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Training Camp Day 1 Morning Practice — Live Practice Blog

By Ben Volin | Saturday, July 26, 2008, 08:49 AM

Goooooood morning Dolfans, and welcome to Training Camp 2008!

The live practice blog you have grown to love is back for another year. Hopefully you get a chance to check out the Fins live at the Davie training center, but if you can’t make it, Edgar Thompson and I will be blogging like crazy throughout camp, giving you live up-to-the minute updates on injuries and other important news.

One big difference, though - The Dolphins have restricted access this year, and won’t allow us to bring our computers out to practice. That means we can no longer give you up-to-the-second updates, and instead I’ll be running back and forth between the field and the media room throughout practice. Good thing I brought my running shoes.

Heading out to the field in a minute. First, a little news.

The team officially announced the signing of second-round pick Phillip Merling. The Fins also signed wide receiver Anthony Armstrong, 25, a West Texas A&M graduate who spent the last two seasons with Dallas in the Arena league.

To make room for Merling and Armstrong, the Fins waived offensive tackle Dan Gore and receiver Justin Wynn.

OK, time to hit the field. Keep hitting refresh to see the constant updates, and have a Fin-tastic day!

9:44 a.m.

Man, it’s hot out today. Weather.com says it’s 83 degrees today, but it’s way worse in the sun. Thirty minutes into practice and Vonnie Holliday is already sucking wind in the shade. There’s maybe 500-700 Dolfans here. Not a bad turnout, considering the heat.

Some quick hits:

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Chad Henne is the only one not here. John Beck and Josh McCown are getting a head start in the quarterback sweepstakes.

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Joey Porter is wearing a jersey, but instead of practicing, he’s standing next to team trainer Kevin O’Neill. That right knee gave him trouble all last season, and we’ll have to find out if the injury is still lingering, or if Tony Sparano is easing him into the program.

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Michael Lehan (ankle) isn’t practicing either, running sprints on the sideline. Those are the only two injuries thus far.

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Ronnie Brown, however, looks great. He’s in full pads, wearing a sleeve over his right knee (torn ACL), and participating in all running back drills. He’s even planting and cutting.

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Other injured players from last year who are participating fully in practice: Channing Crowder (knee), Yeremiah Bell (Achilles) and Renaldo Hill (ACL).

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Parcells and Ireland are standing by themselves, watching over practice.

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That’s it for now. Be back soon.

10:22 a.m.

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The one unit that appears to have a clear First Team is the offensive line. You probably knew this already, but from left to right it is: Jake Long, Justin Smiley, Samson Satele, Trey Darilek and Vernon Carey.

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A Dolphins PR rep tells me that practice is going until 11:45 today. A three-hour practice in this heat is nothing to joke about. By contrast, the Redskins go for about 90-100 minutes. Davie is going to start looking like Parris Island to some of these guys.

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Someone should check Davone Bess’ hands for stick ‘em or super glue. The guy catches everything.

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Team breaks out into 6-on-8 drills (it’s really 6-on-6, but they put two pass rushers in the quarterback’s face to simulate pocket pressure.

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Ricky Williams looks impressive. He keeps welcoming contact, lowering his shoulder and running into defenders.

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Channing Crowder and Akin Ayodele appear to be the First Team inside linebackers, while Yeremiah Bell and Jason Allen are the safeties and Will Allen and Andre Goodman are at cornerback (no surprises there).

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Anthony Fasano shows why the Dolphins were so high on him, making a great one-handed catch in traffic along the sideline.

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Beck and McCown have each sailed a few throws. But it’s early.

Back in a bit.

11:11 (last update)

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Sorry, got some bum information. Practice ended at 10:45, not 11:45, for a much more reasonable two-hour practice.

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NT Jason Ferguson came off the field and into the practice bubble. Looked like a hydration thing. I can’t imagine being 305 pounds in this heat.

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The day ended on a sour note for Josh McCown. In team drills, he kept missing short on his throws, about four or five times. He was also intercepted by Nathan Jones, the free agent cornerback from Dallas. Get here quickly, Chad Henne.

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Sparano talks at 12:30. I’m wondering most about Joey Porter’s injury. Dolfans should hope it isn’t his knee acting up again.

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Ronnie Brown looks jacked. His arms are the size of my thighs. Appears to be in much better shape than he did last year. And Ricky Williams seriously looks like a tank.

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Player availability to the media won’t be coming until AFTER the second practice during two-a-days, sometime around 6:45 p.m. I was told it’s to give players plenty of time to hydrate and relax after practice. That’s fine and all … but the players looked plenty hydrated when they signed autographs for more than 30 minutes after practice.

Thanks for posting. Great news for Brown (and his owners)

Good news on Brown, but it is very premature to forecast.

MCguidance said:

Good news on Brown, but it is very premature to forecast.

Click to expand...

