How our 5 Miami Dolphins players to watch did on Saturday night

Entering the first game week of the season we wanted to get you excited about the game and said that five Miami Dolphins players stood out to get you excited. How did they actually do?

If you need a refresher, you can head over to this post, “5 Miami Dolphins players you should be excited to see”.

That is your refresher on how badly I predicted what would happen in the game. For some of you, and you know who you are, it is just another reason to tell me how bad I am at these things. See, I read your comments!

Alec Ingold and John Lovett

Well, we didn’t start out great as Ingold didn’t play at all and Lovett had only a few reps. Nothing to get anyone excited for certain.

Channing Tindall:  Tindall showed off his speed throughout the second half of the game but I was surprised that it was fellow rookie LB Cameron Goode making more plays at the point of impact. Tindall was far from bad and didn’t make mistakes. In fact, he had some good plays but he wasn’t as impactful as I expected to see him.

Erik Ezukanma – Honestly, I thought we would we see a lot more of the rookie WR and I also believed that with Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle out, we would see a lot of him in the first half. That wasn’t the case.

Still, Ezukanma looked good when he was on the field. He caught two of his three targets for 18 yards including a 14-yard reception but his playing time was in the 2nd half. His route running was especially good and he didn’t drop any passes. His lone miss was on an errant throw.

Hunter Long – I figured with Adam Shaheen potentially not playing and Mike Gesicki not playing that we would see quite a bit of Hunter Long. Instead, Gesicki played a few snaps, Durham Smythe played some snaps, and we saw a lot of Cethan Carter and Tanner Conner who caught three passes. I honestly don’t know if Long was on the field at all Saturday night.

Skylar Thompson – I thought we would see a lot of Thompson in the 2nd half but instead, we saw him the entire game. Thompson looked good at times but despite his stat line of 20/28 for 218 yards and a touchdown, he didn’t make big plays that stood out. Yes, his TD pass to Lynn Bowden, Jr. was spot on but he also underthrew him on a deep pass that could have been taken in for a touchdown.

On that specific play in the 2nd half, Bowden was left uncovered and was wide open. Thompson’s underthrow still got to Bowden but he had to stop to catch it and defenders caught up with him. Had that been in front of him, no one was there to take him down

Overall though, Thompson played well enough to have some questioning whether or not Miami needs Teddy Bridgewater.