Dolphins Training Camp 2021 Day 1 Recap

We have a practice in the books. We're gonna break it all down for you here, the drills, the pace of practice, the team periods, the top performers. We're gonna cover all of that, breakdown what coach and the players had to say, and a whole lot more all of that. On this day one of training camp edition of the

Drive Time Podcast. We are for the first time coming to you from Baptist Health Studios here at the Baptist Health Training Facility in Miami Gardens, right across the way from beautiful Hard Rock Stadium, and practice just wrapped and

we have a lot to get to. But before we dig into that, some roster news as Shakeem Griffin signed with Miami since the last time I spoke with you all, and those that have been following along with me since the Locked on Dolphins days know how excited I was about his prospects as a pro back in NFL Draft. And not to toot my own horn here, but I guess too too had very nice thing to say about a handful of linebackers and that class, and they were well.

Jerome Baker and what I saw from him that really put him on the map for me was that wheel route against Sae Kwon Barkley where Barkley created zero separation with both guys on a dead sprint. Also fell in love with Darius Leonard and Fred Warner mostly at the Senior Bowl, for their work in coverage and as linebackers in that week of practice, the change of direction, all the skill sets that really kind of go along with a modern day linebacker, like a Jerome Baker, like a

Fred Warner, like a Darius Leonard. And the fourth was, of course Shakim Griffin. So not bad, Travis not bad at all. Now, Shack has been more special teams than

prominent Snaptaker on defense so far in his career. But I think there's a lot of juice for him as a rusher, especially when you start to incorporate all of the again this word change of direction, this phrase, I should say he's capable of flashing with the change of direction, but also his counter moves are pretty great from what I recall on his college tape back at u CF.

The Dolphins also add defensive bat Cravon LeBlanc. This is a feisty player that also has the special team's reputation really across all special teams units, but he also has the defensive production to go along with it. The thing

that stands out to me is his ball production. With eight team passes defense in fifty two career games played and one thousand, one hundred, give or take coverage snaps that's basically a little less than two seasons of coverage snaps and averaging better than nine per year on p b U S shows you some of those ball skills.

And I remember when coach Flores was first hired. I did a podcast with some of the Patriots beat writers who, in addition to raving about coach for both his leadership and his football acumen, talked about his preference for guys in the defensive secondary that can play the football, and then of course includes long speed and tackling and some of the other stuff coach Flores has talked about with regards to defensive backs, and we've seen that as a

real point of emphasis here in Miami. And then finally, Jibrey Blunt the tight end was waived with an injury settlement and Carson Meyer was brought into the tight ends room to replace Jibbrey Blunt and Meyer spent time with Jacksonville and Atlanta in twenty nineteen. He's got some tight end slash h back flexibility that way. He's a big do that loves to square out blocks and make his presence known that way. And a few more notes here.

Before practice began, we heard on Tuesday from coach Floras that Preston Williams will start the season on the p up, so too will Davonte Parker, another receiver, offensive lineman d J. Fluker, and linebacker e Land and Roberts, while rookie offensive lineman Larnel Coleman starts on the reserve COVID nineteen list. Miami also signed Tyler mars Now. I am not familiar with his game, so we can cover that more in depth

on a later podcast. So that's your roster activity, and we'll have plenty more to get to here, including our training camp segments. My notepad will crown some performers of the day and talk about my favorite matchup I saw out there and here from some players as well. And before we get to the practice notes, let's talk about Xavien Howard for just one moment, and let's do that with me just saying this, I can't really give you anything.

