/echo chamber. Seek information from multiple sources and sort through the bias.
Kudos to Stanger and D (not exclusively praising them, just noted that they both ascribe to the advice in the last line of the above paragraph) for practicing this discernment. Don’t let anyone else thing for you, be critical and make up your own mind after sorting through the bias.
Paragraph below is editorializing (revealing some of my own opinions and therefore bias) and I feel like I need to point that out before saying it:
I feel Trump’s war on the media is very unhealthy and leads to echo-chamber situations where his base will ONLY believe what he tells them, even if he contradicts himself the next day. I wish he would focus on his economic policies’ successes and uniting instead of dividing, because there’s meat on the bones with the economic stuff, there’s only bad stuff that goes along with other-izing.
BTW, sorry if I revitalized a conversation that some would like to go away, I just believe actual discussion between intelligent adults helps defeat echo-chamber nihilism*
*trade-mark pending. Piggy is doing the filing for me.
good post Jahn
authoritarian dehumanizing is divisive, encourages violence, and could lead to even worse
Rosen still hasnt had his shot with the ones yet
im beginning to think Flores might want to see a better attitude and work ethic before he gets his shot with the starters, what else could it be?
RIP Nick Buoniconti
A regular at the brewery played golf with him every year up to 2 years ago. He said he could tell Nick’s health was getting pretty rough so he got his golf hat signed by Nick and gave it to me. I feel very fortunate to have his autograph from just a couple year ago.
he was a great linebacker, and a great all around guy
At least some of the articles say he was struggling with dementia, but given what he did hard not to think about CTE as well.
he was almost 80, at least he got to live a long life,
hes in Gods hall of fame now
Mike E. says:
July 31, 2019 at 12:48 pm
Very valid points Naples. We should be more patient rather than tearing him up at this point
If it makes ya’ll feel better for now go ahead. But the all seeing eye sees all. 😉
The same eye you can still mouth over that giant gut?
Rock, did the seeing all eye notice Rosen working with the starters yet?
i personally believe its to early to write off a guy after several practices with the camp bodies
I do not have the all seeing eye. that was Omar. I was being sarcastic. (even though I am a doubter of Rosen, I HOPE he works out)
Son, Even after gaining the 40lbs, post quitting smoking, I am still slimmer than you good buddy! LOL
lol sorry, didnt know Omar was the guy with the eye, i really dont read his articles because i feel like i already read his stuff years ago, it doesnt really change much, lol
stangerx says:
July 31, 2019 at 1:52 pm
“Durval Queiroz Neto has been getting 1 on 1 attention pretty much all practice. He’s officially attempting to make the transition from DT to guard.”
Seems they wouldn’t be putting the time in unless they saw something. Maybe ends up on the PS.
Reply
Perhaps Stanger, but as I understand it Neto does not count against our roster number cap (90 man roster) and he was assigned to us by the NFL so we have to keep him.
“The seven players — Queiroz, David Bada (Germany), Moubarak Djeri (Germany), Valentine Holmes (Australia), Jakob Johnson (Germany), Maximo Sanchez (Mexico) and Christian Wade (United Kingdom) — began training in the United States in January.
Each of the four AFC East clubs will carry an additional international player on their practice squads in 2019 as part of an expansion of the International Player Pathway program. After training camp, the players are eligible for an international player practice squad exemption, granting them an 11th practice squad member that is ineligible to be activated during the 2019 season.”
I had no idea this was going on. Pretty cool stuff.
steveccnv says:
July 31, 2019 at 3:21 pm
You have more problems than anyone on here. Your retarded rant with Orob, was not only unjustified (why you brought it up), but no one believes what you wrote, because it made no sense
Plus he responded to OD instead of ORob above. COuld be because their avi’s are so similar, but still it was OD he responded to and not ORob.
😁
i never confuse OD and Orob, and i can still post with OD, he hasnt told me to fuck off, lol
i dont argue with Orob anymore, and he doesnt argue with me, best to leave it like that IMO
its obvious steve has no idea what happened, its NONE, of his business anyway
Wyo, thanks for bringing the updates and stuff from camp! I killed my twitter account, so this is really the only place I’m looking for Dolphins news.
Kong,
http://www.phins.com/phins-news.php
does a good job of collecting all the dolphins stories from all over the web and posting links on their page. They also have a dolphin centric twitter feed on the right hand column that collects everyone’s twitter posts in one spot.
Mike, Melo back to the Knicks?
David, I posted an article this morning that discussed the differences between the two QBs.
Rosen might have some skills, but really isn’t displaying leadership qualities as a QB. Fitz is always 20-30 minutes early before the team working on something and pulls WRs after practice for more practice. Rosen is typically last one to practice and first to leave.
The locker room knows, coaches know, and Rosen hopefully will figure it out. Or not.
Just might be a good reason he’s still working with the 2s. Talent alone makes him deserving? Maybe not to this regime.
I bet it will be revealed that Nick Buonoconti died of something related to CTE. I read reports that said that was one of the things that he had been suffering with as of late, memory loss, etc and h was donating his brain for CTE research. It makes sense, since normally a man of his age that dies like that would have had an extended illness if the source was cancer or some other unnatural natural death. He also didn’t seem to be old enough or infirm enough to simply die of old age, despite being 78.
David, according to the twitter feeds from camp, Fitz has STARTED with the ones each practice but Rosen does get some runs with the ones also.
thanks, i always hear about FItz and Parker hooking up
and Rosen hooking up with Ford or some other camp body
Rockphin… I saw an article about him and his heavy hands and excellent use of them due to his martial arts training. Obviously, needs to develop them for football and is project. Good stuff.
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