Episode 537: Joint Practice Recap, Tyreek Status, and More

Episode 537: Joint Practice Recap, Tyreek Status, and More

And we’re off. Surprise. It’s only little old me. Think maybe some of you might have been expected somebody else to be joining me on this Friday, August 8th, 88 8:25 or as some smart Alex on the internet uh amusingly but perhaps harshly call it Jeff Fisher day because he was always a Nate. That’s a joke. Um, but uh, no, it’s going to be me only to recap the Miami Dolphins joint practice with the Chicago Bears or against the Chicago Bears uh, in light of what transpired at Halis Hall in Lake Forest, Illinois. I think we probably should use the word against as opposed to the word with. And we’re going to dive into all of it starting right now on a programming note. Okay, I lie. uh program programming note. My hope is still to get a podcast with Omar Kelly of the Miami Herald after I appeared on his podcast uh over there on Thursday. Uh circumstances prevented us from being able to make it happen today. It will happen sooner rather than later, possibly on Saturday. Stay tuned for that. Check your notifications. If not, certainly we’ll go uh after the game on Sunday against the Bears. Uh, please like, subscribe to the All Dolphins podcast. Check out the written content on miam dolphins onsi.com. Uh, where all the content is free from myself and that of my staff, including deputy editor Dante Colinelli. So, I am in Chicago. I was at the practice today and did my best to keep an eye on both fields where the Dolphins offense was going against the Bears defense. the Dolphin defense was going against the Bears offense. And of course, there’s some collaborative work going on with myself and the other beat writers who made the trip from South Florida. And every once in a while when if there was between plays on my side of the field, I could sneak looks over to the other field and caught pretty much all of the meaningful eventful occurrences. So, we will start with the highlights. The thing that stood out first of all is Tyreek Hill did not work because of an oblique injury, which is what head coach Mike McDaniel revealed before practice on Friday morning. Uh, according to McDaniel, they’re fighting with Tyreek Hill to try to get him to to not get involved in practice reps to make sure that the injury does not linger, which obviously makes sense given the importance of Tyreek Hill to the offense. along with uh Tariq the other players who did not participate in the joint practice with the Bears included Muhammad Chimera. I asked about his status uh when McGo spoke on Friday and he indicated that Camarra sustained an injury that put him in the concussion protocol on Wednesday, which is the day the Dolphins left for Chicago. Therefore, uh made perfect sense to just leave him behind in South Florida um and then evaluate his progress from there. Also not working were the guys who had been missing. That includes safety Ashton Davis, cornerback Cam Smith, fullback Alec Ingold, tackle Austin Jackson, tackle Baron Matoss, and I don’t believe I’m leaving anybody else out. Um, so that takes care of the attendance report. What else stood out from this practice? But what stood out u probably more than anything else or two things that stood out is toango Voa threw three interceptions in the joint practice. One of them in a red zone drill believe the other two were an 11 on 111 work. This is after he threw only one pick during the first 12 practices at the Baptist Health Training Complex. And by all indications, every time I would look over to the offense, generally speaking, it really was not pretty. On the defensive side, however, I would probably give the Dolphins a little bit of an edge against the Bears offense. Probably not as pronounced as the Bears defense and the way they handled the Dolphins offense. The other thing that stood out after we go into individual players and more things in detail um was the chippiness, the feistiness, the borderline physicality of of the Bears. And this is not No, I’m not I don’t want the Dolphins to be soft. But again, there are rules of engagements of engagement in a joint practice. Mike McDaniel told us before practice that he and Ben Johnson had spoken and they had decided there would be thuing, no live tackling. Tutting is basically you make contact, direct contact with a player that counts as a tackle and the play stops. But the Bears, they teetered on the line between tough physical play and being a little bit overboard for a joint practice, including a defender. I believe it was Jaquan Brisker, the safety, uh, who kind of ran through Jaylen Wadd after he caught a screen. Waddle stayed on the ground for, I don’t know, 30 seconds, 40 seconds. Um, then got up, walked over and then was back uh, doing reps shortly thereafter. Kind of fairly obvious. We’re not supposed to u speculate, but kind of obvious given what happened there. They just got no win knocked out of him. There was another play involving um Jack Jones on a kickoff return who took a hit from a Bears player that drew a loud all loud whooping from the Bears sideline. And the most egregious one I saw very egregious. I had never I told the writers over there I’d never seen this before. I mean, holy smokes I find it egregious. Is there a pass from Zach Wilson to Eric Zukama over the middle covered by