Dolphins rookie minicamp: Flo’s message, what impressed Waddle, Long’s coolest moment
Before the Miami Dolphins’ first practice with their rookies (and presumably other young players and tryouts), coach Brian Flores wanted to make sure the newest players on his admittedly young team understood what’s expected.
“He told us this is a learning weekend,” rookie seventh-round pick Larnel Coleman said. “Be sure you’re in your playbook. Get used to the weather. And make sure we come out of the weekend healthy.”
That last part is probably the most important. Because there will be more lessons and more practices for this group, but an injury can derail an entire season’s plan.
We don’t know if everyone survived because Flores kept this rookie minicamp closed, but we do know first-round pick Jaylen Waddle was happy throughout the day.
He signed a fully guaranteed four-year, $27.085 million contract before his first practice. The deal includes a tidy $17.058 million signing bonus.
“Of course it’s a blessing but it was really time to get back to work,” Waddle said. “I was just trying to make it to practice.”
No telling if Waddle was able to show off his sub-4.4 speed during the workout. The thing he found most impressive about the session had really nothing to do with him being fast.
“Most impressive thing I saw was the sun wasn’t out,” Waddle said. “It was cloudy. Yeah, that was like the most impressive thing. That was really it.”
It will only be a matter of time before Waddle’s speed does show up in a practice. Fullback Carl Tucker, who transferred to Alabama last season and is a Dolphins undrafted free agent, recalls what Waddle’s speed in practice is like.
“I remember one of the first practices we had at Bama, and I had to be his lead blocker and he just zoomed past me,” Tucker said. “And I was trying so hard to stay in front of him and he just zoomed right by me.”
Tucker, at 6-foot-2 and 250 pounds, is an interesting player to keep an eye on. He has played tight end and fullback in college. He’s physical. He’s so strong he actually called himself “a pretty buff guy,” and he’s smart enough to know that before hitting begins, he can impress coaches other ways.
“I think that’s the best part because people at other times they just see I block very well and believe that’s all I can do,” he said. “But I personally believe one of my strong suits as well is I have good speed for my size, I have great hands, I feel like I run solid routes.
“It’s definitely a perfect opportunity for me to, of course, be smart and take care of teammates. But also at the same time I can get better at just the other things that don’t include heavy physicality like with route running and stuff like that.”
The Dolphins are hoping third-round pick Hunter Long becomes an accomplished route runner as perhaps the team’s most complete (blocking and receiving) tight end.
And, in speaking with reporters, Long made it clear he’s going to work hard and learn his playbook and try to improve every day -- which is what virtually all the players repeated as if from a script.
But the coolest moment of the day for Long before his first rookie practice?
“The kind of coolest thing for me was putting on the helmet for the first time,” he said. “I have so much work to do and I know that and that’s what I’m going to do leading up to the season. But it was a cool, small first step of my NFL career of putting on the uniform and the helmet even though it was just a practice.”
Coleman, whose 6-6 and 307 pounds mirrors Richmond Webb from years ago, played mostly left tackle at the University of Massachusetts but now Dolphins coaches are gauging if he’s more comfortable on the left or right side, so he said he’s doing a little of both.
And he is clearly happy about the opportunity.
“It’s been going amazing,” Coleman said. “Just getting out there and being with the team, being with my teammates and whatnot is an unbelievable experience. I’m real happy to be here, real happy to be learning and improving.
“The vibe I get off of everybody is everybody’s here to work. We’re all here to improve and be as best we possibly can for the team and the organization.”
This story was originally published May 14, 2021 at 5:16 PM.
