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Dolphins 2009 Training Camp: Day 9 - Tue, Aug 11th |  | ||||||||
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Injury Reports | Future Schedule | My Comments | Related Links TODAY'S SUMMARY: The team held a single practice on Tuesday in full pads at 2 PM. At this point in training camp, players are fighting the physical stress and fatigue of repeated practices in the Florida heat and the mental stress of fighting for their positions. Coaches are paying special attention at this point to see how players react under this pressure. On Tuesday, the offense recovered somewhat after the defense dominated Monday afternoon. The depth chart remained unchanged from Monday, with Shawn Murphy continuing to start at right guard, Sean Smith starting at cornerback and Randy Starks starting at right defensive end in the principal positions still up for grabs. The left side of the offensive line dominated in running plays during practice, allowing Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams room to break through the line of scrimmage. On the other side, Donald Thomas continues to rotate in at right guard with the starters and is steadily getting back into top form. Despite Shawn Murphy starting the team drills as the starter, Thomas actually had more reps with the starting offensive line that Murphy did. During team passing drills, rookie Patrick Turner had several nice catches after being relatively quiet the last few days. These passes were from Pennington against Sean Smith and Eric Green. Vontae Davis had a nice interception where he stepped in front of a Chad Pennington passe intended for Ricky Williams. Davis reportedly had a better day that Sean Smith for a change as Smith struggled a little bit on Tuesday. New receiver James Robinson is very, very fast, according to reports from camp. However, his mechanics need work as he sometimes catches the ball with his body and not with his hands. He is relatively inexperienced at wide receiver and has good raw physical talent, but needs work on technique. Jason Allen is working with the third team defense at this point, which is not good news for the former first round draft pick. Rookie tight end John Nalbone made some decent catches on Tuesday and has been improving since the start of camp.
Donald Thomas continues to get more reps with the starting offensive line as he improves. If this trend continues, Thomas will be the official starter by the first pre-season game.
The Dolphins signed Joe Kowalewski, a 6-foot-4, 250-pound fullback from Syracuse to take the place of Matt Quillen, who quit the team on Monday. Kowalewski played for the Jets last year.
Matt Roth was not seen on the field on Tuesday and was presumably working out with the trainers inside.
The Dolphins will work twice on Wednesday, Aug 12th, including a night practice starting at 8 PM.
There doesn't seem to be much doubt that Donald Thomas will take over the starting right guard spot eventually. The only real question is when. Thomas says that he is fully recovered physically, but that he still needs more work to get fully mentally ready. A Dolphins fan blog said today that Omar Kelly of the Sun-Sentinel reported that the Dolphins are trying to trade Jason Allen. However, what Omar actually said was that he SUSPECTS the Dolphins will try to trade Allen. While it wouldn't surprise me if Allen was traded or cut, there are no verified reports that the Dolphins are trying to do that at this time.
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