Offense looking Fluid
On Saturday the Dolphins finally put on the pads and did some hitting, and as we have said in the past now is when contenders separate themselves from the pretenders. One thing that has been very noticeable is that the Dolphins offense has been ahead of the defense, and that is something that has been extremely rare in past years. Most would also say that this is by far the best that the Dolphins offense has looked at this point in training camp since Philbin has taken over as the head coach.
Tannehill continue to looks sharp, and even though he has a lot of new personnel on offense it appears that everyone is on the same page, and it has not proved to be difficult for him and his pass catchers to get into a rhythm. Jarvis Landry looks even better than last year, and he is determined to be one of the best slot receivers in the league. He is going to be Tannehill’s safety valve this year, and there is a very good chance that Landry could make the Pro Bowl.
Cameron and Sims have been splitting reps at the tight end position, and I strongly believe that Lazor is going to be using more 2 tight end sets this season. Philbin, who rarely singles out players, was completely gushing over how well Sims has been playing and moving so far this off-season, which bodes well for Sims possibly having a breakout season this year. If Sims can make another big step up in performance this season, and if Cameron can return to his earlier Pro Bowl form, they could be the resurrection of Gronkowski and Hernandez, which would be a dynamically dangerous combination.
On defense the Dolphins are giving Kelvin Sheppard every chance possible to be the middle linebacker and so far he has been up to the task. As a result this move has put Misi back to the strong side linebacker position, where he originally started his career. Now that the pads have been put on, the Defensive line is showing why some of the sportsbooks are putting Miami up in the rankings. The phins will have one of the best defensive lines in all of football. Suh and Vernon were absolute beasts during Saturday’s practice and were a handful for the offensive line.
Jay Ajayi who suffered from cramps, and who left practice early on Friday, was back on the field Saturday, and showed no lingering effects from the day before. Ajayi had a few catches out of the backfield, and looked extremely smooth catching the ball. In addition LaMichael James continues to impress, and of all the running backs he has the easiest time kicking it to the outside with his world class speed.
One last observation is that the coaches have been experimenting with putting Brice McCain on the outside corner back position opposite of Brent Grimes, and have been playing Jamar Taylor as the slot corner. Taylor starting training camp as one of the starting outside corner backs, but he has been struggling a bit, so that is probably the cause for the change. Of the two players McCain has definitely looked the best on the outside, so it will be worth keeping on eye on, to see if this becomes a more permanent change.
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