I mean what coach said and has press conference about those talks being internal and that he hopes that they can work towards a resolution and that they love x That's that's the story. I mean. I'm not gonna sit here and speculate any further because that's where the conversation, any value of the conversation ends for me. I'm not interested in this game of telephone or the drama filled back and forth of speculation, whether it's social media for

me or otherwise. We're here to talk about football, and that is that. Coach also appeared on The Joe Rose Show on Wednesday morning talking about how he understands the Dolphins understand Xaviens concerns, but we'll keep conversations internal and the plan is to keep or to continue to keep talking to him and his representation quote we love X

and quote. So that is that. And speaking of football, why don't we start with well the practice notes, play the hits right, and first things first, there wasn't a one on one period at this practice. I'm gonna go ahead and punt on the matchup of the day because there just weren't enough notable reps between any two guys too. I think really pursued that segment today. You know, you've got to have a few reps of one on one,

some few reps and team period. Now, there were some good matchups like well talk about Eric Rowan Mike get Sicky here in just a minute, but it wasn't prevalent enough to say that was the premier matchup of the day or something to that effects. We're gonna go ahead and punt on that. But it was otherwise a normal early on training camp practice. A lot of the early stuff here is that a bit of a tamed down pace as they work through some installs. Lots of running

plays early, plenty of passing plays late. But the one thing that never changes here in South Florida, the pace of practice is very fast moving. Nobody walks between periods.

There's an urgency and you can get the sense that that's built in with the idea of these kind of cooling periods they have in between certain periods where guys take their helmets off, they get some water, and then they go through a slow paced walk through and it gives the guys a chance to kind of rest the physical body while staying sharp mentally and get those mental reps and while you're still kind of working through it.

So it's not like a zoom meeting. It's on field application, but you're not putting yourself through the strenuous, you know, the strenuous results of going through a South Florida rep down here at Pratt this and that's what this practice was all about. As we heard from QB one post practice on polishing up the things they did from O. T A S and getting them streamlined here and polishing

them up for training camp. Everyone's ready to go. I think it's really good that we got to come out and uh, you know, kind of brush up on the things we went over U during the spring, so you know, we look forward to what tomorrow brings. So like he talks about something of a continuation what we saw back at O t A s in May and in June, and it coincides. I think that is the pace of practice with what we heard on Tuesday from Jerome Baker. Let's go ahead and roll that sound. You're ready to work.

I say that about our whole rookie class. They're ready to work. They came in and they really uh they definitely is ready to work. About Jalen me is the guys in shape. He's he's definitely in shape and he's definitely ready to go. So I'm excited. You know, those young guys, they come in hungry, with a lot of energy. It doesn't just help you know, their class and the young guys, but it helps older guys that you know, it pushes us. So I'm definitely sizing, you know, get

it going. It's something like a self sustaining economy there as far as how everyone works to help each other within those football team. So that's really cool to hear. And that's just a great way to establish a culture in the way things are expected to get done. I mean, we saw that from the twenty nineteen team. Brian Flores his first year here in Miami, a team that played hard and competed and bounced back from that slow start to finish out the stretch five and four in the

final nine games. Then you roll that into and you get the double digit wins, and you could just see the excitement on the sidelines with the way guys talked in press conferences all year how much fun they had being a part of that group, and how special they all said it was because of the way everybody want to work and get better. And then you roll into

first day of practice. There's an energy around practice and in fact, let's go ahead and hear from the old guard of the room here the team, the twelve year vet who I could listen to him do media all day long, Jason mccordy, who touched on his experience here with the Dolphins so far. Man, I'm loving it here. I just think it's a great environment, getting to know my teammates better and better each day. Um, it's exciting. Obviously the new building his first class. I mean you

walk in that place is glass everywhere. Uh, stated are all the new gadgets and stuff you want to have, so uh, they've done everything first class. I'm just excited. Uh, to be a part of something bigger than myself, and I want to go ahead and play a second clip here from McCarty talking more about his role in the team, and it kind of goes back to the idea of

the balance of veterans and young players alike. Here's McCarty. Yeah, obviously out here in training camp getting reps at different things, Bill comfort, Bill confidence, But from a knowledge standpoint, I feel very comfortable kind of with just a defense, uh, in total of being able to not only execute my role, but be able to help guys, whether that's out on the field, whether that's in the locker room talking about

giving formation a certain defense. I feel comfortable of having experienced, uh since I've been here, and also have an experience in the past with flowing both Boyer so one other had been here. On the practice, the Dolphins ran two team periods simultaneously on either of the two practice fields.

