*** DOLPHINS NEWS ***
Apr 24, 1998: -- First Mini-Camp Starts Today --
The coaching staff will get their first look at the drafted
players today in Davie, FL, when the Dolphins open their first
mini-camp of the 1998 season. All draftees and signed veterans are
expected to be present for the 3 day camp, which runs today, tomorrow
and Sunday.
Following this 3 day camp, the Dolphins will hold a 3 day
"quarterback camp" next week for further practice. Right now, the
only player known to be missing the camp is defensive tackle Tim
Bowens, who is without a signed contract even though he has been
designated the team's franchise player. Bowens' agent Drew Rosenhaus
said that Tim is sitting out the camp because he is concerned about
injuries.
This camp will have no tackling and no serious contact, but JJ
will expect players to perform all out, nonetheless. A number of
important starting jobs are up for grabs, including the starting
running back spot, a starting wide receiver spot and a couple of jobs
in the secondary.
Right now, Karim Abdul-Jabbar is still the designated starting
running back, but he will be challenged by Lawrence Phillips, Rashaan
Salaam and possibly by first round draft pick John Avery. Yatil Green
is the current starter opposite OJ McDuffie at wide receiver, but the
Dolphins want to see what Charles Jordan, Brian Manning, Jerris
McPhail, Kirby Dar Dar, and draftee Larry Shannon are capable of.
In the secondary, Calvin Jackson will apparently be competing
with Shawn Wooden for the starting strong safety position and while
Sam Madison and Terrell Buckley are still the starting cornerbacks,
they will be pushed by Corey Harris and Patrick Surtain.
While a few players are still without signed contracts, that
will not keep most of them from participating. Kicker Olindo Mare,
linebacker Anthony Harris, safety Shawn Wooden and linebacker Larry
Izzo have all signed injury waivers in case they are injured during
the mini-camps. This will allow them to compete in the mini-camp even
though they have not signed contracts yet.
There are a few players who are recovering from surgery that
will attend the camp but will be limited in how much they can
participate. Richmond Webb, Troy Drayton and Shane Burton are all
going to be limited during the camp because of off-season surgeries.
Some other players who were injured last season won't have
the luxury of light duty. The most notable of these players is Yatil
Green, whom JJ says is 100% healthy now. But Larry Izzo is also
expected back.
This year's first mini-camp will not be open to the public.
In other news, it now appears that the Rashaan Salaam trade
will only cost the Dolphins a 7th round draft pick at worst. And
that's only if Salaam plays for the Dolphins next season. If he gets
cut, he will not cost the Dolphins any draft picks.
Also, it appears that his salary will only be in the $300,000
to $400,000 range this year. I had originally said that I thought he
could cost the Dolphins between $1 and $2 million, but it now
appears that his contract is only worth about $635,000 and the
Dolphins are going to be cutting it roughly in half.
Cutting Irving Spikes and Brett Perriman will also save some
money. Spikes was going to earn around half a million this year and
the Dolphins will get about $400,000 of that back.
Brett Perriman, it turns out, was cut because his knee is not
recovering well after off-season surgery and it was beginning to look
as if he would have to sit out a good portion of the 1998 season.
My Comments:
Well, here we go! Let the games begin...
The first mini-camp is the first chance that the coaches and
the rest of the team will have to look at the new players and compare
them to what the Dolphins already have in place.
While this camp is more important for the running backs, wide
receivers, linebackers, defensive backs and the new quarterbacks than
it is for the linemen on both sides of the line because of the lack of
serious hitting, it is still important for the new linemen on both
sides of the ball.
The reason for that is pretty obvious - it's important that
the new guys make a good impression right off the bat with their
attitude and work ethic in front of the coaches and their new
teammates. If the new guys don't show a good attitude or don't work
as hard as they possibly can, that impression will last well into
training camp and they'll have to work twice as hard to get rid of it
this summer.
There were a couple of interesting comments from the coaches
in the past few days. First of all, JJ has said that Yatil Green is
100% healthy - physically. He went on to say that "He [Green] just
has to become convinced he's 100 percent so he can do the things a
football player has to do."
Personally, I doubt that Green is 100% ready, physically.
From what I've heard, he's anywhere from 90-95% ready, which is fine
for this time of year, but he's not at 100%. I think that JJ's
comments were meant to do a little motivating - to let Yatil know
what's expected of him.
And while we're on the subject of wide receivers, new wide
receivers coach Robert Ford said that the first thing that they were
going to look at in the wide receivers this year was their ability to
catch the ball. Speed, route-running, quickness and size were going
to be important considerations, but, as Ford said "you can be as smart
as you want and as open as you want, but you have to catch the ball."
How much clearer can you put it than that?
Those comments would seem to spell trouble for Jerris McPhail,
who had a lot of problems holding on to the easy passes last year. If
he can't hold on to the ball better than he did last year, his career
is over.
On the subject of Lawrence Phillips, running backs' coach Joel
Collier had this to say about him: "Lawrence? He's been great. He has
been a very pleasant surprise. He has been a good worker [in the
offseason conditioning program]. I wouldn't say it's a shock. He's
doing what everybody else is. But when you consider everything that
people have said about him, which you really have to throw out to
judge him, he has done great."
That is good news about Phillips, although it's still a long
time to the beginning of the season and a lot can happen. His weight
is down from 231 to 225 pounds and he's in good shape and is probably
the most serious threat to unseat KAJ as the starting running back.
So the 1998 season is now officially underway. Unfortunately,
this is the worst time of the season, because after this week's camps,
nothing will be happening until the June mini-camp. We probably won't
have any free agent signings to consider nor will we have the draft to
look forward to. It's going to be another long May.
Related Info:
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Curt Fennell,
curt@phins.com, DOLFAN in New Rochelle (almost)
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