Friday Dolphins Notebook: X, Training Camp Hint, Bowden Update, and More

Xavien Howard admits to not being much of a ballplayer, but that won't stop him from hosting a celebrity softball event in West Palm Beach on Saturday.

He'll be joined by teammates Tua Tagovailoa, Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle, among others, at the Xavien Howard Celebrity Softball Game at the Ballpark of the Palm Beaches at 2 p.m. Others expected to be on hand include former teammate Jakeem Grant, cornerback Trill Williams and his agent, David Canter.

Tickets for the game itself and for a Meet and Greet with Howard remain available at xavienhowardsoftball.com.

Howard, who told South Florida media during minicamp he'd be more interested in catching softballs than hitting them, appeared on the Fish Tank podcast with former Dolphins wide receiver O.J. McDuffie and Seth Levit and selected Christian Wilkins as his teammate most likely to hit a home run and Raekwon Davis as the one most likely to strike out.

Among other comments during the podcast:

-- Howard talked about serving as a mentor last season to the Dolphins' young defensive backs: "I had to get, get in early and talk to them and let them know about how this league works and, what we got to do on the back end and everything. It was a cool experience, like you say Kader (Kohou), Noah (Igbinoghene), Jevon (Holland), a lot of guys have stepped up and like we looking forward to them guys doing even bigger and better things bigger things this year."

-- Howard talked about working with CB coach and former Dolphins Pro Bowler Sam Madison: "Me and Sam, we already had some good conversations. Him and Waddle will be going at it. He was like, 'You would have played back in my day I would have choked you up. He always said that.' We just had a conversation because he was showing me some techniques. He was teaching me about press and stuff like that ... man, great guy, great mentor."

TRAINING CAMP SCHEDULE HINT

It might be a few weeks before the Dolphins officially announce their 2023 training camp schedule, but the Buffalo Bills provided an early clue as far as a start date Friday.

The Bills announced their camp schedule with the first practice scheduled for Wednesday, July 26. Since most teams start right around the same time, with the exception of the Hall of Fame Game participants, that becomes a good gauge for the Dolphins' own starting date.

The Dolphins' first practice last summer took place Wednesday, July 27. The announcement of practices open to the public came July 7.

BOWDEN IS BACK

Keeping up with our tracking the careers of former young Dolphins players with once-promising outlooks, we're happy to report that wide receiver Lynn Bowden Jr. has found himself a new team.

Bowden signed this week with the New Orleans Saints after being invited to a tryout at the start of their minicamp.

New Orleans will become the fourth NFL team for Bowden since he was a third-round pick of the Las Vegas Raiders in 2020. His only regular season action came with the Dolphins as a rookie after they acquired him in a trade involving draft picks. Bowden spent last season on the practice squad of the New England Patriots, who re-signed him to a future contract after the season before releasing him.

Meanwhile, wide receiver Preston Williams and guard Solomon Kindley still are looking for a team.

TOP 100 DOLPHINS

Along with the many position rankings done by various national outlets, the offseason is the top for some individual rankings, and one of the most noteworthy is that of longtime NFL writer Pete Prisco of CBSSports.com.

His annual Top 100 list came out late this week and it features five Dolphins players, along with three more getting honorable mention.

On Prisco's list: WR Tyreek Hill at 12, CB Jalen Ramsey at 14, WR Jaylen Waddle at 62, Christian Wilkins at 74, and Jaelan Phillips at 95.

The three getting honorable mention were QB Tua Tagovailoa, T Terron Armstead, and S Jevon Holland.

The two players who stand out by their absence here are two players who made the Pro Bowl in 2022 (albeit more on reputation than anything else), cornerback Xavien Howard and edge defender Bradley Chubb.

For those keeping score, Philadelphia had the most players on Prisco's Top 100 list with nine. The Dolphins were tied with the Bengals, Chiefs and Chargers for most players on the list among AFC teams.

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Alain Poupart has covered the Miami Dolphins on a full-time basis since 1989. You can follow him on Twitter at @PoupartNFL. Feel free to submit questions every week for the All Dolphins mailbag via Twitter or via email at fnalldolphins@yahoo.com.