linebacker Noah Su brother of Lions tackle Penu and like out of the blue after the play is over Sell was behind them and then as he crossed over him basically clubbed them on top of the helmet. I mean, like, wow. Like, I don’t know if nobody saw it, but that’s the type of stuff that would start major altercation, melees, skirmishes, whatever you want to call it or get a player ejected. I mean, it was was really egregious, but nothing happened. He stayed in the practice. Um, nobody was worse for the wear, I guess. And then there was the then there were two skirmishes that me to mention to be mentioned. One of them involved Jordan Brooks and one of his teammates. It happened on the field to my right and the way it was when I noticed something was going on because my attention at first was somewhere else. It was clear like Jordan Brooks was was not a happy camper with one of his teammates. There were a lot of players between Jordan Brooks and the other player involved. I kind of sort of had an idea of maybe who it is, but it would be irresponsible for me to say it. Um, I’d rather, this is a place where I’d rather not speculate, but it’s clear Jordan Brooks was involved with one of his teammates. Um, and Jordan Brooks is kind of developing a reputation as one of the biggest leaders on the team. And may I don’t know if it was maybe something wasn’t done the way it was supposed to, something was said that shouldn’t have been said. I’m not sure. Um, but that was interesting because it was not necessarily the kind of thing you see on the practice field every day. And then it was the melee in the end zone which started with DGridge, the Dolphins wide receiver, and Kevin Bard, the veteran safety for the Bears. And we didn’t speak to the Escridge after practice. He spoke after practice on Thursday. Kevin Bard did speak to the Bears media after practice and he basically said that kind of felt that Escridge went overboard. um trying to do a blocking like sort of after the play that appeared to die down a little bit and then lo and behold we see Aaron Brewer get into it with Tyreek Stevenson. For those not familiar with Tyreek Stevenson, that’s the guy who was the deepest defensive back for the Bears, taunting the Washington sideline at the end of that game when they had one play left from like the 30 yardd line and then misplayed the ball, jumped too early and tipped it right into the hands of the wide receiver for a game- ending touchdown or game-winning touchdown for Washington. The last play of the game and one of the wildest finishes you’ll see in the NFL um in a while. So, and Stevenson, by the way, played at the University of Miami. So, that continued the whole thing. More and more players got involved. There was nobody involved to that extent, but then Mike McDaniel joined the Frey. And then wound up losing some papers that fell on the ground in the end zone, some of his his papers. And then Tyreek Hill got involved. Tyreek Hill, who was wearing like a a cut off t-shirt, no pads, he wasn’t dressed for practice. He gets in there and he wound up grabbing Escridge to pull him out, get him out of the of the trouble area and basically lifted him up with one arm. Kyrie’s very strong by the way and yanked him out of the situation and cooler head cooler heads prevailed eventually and that took care of that. Um, but again, I mean, there’s some tweets on the internet, some memes, some joking things where kind of joking that supposedly Ben Johnson didn’t get the memo that they weren’t supposed to go all out. Um, don’t know don’t know how how much of it I mean, it’s kind of it’s a cute little meme, but um, there were there there did seem to be a couple of instances where maybe the two sides were not on the same page. And unfortunately, this is something that’s we were seeing a bit with the Dolphins. uh so far this summer. Um what what’s that means on the line? Who knows? Okay, we’re gonna go back to I’m going to start first with what I saw um on offense. It started off the first, pardon me, with the defense. The first set of competitive drills were the one-on- ones. Um, first it started with receivers versus DBs and the beginning of it was absolutely brutal for the Dolphin DBs where it was completion, completion, completion, completion, completion, completion. Oh, incomplete. But there’s a flag and the ref is signaling defensive pass interference. Completion, completion, completion, incomplete. Here’s another flag. I mean, the start of it was brutal. Uh, and then there were a couple of incompletions. the one DB who did well in that session and and I preface this by saying again this is a drill that massively favors the offense, but the one DB who did well was Ethan Bonner. And um this is a guy who’s actually making some headway the last few days of practice if we’re going to be honest about it. And then at the far end of the field, it was one-on- ones with pass rushers and offensive linemen. That one was tough. that really tested my ability to see through people because it’s at the far end of the field number one and then you have all the Dolphin defensive linemen who are not involved in the play and you basically got four lined up across from the offensive lineman waiting their turn to go and then you have all of the other offensive linemen edge defenders uh standing like a I don’t know five yards behind them