Miami Dolphins Stock Report (Practice 10)

The Miami Dolphins defense outperformed its offense in the first joint practice with Atlanta

Joint practices usually represent a good gauge for where a team stands a few weeks before the start of the regular season, and so it was that the Miami Dolphins looked like a really good team in 2022 during joint practices against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers but maybe not so much in 2021 when they worked with the Chicago Bears.

In the first of two practices against the Atlanta Falcons, a team that failed to make the playoffs last season, the Dolphins failed to make a major statement in terms of their standing in the NFL, nor did the practice provide cause for alarm.

It was a practice where the Dolphins defense had the better of the Atlanta offense and the reverse could have been said for the reverse matchup.

Not surprisingly, when we evaluate the top individual performers for this joint practice at the Baptist Health Training Complex, they are skewed toward the defense.

Top Performers

Nose tackle Brandon Pili - Pili heard his defensive coordinator express concern about depth at his unit, saw one fellow undrafted rookie (Anthony Montalvo) get waived after a respectable scrimmage performance and replaced with an NFL veteran and seemingly realized he needed to step up his game. He did just that in Miami’s first scrimmage practice against the Falcons, recording one would-be sack and two tackles for loss in his most extensive work of training camp. The Dolphins are seemingly throwing the former USC starter into the deep end of the pool and on Tuesday he doggy-style-paddled enough to survive.

Pass rusher Jaelan Phillips - The former University of Miami standout has had a relatively quiet camp since suffering a toe injury in training camp’s first practice, but on Tuesday he was consistently creating pressure, and delivered two would-be sacks. Phillips got in Atlanta's backfield so fast on one of those snaps there is no doubt he would have forced a fumble with a swat of the football had the action been live. Because this was practice and quarterbacks are protected, he pretended to swat the ball before allowing Desmond Ridder to throw it.

WR Tyreek Hill - His move and catch in a one-on-one passing period made the rounds on social media, but that shouldn't be overblown considering that trying to cover Hill one-on-one over half a field borders on crual and unusual punishment for any defender. What stood out on this day, really, was Hill having one of his most productive practices of camp. By our count, Hill had four receptions in team periods, catching passes in a variety of ways. His longest gain was good for approximately 25 yards down the middle of the field on a throw from Mike White. While there was no over-the-top completion, this looked a lot more like the Tyreek Hill of 2022 than we've seen so far in camp.

Stock down

QB Skylar Thompson - As we indicated in our offensive observations of this practice, this was not a good day for any of the Dolphins quarterbacks and it wouldn't be out of line to put any of the three in this spot. But it says here that Thompson probably is the least able to afford sub-par outings because he's in a battle for the backup spot behind Tua Tagovailoa with Mike White, and he needs to clearly outplay White to win the job after the Dolphins made it a point to sign White in free agency. To be fair, Thompson didn't get many opportunities against the Falcons on Tuesday, as he attempted only three passes, but the last of those came in the red zone and produced an ugly interception when he tried to force a pass to Hill in the end zone on first down. His other two throws were a dump-off to running back Myles Gaskin and an incompletion. This came on a day when Thompson was listed as third on the depth chart behind Tua and White, and though head coach Mike McDaniel wants to downplay the depth chart, Thompson needs a bounce-back performance Wednesday when logic says he'll get more snaps in team periods than White based on the rotation the Dolphins have used throughout camp.