For the first time in training camp, the Miami Dolphins were afforded the opportunity to practice against a team in different colors — the Washington Commanders — on Tuesday. Due to reported spotty cell service, much of the Miami media contingent was effectively muzzled from posting updates. Meanwhile, Washington-based reporters told a harrowing tale of Commanders dominance.
At the end of the day, the hypothetical scoreboard might've gone Washington's way, though recent reporting indicates there was a little bit more to the story. Ahead of the session, head coach Jeff Hafley met with the media and outlined his expectations very clearly.
"Here's what's really important for me today ... This isn't 'I want to try to out scheme Washington today.' The stuff that's really important for me, is to see who can get off blocks, who can cover somebody, who can play base football with really good fundamentals and technique so we can evaluate and see where we're at. So it's going to be more base defense, base offense. Let's play with fundamentals and technique, let the guys calm down and then see what we got."
The Miami Dolphins had very different goals from the Commanders in their joint practice, which helps explain the lopsided outcome
The concept is sensible. An unblocked would-be sack generated by exotic blitzing — rather than individual effort — doesn't tell you a whole lot as a coach. Ditto for running a trick play or revealing the most unique looks in Bobby Slowik's offensive bag on a defense that is in flux. This practice was about the basic fundamentals: communication, decision-making, and executing the things they teach kids in peewee football like throwing, catching, blocking, tackling, and covering.
Credit to Miami Dolphins ace reporter Travis Wingfield for providing some levity to the situation on The Drive Time podcast. As a first-hand spectator, Wingfield noted that the approach outlined by Jeff Hafley before practice wasn't quite aligned with what Commanders head coach Dan Quinn and Co. had planned for Washington.
"The Commanders had an approach: it was to empty the kitchen sink," Wingfield said. "I think offensively and defensively, they unloaded the clip. In terms of defensive pressure, overload [blitzes] — they would walk up [and fill] every gap in zero-sim pressures. They were run blitzing."
"Offensively, I could probably count on one hand the number of times that Jayden Daniels stayed in the pocket — Marcus Mariota, too, for that matter. It was bootlegs, crossers, and then a hook and ladder. The best way I can describe the way the Commanders approached this practice was that they ran a hook and ladder — that’s definitely something I haven’t seen before."
In other words, the Commanders treated this practice more like how an NFL team approaches a pivotal regular-season game or even a playoff contest. That's entirely their prerogative — though it's a revealing development. Training camp practice wins don't count for anything in September, October, or November, after all.
It's perhaps most emblematic of two teams in very different stages of contention. The Commanders are a veteran team with an entrenched franchise quarterback. Their coaches are, frankly, feeling some heat after following up their magical 2024 NFC Championship run with a dud 5–12 season that included a loss to the reeling Dolphins in Madrid.
On the other hand, Miami is at square one of a major rebuild project that has left them with one of the youngest teams in the NFL. It's entirely fair to give the Commanders their credit for getting the better of this green group of underdogs, while also acknowledging that it was to be expected. The Dolphins were also handicapped by their own goals, as they refused to scheme up the Commanders like it was a real contest.
As Hafley alluded to, training camp is about getting the basics down pat so when the live bullets are flying, players are simply reacting instead of thinking. The Dolphins are in ultimate evaluation mode with an almost entirely new coaching staff and extreme roster turnover. Once the players that can do what's necessary at the requisite level have been identified, then Hafley will go into his bag of tricks.
Until then, fans shouldn't overreact to a meaningless training camp joint practice. That's especially true when one team treated it as a live game, and the other was simply focused on drilling fundamentals against different players. The Dolphins may struggle this season. Nonetheless, this practice should not be seen as more than what it actually was.
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