Dolphins vs Jets 1986 - 1st Quarter

Dolphins vs Jets, 1986 (week 3)

Featuring Dan Marino, The Marks Bros, Dwight Stephenson, John Offerdahl, Mark Gastineau, Ken O'Brien and many more.

First Quarter - Part 1

First Quarter - Part 2

First Quarter - part 3

First Quarter - part 4

Click Here to watch the 2nd Quarter.

Training Camp - Day 5

Another two session day today and Twitter is broken. It's all Omar's fault, he's overloaded the system!

Yesterday was a good day in that Donald Thomas got on the field, albeit limited, and Matt Roth was riding the bike on the sidelines and getting more involved. Today should be a good day or reports, so let's get started:

• Per Edgar Thompson: Channing Crowder and Jason Ferguson are both riding the stationary bike this morning. That's not good, but it will allow the coaches to get a better look at Soliai/Ellis/Cohen and Kershaw/Folsom/Martin.
• Also per Edgar: "wide receivers are put in a three-point stance and told to block one another. Davone Bess absolutely handles Ted Ginn Jr."
• Reports are SirVincent Rogers and Chris Brown are absent from practice. There's no reason for them to have been released today - we're already under the limit if we wanted to add someone, and they need the bodies at Tackle and Fullback. Brown worked with the 1st team yesterday.
• The practice moved inside the bubble due to lightning, so fans SOL.
  
• The biggest news, per Omar Kelly is that Donald Thomas is lined up with the starters at RG. This seems like a HUGE leap from playing one set of half-line drills yesterday. But I'm happy to hear it nonetheless.
• It looks like the NFL trend of banning players from using Twitter has caused the company to go bust overnight.
  
• Per Brian Biggane, PBP: "there were a couple of injury scares. CB Will Billingsley spent some time with a trainer looking at his right ankle at one point, and both CB Sean Smith and WR Anthony Armstrong were shaken up when they collided on a punt return drill. Both returned."

• Twitterific: ArmandoSalguero"FB Chris Brown is not on the field so he's likely gone. What you get for hitting Rihianna lol"

• Per Knight, via Brian Biggane via Coach Sparano: Chris Brown has been waived. The FB replacement is Matt Quillen. Tackle SirVincent Rogers left of his own accord.
• Quillen is a 6'0", 250lb fullback undrafted out of New Mexico. He played in 47 out of 49 games and pretty much exclusively blocked out of the backfield.

Training Camp - Day 4

Photos provided by Home SuperBowl 2010. Thanks for sharing your summer vacation slideshow with us! ;) (click to enlarge)

[a portion of this blog has been removed]

UPDATE: It's now been reported that Roth DOES have a groin injury but Coach Sparano said it's not serious. Maybe he doesn't think as highly of his groin than I do of mine. Any groin injury is serious. more than anything, it's a nagging injury - obviously it's been nagging Matt Roth for a few years now.

• Just found out Vontae Davis has $3.05 million in incentives on his contract, meaning the total was 5 years, $13.3 million. My May 18th estimate was 5 years, $13.5 million. Toot toot!

• Joe Berger is lined up at starting RG, Shawn Murphy has moved to the second team.
• Andy Alleman has moved to 2nd team Center to replace Berger.
• Cobbs appears to be fine after minor 'tweak' yesterday.
• Bess is starting, Camarillo to 2nd team.
• Drew Rosenhaus is at training camp, oh boy!
• Wildcat shows up, per Mike Berardino: "Now ronnie hands to ricky, flips to henne, hits cobbs deep. Decent crowd cheers."
• And here we go - per Mike B: "Dthomas working at rg on inside run drill" !!!! (3rd team, but contact!)
• Mike B: "Thomas puts louis ellis on the ground. Ellis pounds turf with left hand" (wow, a louis ellis mention!)
• Omar Kelly chimes in: "Patrick Turner just caught a 40-yard TD pass over Vontae Davis during tandem drills. OK, I'm starting to buy the hype finally."
• Sean Smith's Agent just twittered: "Might have a new nickname for 31 Sean Smith after watching this practice. "Lockdown""
• The latest beat-write contradiction seems to be Cameron Wake. Omar Kelly has been 'feeling' him the last few days whereas Edgar Thompson called him out as a chump undeserving of a roster spot. I would tell you what Armando thinks, but he is apparently taking the practices off and not really reporting live.
• According to Omar, Donald Thomas only went through one set of tandem drills today. Still, it's a start. If he can handle two sets tomorrow, then 3 the next day, etc.
• Reports from Edgar and Omar saying Pennington stank it up today.
  