To and Read Senet were alternating on one far field while Jacobi Brissette was working on the near field, so there was a lot to take in for us in the stands there and two was asked about the communication between he coach E, which is coach Eric Studisville and coach Gods he the co offensive coordinators here in Miami, and he told us they're both in his helmet. He communicates with both. He also talked about the benefit of having the two field practices or the simultaneous reps going

off at the same time. Well, I think there's a lot of benefit. Everyone gets a good amount of reps um, you know, and you you get to see both sides. You know what this side did, what this side did, you can learn from me. So basically just giving the players extra film to look at every single day after practice. He gets both the extra reps on the field as well as in the film room. So that kind of recaps our media and how it incorporated with layers on

the practice field. And you guys can find the Tuesday pressers up on the team YouTube page at Miami Dolphins on YouTube. And I want to recap a couple of those things here really quickly. First, Jesse Davis touched on coach Lemille John Pierre, and I thought it stood out how he said that coaches fiery, but in a respectful way, and that really struck a chord with me and that, you know, for me personally, that's the best way to

coach me. The best way to coach Travis is to give me that passion and the desire to to be great, but treat me like an adult and a human being. So I loved hearing that. We also heard from Christian Wilkins, who talked about his role as a leader here in your number three. He talked about the rookie Jalen Phillips, how he's a great kid. You heard Jerome talk about him earlier, and how Christians going to take him under his wing. Let's go ahead and hear from Christian on

that role. And he's a good kid. Um, just getting to know him a little bits. I really like him. He's a hard worker, really, you know, really really cool to your guy, loves to listen. I'm kind of trying to take a little bit it and just be their farming anywhere can a big rather than to him. But I really like him a lot. Um feel like he's you know, pretty good. He's got to put the work in. You heard him talking there a little bit about the chance to put the work into be a leader for

for Jalan Phillips. The audio cuts out a little bit there, but he talks about taking him under his wing and kind of the leadership aspect of that. And at the end of practice, well, wouldn't you know what, who's the last guy getting sprints on the field afterwards? None other than Big number ninety four. Now, I saw a few guys on the jugs machine, which you probably heard during Ta and McCarty's presser there, and my apologies for not

knowing who each of them were individually. I saw Mike GASICKI I saw Isaiah ford Rock in the short shorts. Can't miss those, and Nate Holly was out there as well, and there were two other guys, but I just didn't see who they were. The pads come off then the practice, so there's no numbers. I'm about fifty yards away, give or take, so I just couldn't quite tell. My apologies there, and let's go ahead and get now into the start of practice. And some notes I wrote down as I

go through practice. I'm always taking notes, but I wrote down, um, just how big Ray Kwon Davis, Emmanuel Ogba, and John Jenkins looked. And Jenkins is a wide body dude. And we saw the strength both on the sled as well as in the install period. On one rep he locked out. And you know that old punch out boxing style game, the two plastic boxers in the ring where you put your hands in the buttons and you push the buttons and they frantically punch until one of the heads pops up.

That's kind of what it looked like when he played this rep. He stood his man up instantly, popped him straight up, which means no push, some penetration the line, stack it up, make a play for a chance for linebackers to make a play behind you. He's just a tough guy to roll out of those a gaps and

I saw that right away on the practice field. So after warm ups and stretching and those installs were done, we get to some seven on seven and the very first throw went to Will Fuller from to a tongue by loa and he splits a pair of defenders as he squares. What Will Fuller does, squares back up to the quarterback and the ball is right on the number three.

