The latest interesting development of this offseason is that the Dolphins are in talks to have a set of joint practices with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers ahead of the team’s pre-season contest in Tampa later this year.
It’s a fairly new concept among pro teams, but a practice that in recent years has been pretty common place with at least a handful of teams. It wasn’t something to Dolphins partook in last year, but Adam Gase’s Dolphins did have a dance partner for practices in 2017: the eventual Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles.
The Dolphins’ experience in Philadelphia was an unforgiving one, as the depth and speed of the Eagles roster became painfully obvious as the Dolphins tried to keep pace against a high powered offense.
Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald wrote at the time that the Dolphins, simply put, couldn’t cover.
“I saw Wentz throw consecutive red zone touchdowns Tuesday where I never could determine who was responsible for covering the receiver because, well, no defender was near enough the receiver to suggest it was his man.”
The good news for the Dolphins? Matt Burke won’t be coaching the defense this year when the team visits Tampa Bay. But there’s a lot of change, a lot of fresh faces and a lot of flux in Miami this spring.
The discipline and playbook knowledge of these new Dolphins will be greatly tested in the environment of a joint practice setting. Especially considering the Bucs’ weapons on offense.
