Training Camp - Day 6

New photos from Home SuperBowl 2010! (click to enlarge)

There is one afternoon practice today, at 2pm. Yesterday, reader/contributor Fang attended practice and sent this report:

"Pat White can't throw a spiral, but I don't think it matters. It's just one of those things more or less. He has a pretty good arm somewhere between the two Chads. He looked OK today I didn't see any over throws, but I was a long way from the field. To much is being made about the check down throws IMHO. Those throws could be what the dolphins want from the 3rd string QB. Think about it, if PW does enter a game as the 3rd QB, I think all the Coach's expect out of him is to run the offense. That's it, no more no less. That is the same thing they asked of Beck last year. Wasn't he known as check down ? PW is doing the same thing, I think it's planned that way.

Also Dan Carpenter can't get ball deep in the end zone on Kickoffs. That's a fact, so the Dolphins will have to depend on the coverage team. He had the wind to his back today and the deepest kick I saw was about 6 yards into the end zone, and with very little hang time. I think this is going to be troublesome. But he doesn't miss anything inside the of 45 yards, the guy is like automatic.

Plus if Patrick Cobbs is in the game something good is going to happen, he just makes plays.

Willford is now the designated blocking dummies holder for the tight ends. :) Mulligan held that position last year and is long gone. Willford can't get open with no one covering him.

One more thing and I know you won't like this I never saw J. Allen today I think he was there but I didn't see him. To be honest I only have one set of eyes, and things are going on all over 2 different fields. The far field is nearly 75 yards from where I was sitting and the defense was over there in both sessions. So I can see why we get different reports from different reporters on the same play. The Reporters are nearly 100 yard away from the far field, they have to be using glasses from that distance. Oh yea Sean Smith is the Man. This guy can play, or at least I think he can. I wish I could have given you something about the Oline and Dline but I have nothing to report They were to far away for me to see what was clearly going on. So no report on them, and same thing goes for the defense with the exception of any CB that were on my side of the far field."

Thanks, Fang.

Mulligan - that's the name I couldn't remember a few weeks back. We had Fasano/Martin/Peele/Ryan/Mulligan/Heerspink? back in '08 TC. So its not unusual for the Dolphins to have this many TEs at this point. Obviously four of those guys were released and Haynos brought in to keep us at 3 active. I think we had a fourth on the practice squad but I 've forgotten who it was.

I don't know about you folks, but to me, a good way to tell if the team is progressing from last year is to go back and watch last year's games and see where we struggled and if we've made strides to improve those areas. Basically, if we were to play those games over, would we have an easier time with them? The obvious change in the team from last year is the secondary.

No better matchup can best be used for comparison than the Patriots in week 12. They beat us handedly to get payback for the week 5 Wildcat bite on the ass we gave them. But it wasn't as bad as the score showed. First of all, the Pats passed on more than 80% of the snaps. No secondary could handle that for very long, especially with the weapons the Pats have. Jason Allen took the brunt of the blame from fans, because Moss scored two touchdowns on him (he scored a third on Andre Goodman, and he would've scored a fourth on Andre as well, but for some reason he didn't even try to catch the ball, allowing Goodie to swat it down). Tyrone Culver was fantastic in this game, but he played primarily strong safety in the box, with Yeremiah Bell playing deep. This is a coaching mistake that led to alot of issues. As a result, Bell had a terrible game. Will Allen also had a shaky game, giving up way too many catches. Here is a look back at Jason Allen's performance.

I didn't notice this at the time (probably because I was jumping around the room like a lunatic), but on the Hill INT, J. Allen actually volleyed the ball up into the air so Hill could make a play on it. You can tell it was an intentional move. This is not something a slow-thinker would do. While Jason may not be the best communicator, he certainly has some field awareness and good reaction time. The question now, is if Sean Smith or Vontae Davis are going to help to slow down the Pat's aggressive passing machine.

• * The PM Practice video from yesterday was actually one of the more entertaining ones. Loved that D-line drill with the giant hula hoops. Where do you buy hula hoops that big?
• * I have to be honest, Brandon London has shown up for camp, and I'm both shocked and excited. I have to be honest, I'm not worried about the WR situation in Miami right now. For once we're in the position where we have too many viable receivers, as opposed to just scraping the bottom of the barrel to get 5 on the roster.
• The Tweets have restarted and Armando chimes in with: "Patriots afternoon practice was canceled, according to the Boston Globe. I cannot imagine Dolphins canceling a practice." Does this guy actually follow the Dolphins? They cancel practices all the time. They canceled TWO practices in OTAs, and cancelled their FIRST practice of Training Camp. Last year Sparano canceled at least two practices during the regular season. I'm sure Armando could go through his own blog archives and find this information.
• Mike Berardino said both Quentin Moses and Jason Taylor knocked Ernest Wilford to the ground. Wilford experiment continues in vain.
• The New Orleans Saints are practicing for when they face Miami on Sept 3rd and October 25th.

Sparano - Day 6

• Safety Ethan Kilmer quit the team today. I have to say I don't think I've ever seen this many players quit on their own accord at this stage. Jared Bronson didn't report, SirVincent Rogers quit yesterday and Kilmer today. Is Sparano hurting these guys' feelings or what? None of them really have a good shot at getting on another roster, so to walk away from a possible practice team spot seems odd. Unless they got offers from the UFL?

Practice Highlights

• Today was the NFL Official Review presentation and they've added some new rules to the officiating book. Most of them are insignificant, but I found this one very interesting: According to NFL umpire, Jeff Rice, there will be more offensive and defensive holding calls this season because it was determined by the competition committee to follow the letters of the law from now on because of a recent decline in these types of infractions. What kind of retarded logic is that? Are the NFL officials hanging out with traffic cops now? In any event, after this rule change, Randy Moss better watch himself.