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Dave Hyde: Miami Dolphins open camp with big hopes (and an immediate need for nothing)

dave hyde, south florida sun-sentinel
·4 min read
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The start of training camp. What a perfectly poetic phrase. Come on, repeat it with me: The start of training camp. There’s an uplifting lilt to it, bringing the smell of freshly cut optimism and marking the start of a grand journey.

Close your eyes as the Miami Dolphins take the field on Wednesday morning and imagine …

Nothing.

That’s right, nothing for the next seven weeks. Nothing at all. That tells how big their hopes are this season. They want no big news in training camp, no needle-movers in preseason. Nobody of note should make more than a cameo of consequence across July and through the three preseason games of August leading to the Sept. 10 opener at the Los Angeles Chargers.

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No team had a better offseason than the Dolphins, not even the New York Jets in landing the 40-year-old Aaron Rodgers. The Dolphins answered in hiring the defensive coordinator everyone wanted, Vic Fangio, and adding enough defensive pieces starting with star cornerback Jalen Ramsey that it should be a top-five unit.

And the offense? The obvious concern of injuries won’t even be a summer issue if coach Mike McDaniel can choreograph the next seven weeks. And you know he will. The work of quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and receivers Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle against a re-made secondary will be interesting in camp. Limited, but interesting.

Does anyone expected Tua’s jiu-jitsu falls to be in play in the next seven weeks? Only if someone getting cut is in play, too. He’s not alone. Veteran left tackle Terron Armstead didn’t practice most of last season due to his annual laundry list of injuries. He won’t over-practice now. He’ll no doubt do limited work even in the controlled joint practices with Houston and Atlanta.

Last summer, Philadelphia’s decision-makers watched the loud hitting in their first joint practice against the Dolphins and expressed inner concern at a second such day. They didn’t want to lose the Super Bowl they eventually won in August. There was no second day.

That’s the script for the Dolphins to follow. Less is more. The offseason workouts keep players in shape. The first month of the season serves as a consequential preseason.

That fits with where these Dolphins are. Their big battle in training camp is supposedly at backup quarterback. It’s a position of heightened importance due to Tagovailoa’s heath concern. McDaniel hand-picked Mike White from a similar Jets offense and general manager Chris Grier signed him to two-year, $16 million contract.

You don’t give that kind of money to a third-string quarterback. So, there’s no battle for backup behind Tua. There’s not even a skirmish if White plays as expected.

So, seriously, what is there to look forward to for the next seven weeks? Well, there’s Messi playing at Inter Miami, but they are going on a break. There’s the Damian Lillard trade to the Heat waiting to happen. Former Dolphins star Zach Thomas is going into the Hall of Fame.

You just don’t want anything more than sweating and studying if you’re the Dolphins. No news. No scares. This is a significant change from last summer when you wanted to see McDaniel and Tua bond. And the year before when you wanted to see if Brian Flores and Tua would bond. And the year before when … well, there’s always been something.

Now the question is of health. It’s not so much a question of bad luck. This team has so many important players with developed injury histories they need a batch of good luck. The easy part is keeping them out of harm’s way in the summer.

The real work of training camp is on the offensive line and with Fangio’s new defense. One of the NFL’s biggest blitzing teams in recent years gets a coordinator known for not blitzing. A secondary built on man-to-man coverage gets a designer known for zone coverage. That will bear watching.

Some will say the Dolphins have won the offseason other years only to face plant in the season. They’ll say they were just 9-8 last year. They’ll say they haven’t proved they’re a contending team. They’ll point to questions about health and the offensive line. That’s all valid.

This is the best Dolphins roster with the best coaching since Dan Marino, Don Shula and Bill Arnsparger were going to Super Bowls in the 1980s. There was a sacrifice in making it so this time. The Dolphins collected draft picks for a couple of troubling seasons and traded picks for two more drafts to push all their chips into this season.

It might still not be enough in a stacked AFC, where up to 10 teams consider themselves contenders. All four teams in the AFC East expect to make the playoffs. It’s summer. That’s how it works.

Those are answers are ahead of us. Far ahead. Right now the Dolphins start training camp, and you know what’s needed in the next seven weeks. No surprises. No big news. Nothing at all.