Miami Dolphins head to day three of camp with focus on fundamentals

The Miami Dolphins will put the pads on for the first time in 2019s young training camp but through two days of no-pad practice, fundamentals are front and center.

As the Miami Dolphins get into the meat of training camp, those days that players are in full pads and the contact on the field gets nasty and players get testy, new head coach Brian Flores is making sure that the team understands the basics.

Fundamentals are taught at early ages from Pop-Warner through high-school to college and the pros but they are also often lost when big hits draw booming screams from the fans and are honored with an ESPN evening highlight. The NFL has put a premium on player safety and that has changed the way fundamentals are taught.

Over the course of the last two days, the Dolphins and Brian Flores have spent a lot of time running drills that teach the simplest of fundamentals. Something so simple as a center to quarterback snap drills has been run, blocking drills focusing on footwork and placement, at one point the entire team was running fundamental drills on the far side of the practice field.

Why is this important? Because good fundamentals lead to smart players. Smart players are better disciplined and that lessens the number of pre-snap penalties. Something that has plagued the Dolphins the last six or so years.

With pads coming on today, more fundamentals will be taught. I would assume there will be a focus on tackling technique, and read and react drills. Simple stuff but important.

While the focus of the media has been on Kalen Ballage taking first-team reps over Kenyan Drake and Josh Rosen’s seat being so far behind Ryan Fitzpatrick, they are missing the point that one, it’s too early in camp to start naming starters, and two, Flores is installing more that system of plays and signals. He is installing a mentality and rebuilding the very base of his football team.

Starting with the fundamentals makes a lot of sense.