I thought that was a good tone center for the day for two, as he was playing on rhythm and on time with the with respect to the anticipation coming back on the stem of that route from Fuller with two of putting the ball there when it needed to be there, and that happened again on a couple more occasions where the ball was out and the receiver comes out of the break and just to see it in the bread basket right away. So the good rapport early

on is an encouraging sign. And there were a couple of plays where the play just it had no result. And on the whole, I thought the offensive line did a good job of keeping the quarterbacks clean and giving them time to throw in drills, and that can be difficult to simulate, you know, a full speed pass rush versus pass pro I did get a few notes on the offensive line late in practice, but we'll cover that more later in the week. But still there were a

few times when the ball just never got out. So good on the coverage of the secondary for scoring some wins to offense get some wins, defense get some wins. You love to see that one. It's the same team competing against each other. Another thing I noted from Tah was his arm strength, and there was plenty of it. Testing the middle of the field. There was some deep over, some curls, some some dig routes and things that require you know, a pretty good rip from your quarterback, and

he was letting that thing fly. I never saw a ball that I looked at and thought that doesn't have the requisite arm strength. That just wasn't the case. So you see the offseason workout and the off season workload kind of contributing to pushing the ball down the field and really showing off the arm strength this season. I thought Jacoby Brissette had a good day too. He launched one to Alan Hearns that I bet he'd like to

have back. But you can always consider those kind of small sample size theater, I suppose because it's such a narrow window to throw the ball deep in this league against these cornerbacks and defensive backs. It's a low percentage throw, just like shooting the ball from deep in basketball, and the lower the farther out you are, the lower percentage. And then you can sider working with a new receiver for the first time really since I guess O t a S, but the first time in a training camp practice.

But other than that, he got it out and on target and was and it was sharp throughout the day. Alan Hearns had an awesome day. He was on the receiving end, of that deep shot, and he came clean on a double move on that deep ball where the defensive back drove on a little stutter step. He throws about ten fifteen yards down the field and then he absolutely sells out parallel to the ground trying to make a play on the football. It looks like Auzi Smith

out there going after a groundball behind second base. Just incredible effort after a great route, which that's all you can do as a receiver. Put yourself in the best position to to make a play for the for the quarterback and for your offense, and the rest is kind of up to, you know, the rest of the guys.

So he also cast some seamshots from Jacobe throughout practice and showed the ability to catch the ball in those tough traffic areas, just like he did back in nineteen before his opt out year in and Robert Foster did the same thing too, and I think he's been among you know, one of the most standout performers going back to o t a s catching the football off his frame,

showing strong hands through contact. He had another really nice practice, I thought on Wednesday, and then Jalen Waddle is just so sudden, so so so sudden, and you see that in the punt return. He and Keen Grant and Lynn Bowden Jr. Were the ones back fielding punts on this Wednesday, and Michael Pollardi would boom those things, and my goodness, he's got himself a leg. He was getting both distance and hang time, all while directional kicking towards the sideline.

So I loved when I saw there. If a team that can play defense like Miami did a year ago, with the ability to flip the field, that's a big boon to have. But on the other end, Waddle would field it and a gunner would close down on him, and just you saw the wiggle and that sudden burst, a sidestep and to get to full gear quickly after he has to change direction or stop. It's just the suddenness in his game is very evident when you watch him.

He's very very quick and very very fast. Speaking of fast, Albert Wilson I think had one of the best days on the field for my money. He caught passes at every level of the field, including the big ball from ta early on in practice or latent practice, I should say, they got the entire place buzzing and a collective. Oh, and he went out when he hauled in what looked like about a fifty or sixty are yard throw. Our our favorite phrase here lately a dot average depth of

target that will help out your a dot. And that thing had some Michael Pollardy type of hang time on it. And that was one of the things I kind of always attributed to tas deep ball success back at Bama.

