Miami Gardens, FL.- It’s been a great week to be a Miami Dolphins fan!
Friday evening (July 26), the ‘Fins agreed to a massive contract extension with QB1 himself, Tua Tagovailoa. Tua’s deal came in at a franchise record 4 year, $212.4M, averaging $53.1M annually. “Uce” officially put pen to paper this morning, moments before practice began.
At the beginning of practice, the team rushed the field, as the fans cheers echoed throughout the Baptist Health Training Facility. As the cheers roared, they eventually dimmed as Tua grabbed the mic.
Finally a hush fell over the crowd, until Tagovailoa eagerly said “Show me the moneyyyyyyy”, which led to the facility exploding in applause.
With that being said, Training Camp was officially underway down in Miami. Before we get started, I’d like to list notable inactive players from today’s training session: WR Tyreek Hill, EDGE Bradley Chubb, EDGE Jaelen Phillips, WR Odell Beckham Jr., LB Cam Goode, OL Terron Armstead (Limited participation). In other injury news, veteran LB David Long Jr. was activated from the PUP list ahead of today’s session.
Despite the team not wearing pads and playing two-hand touch, there was a lot of positives in my book. I was especially impressed with the performances of Miami’s rookie class. The Dolphins’ earliest picks, EDGE Chop Robinson and OL Patrick Paul dueled it out in the trenches all morning. Both Paul and Robinson performed incredible today, so I can’t state a winner, but this friendly competition will only make both young stars better.
Most of the time, two-hand touch directly limits the effectiveness of the run game, but not today. Miami’s star running backs, Raheem Mostert, De’Von Achane and rookie Jaylen Wright all had nice runs today, but veteran Jeff Wilson easily stole the show today. Wilson broke off numerous big runs during team drill. Following a weight cut during this off-season, Wilson appears shiftier and more elusive. After working on himself all off-season, Wilson’s attention to details appears to be paying dividends already.
The Tua to Jaylen Waddle connection is as strong as ever. Miami’s dynamic duo has already connected for multiple big plays, including a goal line fade TD. Tagovailoa also connected with veteran receiver Braxton Berrios for another red zone score.
The Mike McDaniel motion special has returned to the Miami offense, as I saw numerous receivers, primarily in the slot (Malik Washington and Je’Quan Burton) participate in the festivities. Miami ran the highest percentage of pre-snap motion’s in the league last season, getting a man running 82.8% of plays.
The Dolphins closed out today’s session with the beloved autograph signing. I’m mentioning this because I want to highlight the actions of LS Blake Ferguson and DB Jordan Poyer, who signed autographs for almost everyone in attendance, stopping only because a team official dragged them away.