With Ricky they should hold him back until he's ready. It sounds like he's in better shape and that should help. Those 2 could get 17 carries a game apiece. I drafted both recently.Brown 3.14(16 team IDP)Ricky 9.14

Thanks for the update. Henne signed today.

Thumb up.

I have completed my high side face-offs on both Ricky and Ronnie - I hope both are 100% come opening day to prove me right in both of them

He'll be blogging more tonight. That that heat it's morning and evening workouts.

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Correction on the McKinney note. He isn’t practicing, but he is out on the field, wearing shells. My bad.

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Ronnie Brown is catching passes in the flat. He’s running up-field, making one cut and hauling in the pass near the sideline. Sparano warned that Brown has a long way to go, but it’s definitely positive news seeing him running like this.

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I hope you don’t mind me gushing about Ricky Williams this camp, because the guy looks awesome. He is running like a rocket out there, barreling into people and chugging hard upfield.

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Beck and Henne are working on intermediate routes on one end of the field, while McCown is throwing sideline bombs on the other side.

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McCown looks good on the long ball. David Kirkus and John Dunlap had impressive catches in the end zone, with McCown putting it right on the money.

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Beck looks fine, but he’s still sailing throws. He does come up with a nice one to Anthony Fasano on a 15-yard out.

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Henne looks a bit rusty. He had one of those blooper-reel throws where the ball popped out of his hand (a la John Beck against Buffalo).

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A familiar sight: David Martin dropping a pass.

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Brandon Fields is booming punts. He just nailed two in a row that went 65 yards in the air. Jay Feely is fielding the punts, and putting up a good case that he has the best hands on the team.

More in a bit.

6:14

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Offensive guard Donald Thomas goes down. He’s laying in the end zone, surrounded by trainers. They wrap tape around his right calf. Doesn’t look too serious, but we’ll monitor.

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Back to those 6-on-8 drills … Henne is showing off his strong arm. McCown looks shaky. He misses on three consecutive throws.

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Special teams drills on the other side of the field. Looks like about 20 skill players are trying out at the “gunner” position. This is where guys like Patrick Cobbs and Greg Camarillo shine.

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11-on-11 drills, and McCown hits Anthony Fasano on a nice roll-out. Up and down day for McCown, but it’s early in camp.

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Nice job by NT Jason Ferguson to jump the snap count. McCown would’ve been dead meat in a real game.

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Charlie Anderson is playing ROLB with the first team, while Rob Ninkovich is manning the LOLB. Sparano mentioned this morning that Porter’s injury, while unfortunate, allows the coaching staff to monitor other players. And he specifically mentioned Ninkovich (Junior Glymph was the other).

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They’re playing a 3-4 defense, but Anderson and Ninkovich are both playing on the line of scrimmage. Crowder and Ayodele continue to man the middle.

That’s all I got for now. One more update, but probably not until after we talk to the players when they come off the field.

6:57

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BREAKING NEWS: Backup kicker Dan Carpenter wore No. 1 at the morning practice, and No. 5 at the afternoon practice. More on this as it develops …

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Not much more to report. The Fins finished up 11-on-11 drills and hit the locker room. The QBs look rusty, Ricky looks great, Ronnie looks great considering he had ACL surgery 10 months ago, and Davone Bess has vacuums for hands. The next time he drops a pass will be the first.

I really think Davone Bess could be a sleeper in the WR mix. He seemed to get a lot of praise at the mini camps and now the blurb about "catches everything"...

DawnBTVS said:

I really think Davone Bess could be a sleeper in the WR mix. He seemed to get a lot of praise at the mini camps and now the blurb about "catches everything"...

Click to expand...

There was talk about Bess in another thread. I really like him as an NFL receiver, not so much for fantasy. The guy had a couple of questions surrounding him coming out of Hawaii - 1. Character issues 2. System issues. I had Bess on my fantasy NCAA team, so I watched a couple of games. He does catch everything thrown to him, and he would excel as a slot receiver. The guy is not built like a typical receiver, he is very thick in the lower body, which actually helps him in the slot. I think the Dolphins got a steal, he is going to be a very solid # 3 in the NFL.

bcr8f said:

BREAKING NEWS: Backup kicker Dan Carpenter wore No. 1 at the morning practice, and No. 5 at the afternoon practice. More on this as it develops …

Click to expand...

Balco said:

DawnBTVS said:

I really think Davone Bess could be a sleeper in the WR mix. He seemed to get a lot of praise at the mini camps and now the blurb about "catches everything"...

Click to expand...

There was talk about Bess in another thread. I really like him as an NFL receiver, not so much for fantasy. The guy had a couple of questions surrounding him coming out of Hawaii - 1. Character issues 2. System issues. I had Bess on my fantasy NCAA team, so I watched a couple of games. He does catch everything thrown to him, and he would excel as a slot receiver. The guy is not built like a typical receiver, he is very thick in the lower body, which actually helps him in the slot. I think the Dolphins got a steal, he is going to be a very solid # 3 in the NFL.

Click to expand...

