It was hardly a mundane Friday at Dolphins training camp. Plenty of interesting news and observations from today’s practice:
* Earlier this week, defensive coordinator Kevin Coyle took issue with a reporter’s statement that only one job on the defense – one of the safety spots – is up for grabs. The past two days, we’ve seen why: Vontae Davis has lost his spot, for now at least, to veteran Richard Marshall as one of the two outside cornerbacks in the base 4-3 defense. Friday, Marshall and Sean Smith began each drill as the two outside corners, and Davis would only come onto the field with the Nickel package (with Davis on the outside and Marshall on the inside).
Coach Joe Philbin said Marshall is “having a good camp.”
“I really like what I see out of him,” Philbin said. “Sometimes when you do the tackling drills and the blocking drills, sometimes you can kind of hear a good tackle or a good block, and Richard is one of those guys.”
Marshall, a seven-year veteran with Arizona and Carolina, said “everywhere I’ve been, I’ve been on the outside and then on third down I come inside in the Nickel.” Neither Philbin or Davis said Davis has lost his spot, but he has been paired up on the outside with Jonathan Wade, who has had a good camp.
The Dolphins are rotating the cornerbacks a lot, but it’s mostly at Davis’ position, as Smith plays almost exclusively with the starters.
* Today was supposed to be Matt Moore’s day with the starters, but David Garrard vultured some of his snaps in 7-on-7s and 11-on-11s. Garrard looks to be the clear front-runner at this point, though performances in tomorrow’s scrimmage and the first two preseason games will factor a lot into the final decision. Garrard absolutely torches the backup defense, and had a gorgeous 35-yard touchdown pass to Chris Hogan on a bullet down the seam.
* Moore looks good when he has a clean pocket, making a couple of nice touchdown passes to Charles Clay and Davone Bess on corner fades. But Garrard is much better when the play breaks down due to tight coverage or bad blocking.
* Ryan Tannehill finally played in a starters-vs.-starters setting in an 11-on-11 drill, with limited success. He completed a quick out to Clay, missed on a slant pass to Chad Johnson, was sacked by Marshall on a blind-side blitz and threw too high to Bess on a crossing pattern while facing another blitz. Against the backups, he threw a beautiful corner flag to Legedu Naanee for a 20-yard touchdown. He also threw a terrible interception to Jonathan Wade. “You can tell he’s young, he’s got stuff he needs to learn,” cornerback Nolan Carroll said of Tannehill. “But he’s got a good arm, good accuracy, and he makes those throws that are difficult to make.”
* Philbin said his timetable for picking a quarterback is “open ended,” but said he would like to get Moore and Garrard about 35-40 snaps each in the first couple of preseason games before making a final decision.
* In the final practice period of the day, an 11-on-11 drill, rookie Lamar Miller took most of the reps at running back. Philbin said Miller impressed the coaching staff on Wednesday not with a big run, but when he picked up a “middle dog cross” blitz with two rushers blitzing up the “A” gaps. “I thought he really stepped up and took the guy on,” Philbin said. “We know he can run the ball. … (But) if you’re going to play you’ve got to be able to do that, because I’m sure the opposition at some point in time is going to challenge our protection schemes.”
* Kickoff returners on Friday: Johnson, Miller, Marcus Thigpen, Julius Pruitt, Steve Slaton and Rishard Matthews. Johnson also worked as a punt returner.
* Rookie WR Jeff Fuller, one of the tallest receivers at 6-foot-4, displayed nice body control when he boxed out Vincent Agnew on a jump ball in the end zone. Fuller, an undrafted rookie from Texas A&M, looks to be a decent bet to be kept on the practice squad.
* Brian Hartline (calf) and Clyde Gates (quad) continued to sit out. Pruitt got reps as the fourth receiver, along with Roberto Wallace. Undrafted defensive end Jarrell Root, who had been impressing in camp, also sat out with an undisclosed injury.
* Reshad Jones appears to have switched to the strong safety position, with Chris Clemons and Jimmy Wilson battling for free safety.
* Teams are no longer allowed to hold two-a-days, and Reggie Bush has noticed the difference on his body. “Honestly, I feel a lot fresher. A lot more,” he said. “With two-a-days, I don’t know if I would be out there doing these extra reps after practice. Because I was talking to some of the young guys and, when I see them out here dying and hurting and cramping up, I just think back to the two-a-days we’d have to go through. I tell them, ‘You guys would never last in the old days.’”
* Rookie second-round pick Jonathan Martin has played every snap with the starting offensive line at right tackle, even though he was exclusively a left tackle at Stanford. “Jonathan Martin’s making steady progress. I like what he’s doing,” Philbin said.
* Even though the Dolphins will be featured on an HBO reality TV show over the next five weeks, Philbin doesn’t want his players watching much television. “We took the TVs out of the dining room,” Philbin said. “we don’t want them watching ESPN, we don’t care what’s going on with everyone else. All we care about, when they’re in this building, we want them focused on themselves, how they can improve, how they can contribute.”
* The Dolphins will hold a scrimmage Saturday at Sun Life Stadium at 9:15 a.m. (the first 1,000 fans will receive free tickets to a preseason game). Philbin expects a decent amount of full contact, but obviously not with the quarterbacks. “We’ve done more live tackling now than I recall in my recent time,” Philbin said. “As a coach, your job is the prepare these guys to have success in a game. If we don’t tackle some live, I don’t know if we’re doing a service to the players.”
