There are three days of mandatory mini-camp this week. The Miami Dolphins elected to instead cancel their final practice on Thursday, choosing to simply have their morning team meetings and then going through their end-of-camp conditioning tests before calling it a day, bringing an official end to the offseason program.
This is not an unusual occurrence, as many teams tend to end the offseason by canceling practice and doing some form of team-based activity, including the Dolphins, who have done so within the past few years under the Sparano, Philbin and Gase regimes.
While an official date has yet to be announced, Miami is expected to return to the practice field for training camp in late July, in which the pads will come on and the evaluations can truly begin.
As of now, reports have been raving about how spectacular quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick has been compared to Josh Rosen, and annual disappointment DeVante Parker has been lighting up the field – as per the usual when he’s wearing shorts.
While this team has lots of young talent on it, there’s no telling what they will ultimately look like when the bullets start flying, and head coach Brian Flores has made it clear he’s not satisfied with where everyone currently stands.
“I have high expectations so I’m always going to say we’re behind.” He said on Wednesday. “I guess that’s my thought process. There’s always two, three, four, eight things I feel like we could have done better. I do see some improvement. I see a lot of progress. Practice looks the way I want it to look like just from an operational standpoint and from a tempo standpoint. But yeah, I want to be at a higher level at everything. So no, we’re not where I want to be.”
Soon enough, training camp and the preseason will be here, and fans will get their opportunity to see what Flores’ Dolphins are made of in person. There will also be a joint practice in Tampa Bay when Miami goes up there for their preseason matchup.
