‘Fear’ and testing in Broward: Dolphins players adjust life with COVID-19, new roles
A hodgepodge of news, notes and quotes from this week’s Zoom news conferences with Ryan Fitzpatrick, Bobby McCain and Jesse Davis:
▪ Davis acknowledged that there’s some “fear” about playing football during a pandemic, even with the NFL’s COVID-19 testing and distancing protocols.
“There hasn’t been somebody going, like, ‘Hey, make sure you stay away from me,’” Davis said. “It’s more so you have your own respect for the guy next to you. Like, you make sure you’re already six feet away or a farther distance. But we all wear these contact tracers, it starts beeping or flashing on your wrist if you’re too close to somebody. That’s a good reminder as well.
“So the fear is there, but I guess it’s not very shown on somebody’s face or somebody’s body language,” he added. “They’ve done such a good job like that’s the primary mind-set for a guy, they feel safe in that building. That’s the way it should be and it’s been nice.”
Would Davis be OK if the league shifted to a bubble system — particularly in light of Major League Baseball’s inability to get the virus under control?
“For me, if that’s what we have to do then that’s what we have to do,” Davis said. “I’d definitely do it just to play the game, obviously to help this organization play football. It’s a tough one to ask. I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer to that. It depends on the individuals. We have to see how this kind of plays out as well.”
▪ McCain, the Dolphins’ cornerback-turned-safety, has never played with as much talent in the defensive backfield as he will this year — assuming Xavien Howard makes a full recovery from 2019 knee surgery.
The Dolphins are expected to play Howard and Byron Jones on the boundary, McCain and Eric Rowe at safety and presumably rookie Noah Igbinoghene at nickel.
“Honestly, two of the best in the league,” McCain said of Howard and Jones. “So just having those guys and getting those guys in the building as soon as we can and getting them on the field and us joining together and us coming together as a unit that’s gonna be real big for us.
He added: “I’m not going to sit there and speak on expectations that we have for us but we know what we want to be. We know where we want to be and who we want to be. And we want to be the best version of ourselves and that’s, be able to help this team win.”
▪ While the Dolphins still have not informed Davis if he will play right tackle or right guard this fall — he’s expected to compete with rookie Robert Hunt at both spots — Davis is even preparing to see time at center, if COVID-19 hits the team particularly hard.
During walkthrough practices with rookies and select veterans last week, Davis got in reps snapping the ball.
“It’s just been, ‘We don’t have a center right now and why don’t you see what happens?’” Davis said. “So right now I don’t want to go out there and put my guys in the right spot so I have to learn the stuff and make the right calls and put everyone in a position to be successful, see the reps and get the reps right. I guess it’s something to mess with, especially with this COVID stuff. You never know who is going to be up and who is going to be down. I’m excited for it.”
▪ Fitzpatrick, the Dolphins’ presumptive Week 1 starting quarterback, said that baseball’s coronavirus troubles have “been eye-opening for everybody. I don’t know that that was unexpected. I think this is not going to be perfect and there are going to be things that pop up.”
He added that a positive test shouldn’t necessarily come with a stigma.
“Because somebody comes into the building and tests and then they’re positive for COVID, that doesn’t mean that they were irresponsible or doesn’t mean that they were out in a bar. Maybe it means that you’ve got five kids in public school and you’re going home and they’re asymptomatic and you bring it in.”
McCain’s advice to his teammates?
“Discipline yourself. ... People tend to forget you can’t just catch COVID inside the facility, you can catch COVID outside the facility, as well. So it’s everywhere. You gotta be disciplined as a team, you gotta understand that you’ve got to hold your brothers accountable, as far as stepping out and going to dinner with a lot of people, going to nightclubs, going to bars, being with different women. Whatever you bring home, you’re bringing to the family. It’s definitely going to take a lot of discipline. The most disciplined team will end up playing the most games and being the healthiest at the end of the day.”
▪ With Blake Ferguson on the IR/COVID-19 list, the Dolphins added a long snapper in Rex Sunahara, an undrafted rookie out of West Virginia.
This story was originally published August 1, 2020 at 1:07 PM.
