Miami Dolphins Stock Report (Practice 6)

Dolphins receiver Jaylen Waddle finally makes an appearance in the Stock Report because of his drop-free practice on Tuesday

There’s been a give and take to Miami Dolphins practice each day of  training camp.

Some days the Dolphins defense owns the day with pressures, would-be sacks, and the two interceptions that unit has pulled down. And some days the defense takes a victory lap, scoring touchdowns, converting third downs and delivering respectable runs.

Miami’s offense owned Tuesday’s practice, which was moved inside the bubble in the final 30 minutes because of lightning in the area. The victory evens the score 3-3 on days from my perspective, which the defend delivering a blowout last Thursday. 

When Miami went inside it was fireworks for the offense, which carved up all three defenses during a situational, hurry-up period.

Tua Tagovailoa threw one incomplete pass during that period. He was carving up Miami’s defense like a hot knife goes through butter, and it was encouraging to see. But not good enough to crack my top performers (the bar is higher).

Top Performers

1. WR Jaylen Waddle - Waddle, who was named the NFL’s 44th best player by his peers in the league’s annual NFL Network player rankings, has had a solid camp. Outside of a nasty drop every other practice, he’s been one of the top playmakers for each quarterback, and today he caught a 45-yard reception from Tagovailoa. He was also one of the main catalyst in the hurry-up period success where Tagovailoa carved Miami’s defense, flipping the field before his unit was replaced by the backups. So far, you can argue that Waddle has been the offense’s second best performer, only behind Tagovailoa. 

2. RB Chris Brooks - The undrafted rookie from BYU hasn’t taken many, if any snaps during team drills until Tuesday, and he clearly made the best of it during the final 11-on-11 period. Brooks, who gained 817 rushing yards and scored seven touchdowns on 130 carries for the Cougars last season, ran for what I would have declared as two touchdowns during Miami’s 11-on-11 hurry-up period. The first occurred when Miami got inside the goal line area. Brooks wasn’t given credit for the score because rookie nose tackle Brandon Pili was waving his arms as if he got a tackle, but he wasn’t in position in my opinion. Then when the offense turned around and started the drive from the 5-yard line Brooks sliced and diced his way through the third-team defense and ran for a 95-yard touchdown. No defender came close to touch him, but in their defense a whistle was blown. But it didn’t stop Brook from running to the end zone, and the offense from celebrating.

3. RT Austin Jackson - Offense line is a position where players typically get noticed because they messed up, or got beaten badly. I haven’t noticed Jackson for anything negative for six straight practices, and that’s a sign he’s made progress. In fact, during one play inside the bubble the 2020 first-round pick pancaked Jaelan Phillip, whom he’s usually battling with. 

In fairness to Phillips, it looked as if the pass rusher slipped on the turf. But he was still picking himself up from the turf. I initially didn’t give Jackson praise for his solid first week because Phillips suffered an ankle injury on the first day of training camp and was held out the next two days. But now that he’s returned and the right side remains quiet it’s time to give Jackson his props. 

Does that mean he won’t be an issue in real games? It doesn’t. But check back for a Jackson update after Miami’s joint practices against the Atlanta Falcons next week. It was this that time two years ago during joint practice versus the Chicago Bears where I sounded the arm about Jackson, and it's been downhill from that point.

Stock down: 

LB Andrew Van Ginkel

In fairness to Van Ginkel, there are very few players on the team working at two positions, like he is, but his presence hasn’t been felt all camp. Van Ginkel, who is working as an outside linebacker and inside linebacker, has been easily blocked during 1-on-1 drills Tuesday, and there were a couple of plays during 11-on-11s where he was washed away. I’m not overly concerned with Van Ginkel’s status on the team. He's safe because of his versatility. But you’d think a veteran who has started 31 games over the past four seasons would be more impactful in a zone based scheme.