Miami Dolphins hoping Branden Albert can play

The Miami Dolphins will start their training camp on the 31st with player reporting on the 30th. One of the key members of the offensive line, Branden Albert may or may not be participating. According to the Joe Philbin via the Miami Herald, the Dolphins are hoping that Albert can play in pre-season.

"“The hope is — and once we get guys through physicals when they come in in a couple days we’ll know more — but the hope is to move him out of the rehab portion and into the football portion,” Philbin said, via the Miami Herald. “And we have to do it in a way that makes sense. It’s not going to be first day, every team rep, here we go, let’s do an Oklahoma drill and let him and the guys whack people around. That’s step one. Getting him out of the rehab mode and into the football practice mode and in the gradual progression of getting back.”“The perfect scenario is get him some work in some preseason game and get him ready to play first,” Philbin said."

Albert is still nursing an ACL tear that ended his 2014 season and threw the offensive line into a slump. The anchor of the left side of the line, Albert’s presence will go a long way to success for the team in 2015. That being said, the Dolphins may want to re-think rushing him back to quickly. Not that they are, you know, actually thinking that.

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The Dolphins first five games, while not easy, are the softest portion of their schedule and the Dolphins should be able to win those games with or without Albert. Giving Albert more time to rehab his knee would give the Dolphins a fresh left tackle when the team begins to face their toughest schedule portions and late season run.

Perhaps the biggest question regarding Albert’s health is who will take his place if he can’t go. Many believe that there will be competition at the spot that will include Jason Fox and any number of offensive lineman that are capable of playing more than one position like J.D. Walton.

Philbin has it right though, it’s a one step at a time process and personally regardless of his health I would be shocked to see him play anything significant in pre-season whether it’s game one, two, three, or four. He is too valuable of an asset to rush back prematurely and really doesn’t need camp to get into playing mode. Bring him along slowly as the team is going to need him down the stretch.

The good news is that at least the team sees enough progress in Albert’s recovery to think he might be available.