The same arching type of throw you've seen from like a Russell Wilson for instance in Seattle, where he gets that thing up into the Seattle sky and it gives the receiver time to adjust the ability to then stack the defensive back and then you kind of dictate the window the d the dB has to make a play

on the football. And we saw it at Badmouth to A and I thought we saw it today on the practice field with that throw late in practice, and Wilson made a great play too, because the coverage was tight down there, and in all honesty, I thought it was going to get broken up because the coverage was right there, but it just got swallowed up by number two. And he also caught a swing route from to on a little snap stand up catch, fling that thing out there and I think in full speed he would have taken

that one to the to the end zone. And what was red zone work from about the twelve or thirteen yard line giver take but a big day from Albert Wilson. Mac Hollands had a few grabs as well. And these big bodied guys, you know, they're tough to stop on the quick routes like the speed out the square in the slants, the stuff where you basically put yourself between the quarterback and the defensive back and just use that big body to shield out. He had some big catches

like that. They're just tough to get over the top of these big bodies, and Hollands had a couple of those throughout the course of practice, and so touted Hunter Long off the arm of Jacoby Brissette. Kirk Merritt had a nice catch and run off the arm of reds Senet on a deep over route and then he follows it up with a good yah run after the catch opportunity where he did not want to slow down. He did the exact same thing back in O t S where he caught a slant and went all the way

and finished the thing in the end zone. Followed up what I thought was a good o T a month with a nice practice here today, and how about the running backs. And again this is probably probably the toughest position to gauge what's going on in training camp practices with no pads on. Now, Miles Gascon did talk a little bit about what he could work on when there are no pads and no contact. Go ahead and roll

that audio here from Miles Gaskin. Just just work as much as as much as I can on spacing with routes and all that type of stuff, being able to be able to play in different positions or just be

where I need to be. UM. Definitely the mental aspect of it, when when there ain't too much of banging around, you gotta just hone in to your mental and make sure you get all the mental reps and make sure you'll be able to communicate with the coaches, communicate with other guys where what they see and uh what you

need to see. UM, stuff like that, and just kind of kind of learning defensive to obviously, I mean, you have that time right now for the first five days or whatever it is, uh, with no pads, UM, just kind of learning everything you can just soak it all in, because when you put the paths on, you really banging. So I really wanted to watch that aspect of Miles

game after that great answer at the press conference. And he's just so intentional in his work, habits man like, he plays with a purpose that's just flat out why I believe the coaching staff is so fond of this guy. He also talked about taking on a leadership role with a up now and you're number three, and how he wants to be a conduit for the coaches in terms of how he communicates what they're trying to say in

the message they want to get across. He can be a conduit for the players on the field and that role here's Miles definitely. UM just being here, being with coach of the last three years, being with coach Flow, UM, knowing what they expect, being able to kind of show the younger guys that are the guys that haven't been with them the past year. I guess me and Pat are the only guys that have been here within the

past three years. UM. Just kind of just being able to relay the message is the biggest thing, and being able to relay that message as a player is probably like he's easier to kind of go player to player

than coach the player. Always love hearing Miles speak at the podium, and speaking of running backs, Malcolm Brown I thought had some nice rips and practice on Wednesday, as much as you can gauge these runs, but what I saw was a big, big back with urgency to the gap to the whole, a nice short yardage feature for sure, And then you pair that with some wiggle at the second level and you can start to see how that changes the angles of pursuers and tacklers and you're just

not going to get him to the ground unless you square him up. And you know, I promised to do more running back and trench work for you guys as we roll along here, But I saw some nice things from Malcolm Brown in the process. Among the tight ends, Shaheen was the most Adam Sheheen was the most heavily targeted on the day. He caught one of two US two touchdown passes on the day. One on the nice

rolling throw with Adam coming across the formation. Two he plants right around the two yard liner, so Ta throws it back across his body, finding open space against the defense. And Sheen catches it, turns it up field, gets into

the end zone for the touchdown. There was an interception earlier in the day with that combination and we could see them, you know, on the field kind of talking through it and to a later addressed it as his presser as a misscommunication and he took responsibility for that. But once again day one of training camp. That's where you get these things ironed out. So onto the defensive side of the football. Look, it's the same story I

talked about in O t A from Adam Butler. He's powerful but also has that quick first step that puts offensive lineman into a bind. He had a rep where he came across the face of the center and Butler was in the opposite gap really before the center could even react. I love seeing that quickness with his power and his size. I thought he Rae Kwon Davis, Christian Wilkins,

