Miami Gardens (CBS12) — It was the final home practice for the Miami Dolphins on Wednesday before heading off on one of the longest road trips in recent memory during training camp. The Dolphins are heading to Chicago for their first joint practice on Thursday, leading up to Sunday’s first preseason game on Sunday. After that, the team will head straight to Detroit to go head to head with the Lions at practice next week.
“Joint practices are fantastic for a multitude of reasons,” says Dolphins Head Coach Mike McDaniel. “But first and foremost, I think you’re trying to see – it’s the best opportunity to give the guys a chance to make the team. We’re very much focused on, on the team, and competing within it, but you go to a joint practice, you get to take all the tools that you’ve been refining and you get to try to do responsibilities much further beyond result-based but executing techniques and fundamentals. It’s invaluable. And then the discipline that it takes to play three quarters football, nontackle football; joint practices are a challenge, but it’ll be good for the football team to strain between the whistle and get back to the huddle and do it again. So that competitive spirit, I’ll be looking forward to.”
“I think they’re really cool,” says Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. “Because they give you a different perspective because there’s different ways to call plays, different ways defensive guys run certain coverages and how they can get into different coverages. So you’re getting a lot of the same things, it’s just different looks and different ways and how they present them.”
Click on the video link for more from practice, and to hear from second year linebacker Grayson Murphy, who can’t wait to get on the preseason game field and prove he deserves a roster spot against the Chicago Bears.