Dolphins Camp: Early Standouts and Rookie Report

The Miami Dolphins have completed their first week of padded practices, which seems like a good time to take stock of their roster and point out the players who have helped their status.

The first player who jumps out is guard Solomon Kindley, the fourth-round pick from the University of Georgia. Kindley, who's a very large man, has absolutely not looked one bit out of place and seems to have played himself into contention for a significant role as a rookie.

As a cool side note, Kindley spoke to the media Saturday and once again discussed his previous work as a lifeguard, and declared that he easily outswam his teammates.

Along with Kindley, another rookie draft pick who totally looks like he belongs and could make an immediate impact is defensive tackle Raekwon Davis.

This is a big man who can move and who can hold his ground at the line of scrimmage.

In a previous story, we ranked as the draft pick most likely to make an immediate impact, and nothing has changed our mind about this.

Among the other draft picks, cornerback Noah Igbinoghene also looks like he could be headed for a big role as a rookie and he's looked good in practice, even though he got caught sneaking in the backfield in practice Saturday, which allowed Preston Williams to easily get behind him for a long completion from Ryan Fitzpatrick.

Speaking of Williams, his work this past week was really encouraging. He looks fully recovered from the torn ACL that cut short his impressive 2019 season.

Not only did Williams move well, he did some good work in practice getting himself open from cornerback Byron Jones, who still showed at times during practice his very obvious coverage skills.

Speaking of wide receivers, DeVante Parker also looked good, though that's not necessarily major news because he usually looks good when he's healthy.

And if we're talking about who could become the third wide receiver option behind Parker and Williams, Isaiah Ford has looked the most impressive so far. He's done a good job of getting open and catching passes thrown his way.

At running back, probably the most impressive player has been 2019 seventh-round pick Myles Gaskin, who's making a push to earn the backup job behind Jordan Howard and Matt Breida.

Maybe the most impressive linebacker has been Elandon Roberts, who really looks like he could make a difference for this Dolphins defense. Roberts isn't very big, but he's very active and quick to the play.

In the secondary, cornerback Tae Hayes also had a good week of practice and made some plays. He's in the battle for playing time behind Jones, Igbinoghene and certainly Xavien Howard once he's cleared to start practicing.

Breaking down the draft picks outside of the three we've mentioned. Malcolm Perry shows great quickness but his hands let him down last year, Jason Strowbridge didn't do much to stand out (though it can be tough for a defensive lineman to shine in practice when there's no tackling), Curtis Weaver also has been underwhelming, Brandon Jones has had his moments and doesn't look out of place, and Robert Hunt hasn't done much to distinguish himself.

First-round pick Austin Jackson has looked decent, if not spectacular, so far in practice, which brings us to Tua Tagovailoa.

His week was a roller coaster, but he's on an upswing again after a good practice Saturday after a rough performance the day before. The bottom line with Tua is that it looks pretty clear after one week of practice that it's not going to happen overnight for him, not that it ever should have been expected.

And it's also insanely premature for anyone to make any long-term projections yet because we just haven't seen enough of him in practice. But, of course, you're still going to get the instant analysis after every practice. Just be prepared for some good days and some bad days.

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