and Zack Seiler all had good days. You saw them work on exactly what Christian Wilkins talked about and his press conference on Tuesday with the active hands and the placement, getting into the proper place with the feet and the eyes and the hands and working to keep their eyes on the football and you see them do this with the bags and the sled or whatever the drill. As

you're looking at there where they lock out. You peek at one side of the bag, you come across the other side, then you activate your disengaged move to get to the ball carrier. Then at the second level, Jerome Baker had to pick on a play that I'm not really sure what happened on, so I'll just go ahead

and explain what I saw. But earlier I said there were some plays that got shut down because the ball just doesn't come out in time and you're talking to let the defense, you know, tee off on your quarterback when the ball still in his hands and the play is kind of over, so it just goes to a dead play. But that happened on this one, and to throws the ball kind of off to the side of the field, and it looked to me like just a

throwaway to kind of conclude the play. But Jerome Baker flies over there, gets over there and picks it off. And I'm not sure if it actually counted on the actual, you know, practice stat sheet, but the effort and energy you get from Jerome, it never ever sleeps. He talked about in his press conference how you have to bring that energy every day, not just day one, but in two weeks you're gonna see Jerome bring that energy as well.

Andrew Van Ginkl did get one that counted, And boy is it just the same thing I've known to come to know and love about Geek since his Wisconsin tape back in college. He gets depth, he keys the concept, he drives and makes the play and this time it's an interception. And man, he looked good out there, bouncing around, active, making a play on the football. Love watching forty seven work out there. The linebackers kind of fall into the

same category as the backs. You know, sands the coverage reps and without one on ones, you don't get many of those. So that's why you know, I enjoy watching them in these practices. But we'll get you guys more as camp goes along. Promise we're gonna cover the entire roster here. We have more than a month to take care of that. Kylan Johnson forced a fumble on newcomer Carson Meyer during the one on one tackling period. More

on that. Just one second he flew in there and punched it out and that was the only one I saw in the entire drill. So good on you, Kyl and Johnson. Finally in the secondary, man, I have I talked enough about how much I love watching Javon Holland play, talking about those one on one tackling drills, and really it's a rap and get out, you know, don't take guys to the ground. And there was a rap where Javan shoots out of a cannon on the whistle, was

flying downhill just completely in control, but also speedy. It was short, choppy steps to stay in control, so he shortens the distance and gets in great position to square up and make the tackle. I love when you see things on a player's tape from college translate to practice at the pro level, and it's the same thing here with Javon Holland that I saw. I love watching it also at the position Brandon Jones is also a ton

of fun to watch it practice. He plays all out all of the time, and he was playing in the gunner role on special teams, just getting rep after rep and gassing it down the field. And so too was Jamal Perry, by the way. So both those guys, good on them for their conditioning and you know, getting out there and running those sprints out here in the South Florida heat and humidity. But Jones the trigger man, I'll

tell you what. Man. He has this knack for knifing in around the edge and flattening to meet the back right at the mesh point. He times up his his cadence to the ball into the to the snap, and we saw that once again here on Wednesday, more of the same from Brandon Jones in that same position group, Eric Rowe had some really nice coverage reps. Stopped me

if you've heard that before. To what tries this, this throw on a steam route in red zone to Mike get sicky and he puts it where only Mike could get it because twenty one's in the short side hip pocket, the downfilled part of the hip pocket like closest to the offensive line of scrimmage. Now, we've seen Mike make that catch a hundred times before and there's just nothing you can do to defend that perfect throw and catch

in that situation. But this one went incomplete right under the goal post as Mike was not able to pull it in one hand. Is so good play all around, good throw, good catch, attempt and of course very good coverage. Terrell Bonds, number thirty five, had himself a day with a couple of pass breakups. I thought he was aggressive in coverage and playing faster than he did throughout his camp last season with the Miami Dolphins. Cravon LeBlanc showed some of the ball skills we touched on earlier in