• Armando finally chimes in with: "Matt Roth talks to the media but says nothing. "I'm not allowed to talk about medical issues.""

• here's a phone vid from Home SuperBowl 2010, showing the size of DThomas' arms.
• Practice Video for Day 4:
  

• Sean Smith's agent was in attendance at practice today and said: "The stamina and fitness of Miami Dolphins players will never be tested. No one in the NFL works harder in more painful and brutal climates."

2009/2010 Cheerleader Calendar releases this Friday!

Hmm, good thing they put laces for added grip.

Training Camp - Day 3

The tweet birds are back at it again, with morning practice in full swing. Here are some highlights:

Omar Kelly:

• "Still no sign of Dolphins part owner JLo. I can't believe she hasn't come to check out her new team."
• "I'll admit Patrick Turner is a real smooth route runner, but I'm still waiting for him to make a WOW catch to back up all the hype he has."
• "Pat White is still having troubles with his accuracy. He's still throwing high and behind guys. The rook needs time."
• "Quentin Moses got to Henne when pocket collapsed, pushing FB chris Brown into him. Erik Walden beat Garner for a sack a few plays later." (Moses got a sack yesterday too...)
  

Armando Salguero:

• "blah blah blah blah!"

Edgar Thompson:

• "Justin Smiley back after being excused for the birth of his son. Did I mention Smiley just had a son. Just in case no one has read my last 40 tweets on the subject, Justin Smiley had a son. I have nothing to say about training camp, so I'm just going to talk about Justin Smiley and his wife having a son. His name is Jett. " (I might be paraphrasing)

Meanwhile, after practice yesterday, rookie cornerback Sean Smith took to the tweet-waves as well, and showed both humility and swagger in a series of posts linking to videos of various interviews he's done over the past few months and how shaky he was back then as opposed to now. Not a huge story, but it is relevant to other rookies. If you watched Pat White's interview from yesterday, you see a guy that a) seems to have no energy at all - some would say he's 'stoic' but he didn't seem that way playing at WVU (maybe he's a gamer, not a practicer) and b) he seems generally nervous and uncomfortable in front of the microphone/camera. While he possesses good traits like humility and understanding that he's here to learn, it would be nice for the star player of our draft to have some swagger too. Also, in that same video, he pulls a Steve Urkel snort. I kid you not.

I also kid you not when I say that, watching the PM practice highlight video, during stretches, Ernest Wilford can be seen sneaking an Oreo cookie. At least that's what it looks like to me....

• It's amazing to me how little Armando 'gets it' sometimes. In his latest report, he says that in the dime package, the Dolphins have JT and Porter on the ends and Merling and Starks in the middle. Then he says "Interesting that Kendall Langford, who actually had one more sack than Merling last season, is not in that mix as of now". Does he not realize that Merling and Starks are not there to rush the passer in that formation? Maybe when Roth comes back, as the second leading sacker of last year, they will replace Merling with Roth. Obviously Merling and Starks are two stout guys who are good at holding their ground. They also need to be able to drop back to eliminate the short middle passing lane. They will not be rushing the passer, at least not on a regular basis. Langford is much slimmer and is not best suited to play in the middle.
• But he does redeem himself with this tidbit:

  "I continue to be fascinated by the competition between rookie left tackle Andrew Gardner and weakside linebacker Cameron Wake. It was all Gardner the first day of camp. Yesterday belonged to Wake. This morning was a deadlock.

  On one pass-rush, Wake leveraged Gardner into the quarterback. On the very next snap, Gardner simply rode Wake wide and out of the play." (this is the kind of thing I like to hear about).

• Practice Video:

• Omar says, "Sparano said the Dolphins will hold a scrimmage Saturday in the afternoon session and wants a big crowd." This would be THE practice to go to.

Unrelated to camp, but it looks like I'll be lining up to see a Sandra Bullock movie...

• Brennan Marion has re-injured his ACL, and is done for the year. I have updated the depth chart.
  

