Dolphins Joint Practice Primer
TAMPA — The Miami Dolphins’ preparation toward the start of the 2022 regular season will ramp up considerably this week when the team holds joint practices with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before their preseason opener at Raymond James Stadium on Saturday.
Beyond breaking the monotony of practicing against teammates, the practices with the Buccaneers will serve as a good barometer not only because they will involve different players but also because the intensity goes up in this setup.
The Dolphins and Bucs will practice together — or against each other, if that’s you prefer to describe it — Wednesday and Thursday, with each session starting at 10 a.m. ET.
It will be the first of two sets of joint practices, the maximum allowed by the CBA, for the Dolphins this summer, with the second set coming Aug. 24-25 with the Philadelphia Eagles prior to the teams’ preseason game at Hard Rock Stadium on Aug. 27.
Setting the stage for the practices in Tampa, here’s what we’ll be focusing on over the next two days:
TUA, TYREEK AND WADDLE
The Dolphins offense has produced its share of impressive passing plays in team drills, with both Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle running loose downfield on several occasions.
While it was great to see the offense deliver those type of plays, it’s unrealistic to expect Hill and Waddle to be given that much room during the regular season.
The Tampa practices might provide a better gauge as to what the Dolphins passing game might look like starting September, though there always will be reason to look for chunk plays in 2022.
THE OFFENSIVE LINE
If we’re talking offense, of course it always comes back to the offensive line.
That unit certainly has looked better in the first two weeks of camp than it did at this juncture last summer, but it’s one thing to go against teammates in a controlled setting and quite another to do it against opponents.
The Buccaneers defense features one of the top interior defensive linemen in Vita Vea and he’s going to provide quite a challenge for the interior of the Dolphins offensive line. Speaking of the interior line, it will be interesting to see how Connor Williams handles shotgun snaps after a clean practice in that department Sunday.
Tampa Bay also has two very good pass-rushing edge defenders in Joe Tryon-Shoyinka and Shaq Barrett, and tackle Austin Jackson should get a good test this week.
The same goes for second-year player Larnel Coleman, who is listed as the second-team left tackle on the Dolphins’ first depth chart of the season.
NOAH, TRILL AND THE YOUNG CORNERS
Cornerback Noah Igbinoghene has showed clear improvement in his third NFL training camp, to the point where he could become a contributor on defense in 2022.
But maybe the most impressive young cornerback in camp has been second-year player Trill Williams, and rookie free agent Kader Kohou also has had his moments.
How they can match up against the Tampa Bay wide receivers — though don’t be surprised if veteran Mike Evans is kept out because of a hamstring issue — will be worth watching.
PRESTON AND BOWDEN
With the recent report of Preston Williams and Lynn Bowden Jr. being shopped, how they performed in any setting becomes important because the better they look, the better chance of the Dolphins getting something back in return.
And then maybe either of them, or both, can convince the Dolphins to keep him around by shining this week and beyond.
WHAT DOLPHINS PLAYERS SAID ...
T Austin Jackson — “For me specifically, I’m excited about the joint practices. Definitely get another look at more of a game day type of practice, a little bit more intensity. I think we have pretty intense practices as it is, but it’ll definitely be fun to get out there and practice with some other teams.”
DT Christian Wilkins — “That’s going to be a lot of fun. Obviously you know what kind of team Tampa has been in the past and the type of players they have. It’s going to be fun. I’m looking forward to it definitely. Being at this point in my career, four years in, I have a little bit of a different mindset when I go into the joint practices. As a young guy, you’re still like trying to figure it out. ‘Am I good enough? Am I not?’ Now you just have a different mindset and different things you want to attack and work on when you go to those joint practices. I’m definitely looking forward to that challenge.”
WR Tyreek Hill — “Yeah, man. I’m really sick of going against ‘X’ (Xavien Howard), man. He’s been locking me up in practice. I’m really eager to go against somebody else. Somebody that I’ve played twice. I really can’t wait to get to Tampa and I know the guys are very eager to get down there as well to play. Everybody is excited.”