kind of in a line blocking the view but you look through in between uh and then that drill also can’t say the Dolphin defense did particularly well. There were a couple of guys who got through. Uh Jaylen Phillips got through one time on the outside. Quinton Bell had one very good rep. Kenneth Grant had one good rep. Grayson Murphy had one good rep. And I don’t know, I don’t think I recall seeing this at the Baptist Health Training Complex earlier in camp, but Grayson Murphy was screaming every time he made a play. And he had that one good rep. He had and then in teams he had a good pressure on the quarterback and he had a tackle for either a loss or no gain on a running play and then he is yelling at the top of his of his lungs, you know, gosh yeah or take that and so and so I mean loudly and using language not suitable for children. But it certainly was interesting. You certainly like to see the energy and the passion um as far as that’s concerned. Then 11-11 on start 11 on 11 started. I’m not going to go through every single solitary play. I did take notes just about every play. Uh that was noteworthy certainly going through the guy who stood out of the highlights and the low lightss. Tyrell Dodson had himself a good day. I will say that. Um I know he had a sack. He had either a tackle for loss or a tackle at the line of scrimmage. He was very noticeable. Um, trying to think up front. I mentioned Grayson Murphy already. Bradley Chub had backto-back plays. There were disruptions of the quarterback, either sacks or pressures, whatever you want to call them, in the red zone period that stood out. Minka Fitzpatrick had g great coverage on the on the rep red zone rep deep in the end zone. I think it was against DJ Moore to force an incompletion that was very significant. Um, beyond that, didn’t really notice the quarterbacks. I mean, there were completions that were allowed, but that’s going to happen. Most of it was underneath. Can’t remember anything over the top. BJ Adams a very good coverage on a deep pass that fell incomplete. Um, yeah, for those wondering, Willie Gay Jr. did not have any noticeable plays. Um, oh, and also I should, this is a part I should mention, they were there was no orange jersey because Dolphins are practicing on the road. This generally is something they do for the fans. Um, not sure if it’s related to the music and the fact that whoever gets to the orange jersey also gets to play the m select the music that’s being played at practice. Should mention here, as a side note, Terron Armstead was at practice. Uh he was in the end zone with the Dolphin offensive lineman when they were there or on the sideline with his teammates. Um still getting involved heavily with his podcast. Um but clearly clearly likes being around his former teammates on the Dolphins. Um trying to think if anything else really stood out from the Dolphin defensive standpoint. I’m not sure I would say that that’s the case. Um, so we’ll switch over to the offense. I mentioned the two two the three two interceptions I should say. Um, I don’t recall the first one. The one of them was on a pass to Tariq Black which was thrown a little bit behind him. It was catchable. Black couldn’t come up with a catch. Instead wound up tipping it up in the air and the DB, I think it was Brisker dove for it to make the pick. Another one came at the end in the red zone drill when he was trying to hit maybe Tanner Connor and uh Tummaine Edmonds, former Bills first round pick, son of former Dolphins tight end Farrell Edmonds, stepped in front and picked it off after juggling it, battling it in the air like I over the course of 20 yards and with basically nobody between him and the goal line on the other side. And the other one was a pass intended for Chris Mrick. And I think I caught it at the end of the play, although I couldn’t tell you exactly what happened on that particular play. That’s not good. There were also a couple of fumbled, which isn’t good. Uh Alexander Madison fumbled at the end of a screen. There was another one. There was a play where Zack Wilson had had a botched handoff with a running back. May have been Madison again. This was a red zone drill. Bears recovered it. Um, there were two notable special teams reps. One of those was Cameron Good breaking through, getting a hand on a Bears punt. Based on our angle, again, we couldn’t tell whether the ball went backwards or sideways because we were like at the wrong end. We’re not looking at it from the side. So, we couldn’t quite tell, but at the very least, he got his hand on it, which was impressive. And then the next special teams rep that stood out, no, there were two others that stood out, not in a good way. One of them was Monterey Baldwin who’s a rookie free agent trying to impress and make the team. Um, let a punt bounce off his chest, then bobbled it after trying to recover it and the Bears wound up with the ball. Obviously not good. and another rep where the Dolphins are punting and the returner started going to his left and was able to get around Channing Tindle who was the last person on the outside to gain a corner for what would have been logically a very long return which not good. Um so that’s what stood out there on those two plays. Offensively, there was a good completion to Eric Zukama. I mentioned the one uh over the middle where Noel S