The first team units were on the field in morning practice. There were no team drills however. The Miami Dolphins officially began training camp. High-lighting the morning was a nice catch by rookie Ted Ginn with 1 hand in the end end-zone, with no defenders. Still, of all that could have been going on, it’s the depth chart that is exciting and puzzling at the same time.
The offensive starters:
"First-team offenseQB Trent Green RB Ronnie Brown FB Cory Schlesinger WR Chris Chambers WR Marty Booker TE David Martin LT Vernon Carey LG Chris Liwienski C Samson Satele RG Drew Mormino RT Anthony Alabi."
The obvious is the starters at QB, WR, RB, and TE. The line however is the puzzling part. The absence of Rex Hadnot. Hadnot was supposed to be the starting RG, he is not on that opening practice list. Instead, rookie Drew Mormino is lined up. The other surprise is Anthony Alabi who reportedly showed up out of shape, likely in part to his off-season surgery. Still, what happened to Mike Rosenthal? The veteran was assumed by some, including myself to be the RT starter. In addition where is LJ Shelton? As Greg Bedard noted in his TC blog, these could be nothing more than simple rearrangements and this afternoon may be different.
With no team drills this may not be the actual first team unit. But it is something that should be watched.
"First-team defenseDE Matt Roth DT Vonnie Holliday DT Keith Traylor DE Jason Taylor LB Joey Porter LB Zach Thomas LB Channing Crower CB Will Allen CB Travis Daniels S Yeremiah Bell S Renaldo Hill"
Unlike the offense, there are no surprises with this unit. There is only excitement. For the first time, Dolphin fans get to see the official lineup of the defensive unit. Roth and Taylor at the ends, Zach in the middle. Crowder and Porter on the outside and Holliday and Traylor clogging the line. How sweet it is!
The secondary looks like it should with Allen and Daniels riding the corners with Hill and Bell in the safety spots. As expected. It will be the nickel and dime packages that will bring some change. So we will have to watch and see.