The Miami Dolphins will not be joint practicing with one opponent this summer but there are plenty of explanations other than the one you may assume
The Miami Dolphins will NOT be holding joint practices with one of the teams on their preseason schedule but it’s probably not for what many think.
The Miami Dolphins have hit the ground running this week. Phase three of Organized Team Activites (OTAs) is underway and Miami has taken to the field for work with the coaches. It’s primarily an install window — but for the Miami Dolphins, every time to touch the grass carries weight.
That theme will continue into the summer. But the forecast for the Miami Dolphins’ team efforts became a little more clear on Tuesday morning. There’s one extra opportunity to compete that will not be happening. But it may not be for the reason you’d first assume.
The Miami Dolphins will have joint practices with the New York Giants but NOT the Atlanta Falcons
Dolphins head coach Jeff Hafley shared with the South Florida media on Tuesday morning that Miami will, in fact, hold a joint practice with the New York Giants this summer ahead of their second preseason game. But Miami’s third opponent of the preseason schedule is the Atlanta Falcons — which brings with it a whole bunch of overhead and storylines. Primary among them? The Dolphins are paying a player on their roster north of $50 million this season to play elsewhere.
That, uh…that’s quite a gig if you can get it. And it’s likely the first thing that comes to your mind when considering why Miami may have not pursued or, alternatively, opted for a joint practice with the Atlanta Falcons this summer in the third week of the preseason.
Maybe so. But also maybe not. We’ve seen teams pull out of Week 3 of the preseason joint practices in recent years. Some teams ultimately pull out of intense work for the starters that week anyway — as several intense weeks of training camp being stacked on top of another week of extra exhibition contact could be considered redundant. So while your first instinct may be to assume that the Dolphins lack of a joint session with the Falcons stems from the presence of Tua Tagovailoa, I wouldn’t be so sure. There are plenty of other logical explanations that justify not pouring an extra heap of contact on the fire at the end of the marathon that is training camp.
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