It only took one joint practice to crush Dolphins fans' growing optimism

The Miami Dolphins' new-look roster got their first action against another football team on Wednesday when they joined the Washington Commanders for a joint practice session. It didn't go as they had hoped.

Miami's offense struggled as many had expected. One Commanders reporter, Tashan Reed of the Washington Post, noted that the offense is "not good." This was to be expected, but after the highlights of Miami's training camp, the expectations may have been way too premature.

On the plus side, it appears the Dolphins' defense stepped up, especially Chop Robinson, who reportedly looked dominant.

Miami Dolphins struggles in first joint practices was sadly expected

Without several starters in the Dolphins' secondary, the Washington receivers were able to control those portions of the practice. Miami was without cornerbacks JuJu Brents and Chris Johnson, and Dante Trader Jr. was missing at safety as well. The Commanders took advantage.

Multiple reports have said that Malik Willis has struggled offensively, but the entire Dolphins offense has been put on notice.

• Offensive line struggles
• Willis struggles
• Run game struggles

Surprisingly, Caleb Douglas continued to look promising despite the rest of the offensive problems. That's good to hear.

Despite the negativity, many of the Dolphins' local beat writers who were attending were still impressed overall with players making strides on both sides of the ball.

Willis moved well with the ball in his hands, but his accuracy was an issue. That could have been due to the offensive line struggles.

The Dolphins and Commanders used one-on-one drills, as well as 7-on-7, something Hafley doesn't typically run in7-on-7 his practices in Miami. It was the 11-on-11 that made more sense and gave the Dolphins' defense a better advantage over the Commanders' offense. Felix Trammell of Fox Sports Radio 1340 put it in better context.

"Washington Commanders showed that they were a better team," Trammell said in a video on his X account. "They won the day tremendously... Miami at certain points could not run their offense because [rushers] were in the backfield so much."

Struggles in joint practices are typical, especially for a young football team like Miami. They tend to be scripted. The real test and first look will come Friday night when they both take to the field in their first preseason game.

There was always going to be a lot of work for Hafley after these sessions, and that didn't change. What did change was the fan expectations that watched the local practices and started to believe that the team was going to shock the league. They came back down to Earth on Wednesday.

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