Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Miami Dolphins Training Camp Report: Day 5

Hey guys, we're back with our daily training camp reports after the players had a day off yesterday. Today was the first time in camp that the Dolphins practiced with live tackling, just not of the quarterbacks. Today, no one QB took the majority of the snaps with the first team, as Garrard and Moore shared the work about evenly. The Dolphins D-line had a great day today, as did one WR whose stock is rapidly rising. Brian Hartline was still sitting out injured, but Chris Clemons was back in, sending Jimmy Wilson back to the 2nd team. Clyde Gates also sat out today injured, doing rehab work with Hartline. There's more information and analysis after the jump



As usual, I will start off with the QB competition. For today, David Garrard was clearly the winner, with some great plays. Matt Moore had a very poor performance today, while Ryan Tannehill had yet another good day vs. the 2nd team. On the first 2 minute drill, Garrard went 7-for-9, with two standout passes, both to Davone Bess, one of which was a TD. His two incompletions were the result of breakups by Sean Smith and Vontae Davis, but otherwise had an almost perfect showing on the 2 minute drill. Next up for the 2 minute drill was Matt Moore, who went 4-for-7 on the drill. His highlight was a 40 yd bomb to Roberto Wallace, along with a clutch 5 yd TD to Wallace right before time ran out. Finally, it was Ryan Tannehill's turn to take the field for the 2 minute drill with the 3rd team. Tannehill went 6-for-10, with 3 straight passes to WR Chris Hogan to move the chains quite a bit, later followed up by 2 straight passes to BJ Cunningham. Tannehill's final pass was a completion to BJ Cunningham, who was tackled at the 1 yd line before he could score. Tannehill was the only QB (not including Devlin, who didn't participate) to not score a TD even though he got the ball to the 1 yd line and came awful close. After that, the team did multiple other passing drills. Garrard had some nice passes throughout practice, including a stop-and-go to Legedu Naanee, a nice throw to Julius Pruitt, back-to-back TDs to Davone Bess on redzone drills, and finished off practice with a beautiful 79 yd TD pass to Roberto Wallace. Garrard finished off the day with 4 TDs and 0 INTs, even though he did have a dropped INT by Richard Marshall on a pass to Steve Slaton. Matt Moore really struggled for the rest of the day, throwing 2 INTs, one to Reshad Jones and one to Anderson Russell. The INT to Jones would've been a pick 6 in a real game. In addition, he also fumbled on a sack by Starks, and was sacked repeatedly, due to holding on to the ball too long. He did have a couple of nice throws to Chad Johnson and Charles Clay, but both were dropped. Moore finished off the day with 1 TD and 2 INTs. Ryan Tannehill had yet another impressive practice. Some of his highlights were a nice deep pass to Marlon Moore, a couple of nice slant passes to Rishard Mathews and Jeff Fuller and some nice passes to Chris Hogan. Tannehill finished off the day with neither a TD nor an INT. Pat Devlin sat the bench most of practice, but did have one very nice pass to Chris Hogan and a couple of nice passes to Les Brown.

Moving to the rest of the offense, the offensive line has remained the same, and are most likely being given time to gel together. As for the TEs, Les Brown had some very nice catches from Devlin, but was very inconsistent. Anthony Fasano was invisible yet again, and Micheal Egnew didn't stand out either. Charles Clay did stand out, but in a bad way. Clay had a very poor practice, time and time again showcasing a case of the dropsies, dropping a nice TD pass by Moore and some nice passes by Garrard. As for the WRs, Davone Bess had yet another amazing practice, catching everything that came his way. If Bess continues playing like this, Brandon Marshall won't be missed. Legedu Naanee also had a nice practice, making some good catches off of Garrard. The top performer, however, was WR Roberto Wallace, who showed his playmaking ability all through practice. He showed his deep play ability and speed on a couple of deep passes from Moore and a 79 yd TD from Garrard, and showed his size and redzone ability on a nice 5 yd TD catch from Moore. The honor for rookie WR of the day goes to WR Chris Hogan, who has been playing very well lately, becoming a favorite target for Pat Devlin and the 3rd team. BJ Cunningham also had some nice catches off of Tannehill throws, as did Jeff Fuller and Rishard Mathews. As for the runningbacks, Lamar Miller and Daniel Thomas both had nice days, with Thomas' highlight being a monstrous 9 yd cut up the middle, and Miller's being a 20 yd gain off of a sweep. Reggie Bush struggled today, once running right into Paul Soliai, and another time being tackled by Olivier Vernon and Sean Smith for a loss of 5 yds.

Now, on to the defensive side of the ball. For the CBs, Vontae Davis and Sean Smith did well today holding down their islands, while Richard Marshall had a good day, almost getting an INT off of a Garrard throw. The second unit did their job, as Nolan Carroll, Johnathon Wade and Vince Agnew continue to compete for two spots on the 53 man roster. Moving on to the safeties, Chris Clemons returned today, sending Jimmy Wilson back to the 2nd team. Reshad Jones had a great day today, batting down multiple passes and getting a pick 6 off of a Matt Moore pass. On the 2nd and 3rd teams, the top performer was Anderson Russell, who had an INT off of a Matt Moore pass.The linebackers are really coming into their own, as they are having outstanding practices day in and day out, especially Koa Misi, who is really impressing. As for the D-line, Randy Starks was the top performer, having two sacks and one forced fumble on Matt Moore. Tony Mcdaniel also had a good day, adding a sack of his own and batting down a Matt Moore pass on the line of scrimmage. Olivier Vernon's highlight today was a tackle for loss on Reggie Bush, but he did well rushing the passer. Jamaal Westerman has been spending some time with the 1st team, and he and Vernon seem to be the pass rushing specialists off the bench.

That's about it for today, be sure to check back regularly for training camp reports and updates on the Phins and Heat and leave comments below.

4 comments:

  1. I love to hear that the offensive line has been getting time to gel. It was horrible the last year when TS kept trying to rotate everyone around.
    This was a superbly written article, keep up the good work and thanks for everything.

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    1. Thanks for reading! And yeah, its not like the 1st team is changing much. The lineup has pretty much been long-incognito-pouncey-Hicks-Martin all through camp, and I doubt that will change.

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  2. Great Report, Thanks Anish.

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    1. Hey, and thanks for taking the time to read.

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