Dion Jordan In Full Pads Fins Finish First Pad Practice
By Brian Miller
Jul 22, 2013; Davie, FL, USA; Miami Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill (17) stretches during training camp at the Doctors Hospital Training Facility at Nova Southeastern University. Mandatory Credit: Robert Mayer-USA TODAY Sports
The Miami Dolphins didn’t wait long to get rookie Dion Jordan off the NFI list. After placing their number 3 overall pick on the non-football injury list on Saturday the team has taken him off today and sent him onto the field for his first full day of practice and his first contact since college ended. Of course all practices have been non-contact since then.
Jordan has been recovering from a torn labrum and has missed all of the off-season workouts due to his recovery. He has been present when allowed but his work has been limited to class work and rehab work. Today he got in work, real work but he still didn’t get in contact work according to reports from Miami. And the Dolphins will take their time with him as he eases back into the rat race of summer camp. While Jordan may be idly watching others pound around the rest of the team is well pounding.
If indications of day one are any glimpses into the future than the Dolphins LB’s could be a major upgrade of the more sluggish Karlos Dansby and Kevin Burnette of last year. Several in the media have commented on the fluid movements of their replacements. Dannelle Ellerbe and Phillip Wheeler. A few fans in attendance shot me Emails to let me know that they are coming in as billed, fast and hungry. One of them pointed out that Ellerbe already has a sack and an INT of Ryan Tannehill although he said the sack actually wasn’t a knock down.
The Dolphins offense is going to struggle in the early days of camp much to the chagrin of fans considering a lot of money was spent on that side of the ball. 7 on 7 drills really doesn’t allow teams an opportunity to get into a flow or game situations. At this stage it becomes mechanics and timing. Especially on the offensive line.
HC Joe Philbin pointed out that the Oline struggled today and even mentioned that Jonathan Martin struggled on the left side stopping Olivier Vernon. That is not a good early sign but it is a young training camp and many teams struggle offensively in the first few days. It won’t win over any fans who want to see an open offense that can score points. It time…hopefully.
Fans are still waiting for the Tannehill to Wallace strike but a fine wine takes time and truth be told there isn’t much of a connection yet. As it stands now, Wallace is running vanilla routes and that’s fine. There is no full speed slants and no game plan so let the two work on the intricate things first. The rest will come or Miami will have a lot of questions to answers about their spending. So far though Wallace seems to have his head in the right place now he just needs to get his hands in the right place as well as Tannehill getting the ball in the right place.
Day one of full pads is in the books and the defense looked strong as was expected. The offense showed enough to know they have a lot of work to do and that is a good thing as well.