Fitzpatrick’s return raises quarterback play. And notes, highlights from Dolphins practice
Notes, highlights and observations from Saturday’s Miami Dolphins practice, the team’s fifth in pads:
▪ Ryan Fitzpatrick returned after taking a day for personal reasons, and the quality of the quarterback play immediately and dramatically improved.
And that included Tua Tagovailoa, too, who rebounded nicely from his first poor day of camp on Friday. (More on the rookie in a minute.)
The whole offense seems to get energized with Fitzpatrick on the field.
Fitzpatrick was very, very good, unleashing several nice throws to both DeVante Parker and Preston Williams. He also hit Isaiah Ford for a long gain and Mike Gesicki for two significant plays, including a 40-plus yard pass that beat Eric Rowe.
And Fitzpatrick threw a long touchdown to Williams, who had at least six steps on Noah Igbinoghene in what appeared to be a communication error in the secondary.
But there were some encouraging signs from Tagovailoa early on.
He delivered a bullet on a seam pass to Chester Rogers, with two defenders in coverage. It was the type of pinpoint pass that made scouts salivate when they watched him at Alabama, and probably his best throw of camp.
Tagovailoa also attempted a deep sideline pass to Jakeem Grant, and while it wasn’t a bad throw, it wasn’t good enough to get the ball to Grant against tight coverage from Nik Needham.
During Tagovailoa’s second set of 11 on 11 drills, he threw two short screen passes that were completed, and had a pass down the middle to Chester Rogers knocked away by Tae Hayes.
And during red zone drills, Tagovailoa rolled out and threw a touchdown to Iowa rookie tight end Nate Wieting. Good stuff.
Tagovailoa’s final work in 11 on 11s was less productive. Malcolm Perry dropped a decently thrown pass that he had to dive for, and then Tae Hayes knocked away a pass in coverage.
Tagovailoa then connected with Mack Hollins and Perry for short gains, but then threw three consecutive incomplete passes when his receiver simply couldn’t break loose from coverage. (One of those was intentionally thrown out of bounds; the other two were thrown in a way that they wouldn’t be intercepted.)
A bit later, Gary Jennings dropped a well-thrown ball down the middle from Tagovailoa.
Remember, Tagovailoa was targeting multiple first-round receivers at Alabama.
With the Dolphins, he’s throwing mostly to rookies and journeymen trying to make the team.
Overall, Tagovailoa got a lot of work on Saturday, and QB pressure and tight coverage and receiver drops torpedoed some plays.
Rookie Jason Strowbridge would have sacked him two seconds after one play began if the play hadn’t been blown dead.
Josh Rosen was OK, doing nothing egregious or spectacular. Perry took a short screen pass from Rosen and gained 10 plus yards, thanks to his speed and shiftiness.
▪ Besides cornerback Xavien Howard (who is the COVID-19 and PUP list), three others did not participate in practice: linebacker Jerome Baker (who was injured during Friday’s session and is day to day), safety Kavon Frazier (out for personal reasons, according to Brian Flores) and linebacker James Crawford (unannounced reason).
▪ Howard was on the exercise bike, meaning he’s out of quarantine and likely will soon be removed from the COVID-19 list, though no announcement has been made on that. He was placed on the list on Aug. 11.
His removal would leave no Dolphin on the list, which is available to teams to stash players who have tested positive for the virus or been in close contact with someone who was.
▪ Running back Myles Gaskin continues to impress. He seems to be running the ball with a lot more power than a year ago and continues to draw praise from coaches.
▪ Matt Breida, with his speed, should be effective on screens. We saw him turn one into a nice gain on Saturday. But he also had a goal line fumble that defensive tackle Brandin Bryant came away with.
▪ It’s clear the Dolphins want to get a long look at their new toys at linebacker - Elandon Roberts and Kamu Grugier-Hill, specifically. And Andrew Van Ginkel has assumed a larger role after Vince Biegel’s season-ending Achilles injury.
Calvin Munson is also very much involved.
The new linebackers got lots of work with Baker sidelined on Saturday.
▪ Keep an eye on Hayes, who looked good Saturday. He broke up one pass and deflected another.
Keep in mind that he allowed only 3 of 16 passes in his coverage area to be caught last season after Miami claimed him off waivers from Jacksonville.
▪ Bobby McCain blew up Kallen Ballage on a running play in the red zone.
▪ Rookie defensive end Curtis Weaver limped off to the locker-room with undisclosed injury.
▪ Here’s who won in a bunch of one-on-one matchup stills between defensive players and offensive linemen: Solomon Kindley beat Christian Wilkins, Austin Jackson beat Shaq Lawson, Kyle Van Noy beat Robert Hunt, Benito Jones beat Michale Deiter, Zach Seiler beat Danny Isidora twice, Emmanuel Ogbah beat Julien Davenport, Wilkins beat Keaton Sutherland, Ereck Flowers beat Davon Godchaux, Andrew Van Ginkel beat Jonathan Hubbard, Jesse Davis beat Van Noy, Seiler beat Hubbard.
▪ Hunt had at least one false start.
▪ Austin Jackson and Solomon Kindley continue to be given every chance to win starting jobs.
This story was originally published August 22, 2020 at 12:03 PM.