Training Camp - Day Two

Well we made it through the first day without any major contradictions from the media, but first thing today Edgar Thompson said there were 2,000 fans this morning ahead of the media, but then said 'ok, less than 1,000.' I suppose it's ok when he corrects himself shortly after making the mistake.

Yesterday was an interesting day more for what happened on the sidelines than on the field. The Matt Roth mystery injury and the huge fan turnout were the big stories. As we get on in this thing (see, canamdolphin, these cliches are contagious) the action on the field should take over the spotlight.

Early reports from the first of two practices today:

• Pat White is throwing much better today - it should be noted he seemed improved yesterday, according to reports, as well.
• Justin Smiley is excused today to give birth to his already named to the media son, Jett.
• Matt Roth is not in attendance today. I would expect he's inside getting medical attention or resting.

• Vontae Davis's contract numbers have been officially released, 5 years, $10.25 million with a guaranteed $7.4 million.
• The Depth Chart on the sidebar has been updated to reflect the current line-up and practicing roles.
  

• Pads are on, and Omar Kelly is 'feeling' Cam Wake, who came close to 2 sacks.
  
• Sounds like Fasano is struggling a bit today, having one pass broken up and another picked off right in front of him.
• Per Kelly, Vernon Carey pancaked Charlie Anderson, Eric Green is still starting, Donald Thomas is working to the side, Turner and London are paired together (I expect 3rd team), and the guys fielding punts are Ginn, Bess, Hartline and Chris Williams.
  

Morning Practice Video:

• I'm a bit disappointed in the media still focusing 100% on the known players. I want to know what's up with Louis Ellis, JD Folsom, Orion Martin, Joe Cohen, etc. The only nose anyone's talked about is Soliai. Did Ferguson et al just take the last two days off?
• In that video, Pennington's passes looked a bit wonky, to be honest. Apparently the offenses struggled today, I wonder if there were swirling winds?
• And it's official, the media has gone crazy for Matt Roth's groin. They are completely obsessed. I'm willing to give the guy at least 2 days before I start calling him a liar.

• In Jets camp, everyone was fighting everyone. Apparently Rex Ryan was grinning from ear to ear during his press conference afterwards. Is it really possible for the Jets to be less likable than they already were?

• The DolFAN Bandits and Channing Crowder make for one heck of a scary photo, but these guys are great fans and have some training camp photos up at their site.

Matt Roth is in attendance at the afternoon practice inside the bubble, but isn't dressed for practice. Update: Berardino states that Roth is doing stretches

Local genius, Armando Salguero, just tweeted that Justin Smiley is still excused from practice. Ah, he must be such a family man!

Per Berardino: Donald Thomas is dressed and doing individual work with other o-linemen."Per Omar Kelly: "Sean Smith slapped down a pass to Ted Ginn during 1-on-1s, and showed he has the speed to keep up with the speedster.

Training Camp 2009 - Day One

I'm not going to attempt to compete with any of the big boys but the blog is open today for discussion in between tweets/updates from the beat reporters.

First up, JD Quinn and Jared Bronson were the two casualties of the 80 man limit. While I'm surprised Quinn was let go instead of a cornerback, I haven't exactly been a fan of his (does this party-boy have what it takes to play in the NFL? My guess is no, and the fact no ones heard a peep about this kid since OTAs started does not bode well ~ June 18th) and am glad he's no longer with the team. Bronson was a favorite of sorts to be released because of the logjam at tight end.

This means guys like Courtney Bryan and Will Billingsley and Joey Thomas will live to fight another day. I have to say I find the sheer numbers at CB a bit unsettling. It could hurt the number of reps allowed to the two rookies, although I would suspect there will be a lot of spread offense being run, and they will need a lot of dime packages running through camp.

Andy Alleman, Greg Camarillo, and Donald Thomas are in pads, but Thomas is said not to be doing team drills. Still, it's a step in the right direction. Matt Roth, however, is apparently hurt somehow and is doing sideline drills. Meanwhile, Shawn Murphy is lining up with the starters at RG. Camarillo also lined up with starters.

I guess the team restricts how long the reporters can 'blog/tweet' for, so all the reports ended suddenly. So if there are any readers out there, please e-mail any interesting observations and photos to tinshaker@gmail.com so they can be shared with everyone, thanks.

Sean Smith and Vontae Davis with second team, Eric Green with the first team. Jason Taylor was starting in place of Roth.

