Tua sat in today’s practice & Chop Robinson starts to flash!
Day 2 of the Miami Dolphins’ full team Training Camp practice had some positives and not-so-positives today. Bad news first: Tua sat all practice and didn’t throw the football as the impasse with Chris Grier appeared to get more serious. On the flip side, 2024 1st-round pick Chop Robinson looked pretty good from multiple accounts. The reality is it’s so early in Training Camp that you can’t get up or down on anything–other than a serious injury– at this stage of things. But, with high expectations, it has to be somewhat concerning to see your starting quarterback not practicing in a contract hold-in–especially when the Front Office seems dead set on holding the line on their position.
How serious are the two sides in this dispute?
While this thing could be ironed out by tomorrow, today’s lack of practice says Tua and Chris Grier are deeply entrenched in their positions. Hardliners in a contractual dispute can make for an ugly situation. Mathew Stafford just received his new money and Love could be next making the Tua and Dolphins contract situation more sticky. Every day that passes the Dolphins as a team fall a little farther behind if Tua continues to miss time. Now, let’s be clear, it’s not until next week that it will hurt the offensive progress. This week is more warm-up than anything.
How far will both sides take this? If Tua and Grier don’t find common ground by the 1st Post Season game, the situation will be ugly as Tua will be taking fines to continue his stance. You can make a sure bet with the best pay per head that Tua will return at some point even if there isn’t a new contract. But if it ends like this how much damage will be done to the season… to the relationship? And if Tua balls out and Miami wants to resign him, how much more will he make? None of these endings are good ones. Also, forget about a Franchise Tag because that would lock up $40+ million and cripple the 2025 Season.
Tua and Grier must resolve this by meeting in the middle. Can they and will they? All we can do is wait and see. This isn’t the type of start I expect for this season, but it is very ‘Dolphins’.
Heck, at least the big rookie is doing work!
Chop Robinson was the Phins’ top pick and big things are expected. It’s early, but you can never complain about good reports. Today Chop popped a few times at practice with pressures on the quarterback. Chop beat fellow rookie Patrick Paul for pressure and was held to keep it from being ugly. He also beat veteran Austin Jackson to put pressure on the passer. The best news for me was he was said to set the edge in the run game in 11 on 11’s. This is the most critical part because if Chop can hold his own in the run game then he’ll be a starter and could have a special rookie season. But, he can’t be a liability in the run game or his snap count with drop and he’ll be a situational pass rusher, which isn’t terrible.
Given Miami won’t see Brandon Chubb and Jaelen Phillips for a while, Chop playing well is a big deal for the Dolphins’ success this season. An added positive is that Emmanuel Ogbah has looked good in his return posting two good days of pressure and even earning the orange jersey for his play. We have yet to hear much from rookie Muhammed Kamara, so it could be another positive that shows up at some point!
The bottom line is the biggest piece of the puzzle is Tua’s return and how the contract is resolved or isn’t resolved. Until this is worked out, it will be hard to keep my eyes and thoughts off this issue. Let’s hope the Tua situation gets a happy ending ASAP–if not sooner! Go PHins!!