this podcast. He had two p b U s and I was really impressed with his ability to carry routes up the field, but then put his foot in the ground and transition and drive, you know, work the hips kind of fluid put the foot in the ground, flip the hips, and drive back downfield to get on the football. He did that a couple of times in this practice as well. And then Noah Ignogamy man, he is carved

out of stone and he moves so fluidly. And speaking of transitioning, this guy is in and out of the brakes, he's driving down the time of the route, and he's playing just physical ball as he possibly can. And I don't recall him ever really getting a target in the team periods, which of course is always a great thing

for a cornerback. And then Nick Needum also had a really nice play on a ball where he comes from depth and closed on the sideline to break up a pass that I think I think it was Robert Foster was the intended receiver, but I'm not certain on that. I think I saw six team, but I can't recall. Also, thirty three Jamal Perry was in the area for coverage as well. So good on both those guys. Just as a group, I really enjoy watching these guys work and

Gerald Alexander coaching them up. They were doing the sleds together to kind of stack and shed a drill that simulates getting off blocks and getting to the ball carrier, and they were so in sync that you could just tell this is a well oiled machine. And finally, here before we hand out our hardware for the day, Jason Sanders, you actually know what Let's go ahead and just put him in the category. Here are your top performers for day one, July practice number one of your one Miami

Dolphins training camp, and it starts with Jason Sanders. I lost count, but it was either six or seven field goals, made no misses, and you know he's hit in the back of the net from fifty yards and the back of that nets about ten yards behind the uprights, so just booming the ball through clock work with him, he's an absolute weapon. Albert Wilson catches all over the field. The suddenness to stop on a dime and change direction, and you can manufacture touches for Wilson because he's so

deadly with the football in his hands. Showed some of that on Wednesday. Andrew van Ginkl. The coverage prowess was on display, and you pair that with what he showed as a rusher last season. That combination of skills that's got me pretty excited. Craven le Blanc, he plays on the football and the loose hips I thought were most evident. Frankly, I thought he was moving as well as anybody down there. Javon halland the one on one tackling drill showed what

he can do. But his ability to play from depth to come down and match up I thought he was sharp in those areas. I thought his back pedal looked fantastic and he was involved in so much just a testament to his conditioning here for day one as a young rookie out there on the practice field. Alan Hearns contest and catches an absolute filthy move double move that got him a lot of separation behind the defense. The effort to lay it out. I thought was a big

day for number eight. Mike Pilardi said it already distance, hang time, directional kicking. He was either hitting them in the sixty yard range or kicking it in the forty to fifty yard range with real no possibility of return. To a big day for the Dolphins. Punter Brandon Jones. Conditioning instincts trigger all on display. I'm pumped about this

safety group. A great blend of youth and experience. Jamal Perry again, it takes a selfless player to line up and run down the field on punt team over and over and over again. He also made some nice plays on defense. And we wrap it up with our top performer here to a tongue of viola. I thought there was a great command, lots of reps, and it helps to have the quarterback not just take charge in that regard, but also the quick game he's able to work through.

I mean, I feel like I saw more reps in this practice today than I ever have in any practice. I also loved his tempo and the initial seven on seven drills, the accuracy from different throwing platforms, and of course the big deep ball which always gets the people out of their seats. Not fans this time, but of course players on the field excited about that deep completion, and that is a rap. Day one is in the books. Let's get out of here. We're gonna do this every day,

so keep it locked here on the Drivetime podcast. Get yourself a soda and a snack, and buckle up as we take you home or to work or whatever driving analogy you want to plug in here on the podcast. The written recaps will not be daily, but we are going to get a couple of those out for you guys as we get more information, more detail. If you want to check out the press conferences, go to the team YouTube page and all the media VL's are up and available for you there. In the meantime, that's gonna

be my time, you all. Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple, podcast, Spotify, tuned, in Google Play, wherever you here your podcast from. Go ahead and leave us a rating, leave us a review. You can follow me on Twitter at linkot NFL. You can follow the team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the fish Tank podcast for set and o J, and of course Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time. Defense Up