Dolphins camp updates by position

The Miami Dolphins have their first day off from training camp since the team opened their annual training last Friday.

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The rest is much-needed as the players have gone three days in helmets in shells and two full contact practices. On Tuesday night the Dolphins hosted season ticket holders for a closed practice to the general public but the practice was moved indoors due to weather.

Here are the updates for the first five days of camp.

INJURIES

Damien Williams has returned to practice after spending the first four camp days on the PuP list. Williams is a bit behind but the absence of Jay Ajayi due to a knee bruise will give him more reps to get up to speed. Williams missed most of the off-season workouts doing rehab work due to injury.

De’Vante Parker sat on Tuesday with a hamstring injury. The Dolphins said it is not serious.

Farrington Huguenin was injured after a massive hit/block by Damien Williams on Tuesday night. He was carted off the field but the Dolphins have not said how serious the injury is. Miami did say that the injury actually occurred on the play before and was not a result of the Williams hit.

Receiver Tyler Murphy and running back Isaiah Pead also missed Tuesday’s practice with hamstring injuries.

Xavien Howard is still out after having his knee scoped.

Dion Jordan has not been cleared to practice after having undergone an off-season knee scope that was not disclosed to the team prior to his reinstatement.

Surprise cut of the week

Jake Stoneburner was released after the 2nd practice in favor of CB Rashaan Melvin. The Dolphins tight-ends have not looked good this camp, thus far.

Quarterback

Ryan Tannehill has not impressed many that have watched him through camp thus far. His performance much like all the quarterbacks has been up and down. This is common during camps when a new system is being installed. Adam Gase believes that pre-season games will give the coaches a good indication on where the team is at ahead of the season start.

The Dolphins are confident that Tannehill will pick up the offense prior to the start of the season.

Running back

Arian Foster received the bulk of first unit work on Tuesday night with Jay Ajayi rehabbing his knee. With Isaiah Pead out, the secondary workload fell on the legs of Daniel Thomas and returning from injury Damien Williams. Thus far camp has been pretty quiet for Kenyan Drake.

Receivers

The Dolphins have been working on some new red-zone plays and that has created some dropped passes. Parker has not been extremely impressive and Jarvis Landry has been, well, Jarvis Landry. Kenny Stills and Tannehill are working on their timing and rookie Leonte Carroo is having a quiet camp as well. The Dolphins have used rookie Jakeem Grant in their passing attack and he has shown the ability to make people miss.

Tight Ends

The tight-ends have been awfully quiet this camp. Some in the local media have not been impressed with their play. Adam Gase likes to use his tight-ends in the passing game so this is something to watch moving forward.

Offensive line

Branden Albert is practicing well and Laremy Tunsil is getting work at both the left guard and left tackle position. Albert said earlier in the week that he has taken Tunsil under his wing and grooming him to replace him at left tackle down the road.

Dallas Thomas is still the main starter at left guard but Tunsil is getting more and more reps at the position. At the right guard position, Gase apparently has liked what he has seen from Billy Turner who is taking 1st team reps at that spot.

Jermon Bushrod is also getting work in on the right side, his first time in his career to work on the right side of the line. Gase has made reference to Bushrod doing everything he can to catch up learning that side.

Overall the play on the offensive line has been up and down with each player having good segments and bad segments in practice. The line however is still having problems keeping the quarterbacks clean.

Defensive line

Not much to say here other than the defensive line has had a very good camp thus far. Perhaps the best of any unit on the field. Mario Williams is working with the ones but Jason Jones has been getting work with the ones in place of Cameron Wake who the Dolphins are bringing back with some degree of caution.

The Dline has been disruptive in the Vance Joseph Wide-9 defense that is being installed. It’s allowing the edge players better penetration and giving the offensive lines fits.

Linebacker

It’s been relatively quiet camp thus far for the linebackers which is good. The team still needs this unit to step up and the health of middle linebacker Kiko Alonso is critical.

Cornerback and secondary

This unit is a mess. While the safeties are doing well enough on their own, as a seondary unit the team is in a crucial spot of turnover. The Dolphins have brought in two players from the street free agent market and have given more starting time to Chimdi Chekwa. Chekwa is pushing Tony Lippett for playing time and that is a good thing.

Unfortunately the overall play of the Dolphins secondary has not been good. Through five days of practice the unit has notched zero interceptions according to local media reports. They have also given up too many yards to the offense.

Veteran Leon Hall, formerly of the Bengals is making visits around the NFL this week but despite the history with Vance Joseph, the Dolphins do not appear interested.

While Byron Maxwell will start outside on one side of the field, the other starting CB spot is open for whomever wants to step up and take it. At the nickel spot, competition is increasing between safety Michael Thomas and corner Bobby McCain. McCain has had a slow start to camp after missing the first day with a PuP designation.

Special Teams

The Dolphins have used Jakeem Grant as the punt returner. He is getting the bulk of the work. Andrew Franks appears to have a lock on the kicking job as the other kicker in camp is not all that consistent thus far.

NOTE: The information above is culled from mulitple sources via social media and online publications as well as from the Miami Dolphins website and people that have viewed the practices live that I have spoken personally with.

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