hit him on top of the head. Um there were a couple of decent runs mostly to the left side obviously is good with that was with Patrick Paul and Jonah Savvay. I should mention Jonas Sevay was not on the field in that last red zone drill. Um don’t think it’s anything to be alarmed about because he was a he was on the sideline looking perfectly fine. So, um, but it’s worth mentioning Jack Jones was called for a DPI in that red zone drill at the end and then went down, then was carried off the field by two team teammates putting no weight on his legs. Got looked at on a cart on the sideline. And from the start, it looks like it looked like cramps. Got card off inside probably to replenish the fluids. And he tweeted after practice, “Areciate the concern. I’m all good. It was a scram. So, um, and he had a noticeable play. Oh, he had a great play where he came in from the outside. I mean, just sprinted around the corner to meet running back. It was DeAndre Swift right at the line or a yard behind the line of scrimmage, which was a great play. Um, trying to think, Patrick Paul’s days of dominating the one-on- ones done. Um, didn’t go quite as smoothly. In fact, uh was told by uh my fellow reporters there that actually on the first rep of the one-on- ones, he wound up on on on the ground, which is completely the opposite of what we’ve seen at the Baptist Health Training Complex when he’s the one putting folks on the ground. So, um, so all in all, it was again not a great showing for the offense, which was minus Tyreek Hill, which was minus starting fullback Alec King, which was minus starting right tackle Austin Jackson. But this is not the time to start making excuses because you’re missing players. It was not a good showing by the offense. Point blank. And like I said, every time I looked over there, it was a run that was getting stuffed. It was pressure on the quarterback. I looked over a few times and saw Zach Wilson having players around his feet having to step on in the pocket, not being able to set his feet because he’s got too much traffic around them and then whing short hopping um you know his receivers. I saw I did see Zach Wilson with a really nice scramble down the right side for a pretty sizable gain. That was good. Can’t tell you I noticed anything from Quinners today. I’d be lying if I said that. I did see a couple of nice throws by Zach Wilson. Uh, two had a couple of decent completions sprinkled among the three picks, including one to Jaylen Wadd on the left sideline. Um, but overall, no, not a great day for the Dolphin offense. The Dolphin defense again was solid. Um, and then the other thing I should mention is, we won’t know until Sunday, that Mike McDaniel said he was kind of leaning towards wanting to see his players get reps in the preseason opener, which was different than what he said, I think, at this time last year before the preseason opener, which, if memory serves, was against Tampa Bay and none of the starters wound up playing. Is that going to change? I know James Daniels, interestingly enough, I asked him whether his outlook on preseason games and what they can do for him changed has changed in light of him coming off a serious injury. He told me his whole mindset changed after he went to Pittsburgh because he used to not like preseason games. I didn’t get that. He didn’t. He did not like I know my phone decided to get involved in the podcast. Would you like to get involved in the podcast, Siri? No. Okay. Okay. Well, then let me finish by myself if that’s okay. Okay. I have no idea what that was about. Anyway, uh so James Daniel said he didn’t particularly care for preseason games when he was with Tampa, sorry, with the Bears early in his career. Went to the Steelers as a free agent and then Mike Tomlin made him see the value in every rep you can get in the preseason to get yourself ready for the regular season. And now he’s looking forward to and hopes to get reps in the preseason. Um whether that’ll happen, not sure. We’ll probably will find out Sunday morning. The game is at 100 p.m. Eastern time. NFL Network is tele televising it live. It’s being replayed on the NFL Network. If you catch it live and want to watch it at 11 PM on Sunday night and Thursday, I want to say it’s at noon Eastern time on replay again on NFL Network. And we’ll see if the Dolphins can put put on a better product on offense than they did in this joint practice with the Bears on Friday at Halis Hall in Lake Force, Illinois because it really wasn’t that good. So anyway, that’s going to do it for now. Again, I would encourage you please check your notifications over the next couple of days. There will be podcasts. I don’t know yet exactly what time, what format, who’s going to be my guest, if I’m going to have a guest. I don’t know. It’s all a big mystery inside a riddle wrapped around an enigma or something like that. Anyway, uh please like, subscribe if you enjoy this, and I hope you do. Please check out the written content at Miami Dolphins onsi.com. And that’s going to wrap it up for this Friday. Hope you enjoy the rest of your evening and your weekend. And thanks for watching.

Miami Dolphins On SI Publisher Alain Poupart breaks down the joint practice with the Chicago Bears at Halas Hall. Catch Alain’s written content (for free) at miamidolphinsonsi.com and follow him on X at @PoupartNFL.