Week 2 may mark the end of a prominent training camp battle for the Miami Dolphins
The Miami Dolphins had plenty of position groups up for grabs this summer. Week 2 saw the tide of one position room swing convincingly.
It may be time to call it off. The Miami Dolphins offered no shortage of playing time opportunities available to be claimed this summer. That was especially true in the secondary — where Miami featured no players with prominent playing experience.
Those battles were largely settled in training camp — but one such position group was still quite murky after Week 1 in Las Vegas. Week 2? It seems to have brought much more in the way of clarity. And it could be signaling separation in the Dolphins’ safety room.
Are Miami Dolphins safeties Dante Trader Jr. and Michael Taaffe pulling away from Zayne Anderson?
Fifth-round rookie Michael Taaffe played 42 defensive snaps in Week 2 against the San Francisco 49ers. Second-year safety Dante Trader Jr. played 37. Former Green Bay Packer Zayne Anderson? He played 13. That’s a far drop from Week 1, when Anderson logged 52 snaps.
That 52 was the most of any safety on the roster against the Raiders — one more than Anderson and over 20 more than Trader Jr.
The advantage that Anderson carried into this season was his familiarity with Jeff Hafley. Hafley had coached Anderson for the past two seasons in Green Bay before they both migrated to South Florida. And Week 1 very much left open which safeties were going to shoulder the majority of the work.
In the aftermath of the Raiders game, Hafley stated that the team felt they had three starters at safety. Perhaps the way the snaps played out was a byproduct of the personnel the San Francisco 49ers used throughout the day offensively. But the only other explanation is that the team’s young duo of Trader and Taaffe are being entrusted as the primary players in the room.
With more consistency in playing time, hopefully the Miami Dolphins will be able to claim more stability in the performance of the secondary. With a similar snap share next week against the Kansas City Chiefs, it will likely be official. But right now, the tea leaves are saying one of the final position battles of the year may finally be over.
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