A couple questions, as a guy who hasn't seen all that many Hawaii games and isn't at camp.1. Is Bess catching only everything thrown well to him, or is he able to go out and get a poorly thrown ball?

2. I've heard that he isn't fluid in his cuts and routes, and not strong after the catch. What do you think?

3. Is his speed an issue?

From what I have seen, he looks to be a move-the-chains type WR, which can have a good role in this offense, but if he isn't able to make difficult catches, he'll be limited.

Thoughts on the possibility of a Ginn-Wilford-Bess trio? Seems you have the burner, the all-around ok WR in Wilford, and the sure hands WR in Bess. Could be an interesting layered approach.

Here is some good info on Bess:

His first loves were basketball and baseball. He began playing football in the 10th grade.

Bess played center field for the Skyline High School baseball team. He batted over .400 his senior year, and was invited to try out for the Pittsburgh Pirates organization but decided to concentrate on football.

At Skyline, he played quarterback, cornerback and free safety. At the University of Hawaii, he was a slot receiver and punt returner. He was also seriously considered as punter. In practice he booted some 50-yarders.

He was known as one of the hardest working players at UH, waking up early in the morning and dragging the JUGS machine out to the field to catch 150 to 200 balls before the start of 7:00am practices. From a Honolulu Advertiser interview, his attitude can be summed up in this quote:

"When it comes to working hard, there's no such thing as an offseason."

He was once evaluated as having an ESTP personality. ESTP stands for "Extra-verted, Sensing, Thinking, Perceiving." Apparently, that's supposed to be pretty good. Here's what June Jones had to say at the time:

"Davone is the real deal," Jones said. "I thought he was the real deal before we played a game last year. He's wired the same way as Michael Jordan."

Questions about Davone's character have come up because of his time served in juvenile detention after graduating from high school. Basically, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time - his friends asked him for a ride, and he obliged without realizing they were bringing along stolen goods for the ride. In his time at UH, Bess was a model citizen off the field, speaking to kids in juvenile detention halls, volunteering in the community, cheering on Pop Warner teams, etc. His coaches and teammates from high school and college have attested to Davone's great character.

As a player, Davone Bess is smart and unselfish. He's quick off the line, runs well with and without the ball, and is able to make tough catches look easy. He is an amazing athlete, but is always working hard to get better. He is simply... "Da Bess", one of the most exciting players to ever to play for Hawaii.

Link: http://www.thephinsider.com/2008/6/10/5487...know-davone-bes

I heard another quote from June Jones saying he was a "stronger version" of Andre "Bad Moon" Rison, which to me is very high praise, Andre was crazy but he was a damn good wr. I found several comparison quote, but could not find the exact quote I had heard/read previously.

How's Parmele look compared to Ronnie and Ricky?

RavensUNFL said:

Here is some good info on Bess:

His first loves were basketball and baseball. He began playing football in the 10th grade.

Bess played center field for the Skyline High School baseball team. He batted over .400 his senior year, and was invited to try out for the Pittsburgh Pirates organization but decided to concentrate on football.

At Skyline, he played quarterback, cornerback and free safety. At the University of Hawaii, he was a slot receiver and punt returner. He was also seriously considered as punter. In practice he booted some 50-yarders.

He was known as one of the hardest working players at UH, waking up early in the morning and dragging the JUGS machine out to the field to catch 150 to 200 balls before the start of 7:00am practices. From a Honolulu Advertiser interview, his attitude can be summed up in this quote:

"When it comes to working hard, there's no such thing as an offseason."

He was once evaluated as having an ESTP personality. ESTP stands for "Extra-verted, Sensing, Thinking, Perceiving." Apparently, that's supposed to be pretty good. Here's what June Jones had to say at the time:

"Davone is the real deal," Jones said. "I thought he was the real deal before we played a game last year. He's wired the same way as Michael Jordan."

Questions about Davone's character have come up because of his time served in juvenile detention after graduating from high school. Basically, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time - his friends asked him for a ride, and he obliged without realizing they were bringing along stolen goods for the ride. In his time at UH, Bess was a model citizen off the field, speaking to kids in juvenile detention halls, volunteering in the community, cheering on Pop Warner teams, etc. His coaches and teammates from high school and college have attested to Davone's great character.

As a player, Davone Bess is smart and unselfish. He's quick off the line, runs well with and without the ball, and is able to make tough catches look easy. He is an amazing athlete, but is always working hard to get better. He is simply... "Da Bess", one of the most exciting players to ever to play for Hawaii.

Link: http://www.thephinsider.com/2008/6/10/5487...know-davone-bes

I heard another quote from June Jones saying he was a "stronger version" of Andre "Bad Moon" Rison, which to me is very high praise, Andre was crazy but he was a damn good wr. I found several comparison quote, but could not find the exact quote I had heard/read previously.

Click to expand...

he's also a virgo, enjoys reading early french romantic poetry and finds himself more a fan of early woody allen films than the later one...