Bucky Brooks offers perspective on Dolphins’ minicamp headlines
The past week has seen plenty of the Miami Dolphins in the headlines — although unfortunately their presence as a national talking point wasn’t necessarily for all the right reasons. There was a wave of reactions to reports from Miami’s minicamp that the team’s quarterbacks collectively tossed 7 interceptions on the first day of practice — the majority coming from second-year starter Tua Tagovailoa.
But as the week drug on, we saw the opportunity for some to push back against the negativity, including former NFL quarterback and ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky. And now, highly regarded analyst Bucky Brooks of NFL Network has joined in on the assertion that June criticisms of ball security is much ado about nothing.
“Despite our insatiable appetite for real live football games, we need to remember that offseason workouts are a completely different animal. Some people are panicking about Tagovailoa’s performance in seven-on-seven and team drills, minicamp activities in shorts and T-shirts. This is silly.
As a young player with the Jacksonville Jaguars, I was encouraged by defensive coordinator Dick Jauron to experiment with different techniques during practice time, to determine what kind of approach best suited my skill set. The longtime NFL coach and former defensive back told me that you will never know your limits if you fail to test them. In addition, Jauron stressed to me that there is not a scoreboard on the practice field and the mistakes made while experimenting do not count. That’s why we should not overreact to reports of Tagovailoa’s struggles, particularly when he is working on becoming a more aggressive big-play hunter from the pocket.” — Bucky Brooks, NFL.com
Thankfully, there will be no more practice headlines for the next month or so as the team breaks one last time before the opening of 2021 training camp at the end of July. And when that rolls around, the hyper-analysis of the Dolphins’ young quarterback room will resume; only then will it be closer to something of substance than what this past week provided.