Day One Highlights:

So it appears Matt Roth is 'under the weather' and failed his conditioning test and Omar Kelly reported that he looked thin. I'd like to believe that this simply means he has the summer flu and couldn't handle the heat or run laps, etc, but the fact Omar said he looked thin before finding out he wasn't practicing, suggest he's been ill for a while. I hope it's nothing serious, fingers crossed at the moment. However, if he cannot practice for an extended period, it could change the landscape of the OLB competition completely.

Per Edgar Thompson, Paul Soliai weighed in at 340 lbs.

Coach Sparano:

So that's that, Jared Bronson just didn't show up to camp. It wasn't excused, so he's done.

Rookie Signing - Pat White!

The Dolphins have gotten rookie quarterback, Pat White under contract (seriously, this time).

The contract is a reported 4 year deal worth $ 4.5 million including $2.4 million guaranteed. It breaks down as follows:

2009: $310,000 base + $416,175 roster bonus
2010: $395,000 base + $1,538,154 option bonus
2011: $576,500
2012: $758,000
2013: Free Agent

Rookie Signing - Chris Clemons

The Dolphins have gotten rookie safety, Chris Clemons under contract. FINALLY!

The contract is a reported 4 year deal worth $ 1.913 million. It breaks down as follows:

Signing Bonus $162,500.
2009: 310,000
2010: 390,000
2011: 480,000
2012: 565,000
2013: Free Agent

Tins Fins is Live, sort of.

I will be updating throughout the day. Newer updates will appear at the top of this article.

4:00pm: Since no one is reporting who got released, I'm going to do some detective work....the answer is JD Quinn and Jared Bronson.

3:30pm: Just a reminder, that NFL Network is replaying the classic 2000 game between the Jets and the Dolphins at 8pm Eastern/ 5pm Pacific.

3:00pm: The Dolphins have signed Pat White. The End!

2:30pm: Well, no updates anywhere in the media yet. One thing to note, with the Clemons signing, that meant there would be 81 players under contract. Obviously that means at least one player has already been released, but there's been no statement from the Dolphins yet.

1:30pm: Dolphins have signed Chris Clemons. Pat White deal about to be announced as well.

12:30pm: I played the Madden 2010 demo. First impression, the way the defense moves is way more natural and I actually got into a scrum for a loose football which was pretty cool, even though I lost the battle because I wasn't ready for it. It was a bit hard to get any gameplan going with only 1 minute quarters in the demo, but I did manage to win 3 - 0 using the Giants. The yardage stats were in my favor 124 to 3. I couldn't figure out how to get off blocks at the line of scrimmage, and since I usually play d-line in the game, most of my defensive success was luck. On offense, however, I found the passing game quite interesting. I had passes batted down, on target intermediate routes, and several passes that were overthrown by 10 yards or more - I was using Manning, not Pat White ;) . Since i skipped over 2009, I suppose there's a bigger learning curve, but overall I felt the gameplay was much improved and more realistic, but definitely will be harder with all the new features. My only hang up will be what the soundtrack will be. I wish you could add your own mp3s to the game.

11:30AM - PST: it kind of sucks only being able to read about the Jets practices. Kellen Clemens apparently had a great day until the last 15 minutes of practice, when he threw 2 interceptions. Jets beat writer, Rich Cimini, says neither Sanchez and Clemens is making a case for themselves as the starter.

10AM - PST: First up, woke up this morning to rumors of a Pat White hold-out. Not to piss in those people's lemonade but the Dolphins cancelled their Sunday morning practice about a week ago, which means that they don't have to have any of the last two unsigned rookies on the field until 2pm Eastern on Sunday. That means there's more than 24 hours to go. When I spoke to Justin Schulman, Pat White's agent, also over a week ago, he indicated that they had already done the whole "factoring in he's not just a back-up quarterback" and had held several discussions with the team and that Pat White was not a 'holdout' type of player. I fully expect the signing to be announced by tomorrow lunchtime.

As for Chris Clemons, expect that to be announced today. Several rumors as to why he has not yet signed, for example, that the contract length was unsatisfactory to Clemons, that is agent wanted to step outside the confines of a 5th round pick and get him a deal more in tune with a 3rd round pick, etc. Whatever it is, expect it to be sorted today.