Dolphins-Bucs First Joint Practice Observations

Tyreek Hill and Emmanuel Ogbah were among the Miami Dolphins standouts in their first joint practice with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Alain Poupart - SI Fan Nation All Dolphins

TAMPA — It was a typical morning practice for the Miami Dolphins in a sense Wednesday in that it was really hot. But this was not just any practice because they worked with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the first of two days at the AdventHealth Training Center.

The facility, not far from Raymond James Stadium, features three fields and when there's action on all of them, it's impossible to keep tabs of everything that's going on.

But it wasn't for lack of trying, and we still came away with a lot of nuggets and more importantly the overall impression that the Dolphins at the very least held their own against the Buccaneers in this practice, if not more..

With that, let's dive into the practice report:

ATTENDANCE REPORT

The Dolphins welcomed back three of the five players who had been out of practice in recent days, most notably fourth-year offensive lineman Michael Deiter. This was his first practice since he sustained a foot injury in one of the first practices of camp.

Also back practicing were safety Clayton Fejedelem and defensive back Elijah Campbell. Safety Sheldrick Redwine and fullback John Lovett were in attendance but not dressed for practice.

Fullback Alec Ingold again wore a red (no-contact), but there was no orange jersey this time — perhaps because there was no music played during practice.

PRACTICE TOP PERFORMERS

— Hey, here's a surprise, Tyreek Hill again was a dominant player in practice. As we've seen in the practices in Miami, the dude is very, very hard to cover. He ended up with five catches in team drills on six targets, with the one incompletion coming on a pass breakup. There were no bombs on this day, just Hill consistently getting open for easy completions.

— The practice ended with the Buccaneers on offense for a two-minute drill and Ogbah was a major presence there, even though the drill didn't end well for Miami. Ogbah batted down a pass at the line of scrimmage on one play — now, there's something new!!! — before coming back a few plays later and getting around the edge to get to Tom Brady. Of course, Ogbah stopped as he got to Brady and the play continued, but that looked like a sack in a game situation.

— Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was very efficient running the offense and taking what the defense was giving him. By our calculations, he completed 14 of 19 passes in team periods and did some nice work in the two-minute drill to get the Dolphins in field goal position (even though that ended poorly). There were no highlight bombs like we've seen at times in practice, but Tagovailoa was on target on most of his throws.

QB WATCH

Because it’s training camp, we need to talk about the quarterback performances every practice.

—  Teddy Bridgewater threw the only two interceptions by Dolphins quarterbacks, one in a 7-on-7 drill when Miami native Carlton Davis undercut a slant by Preston Williams and the other when Devin White picked him in an 11-on-11 period on a pass that was tipped. He was 7-for-9 in team periods, but the two misfires were bad — there was the interception, and then he underthrew Trent Sherfield after he got wide open behind the Tampa Bay secondary. There were no throws that stood out.

— Rookie Skylar Thompson just flat-out didn't get much of a chance on this day. He was on the field for only one set of team drills and handed off twice. His only pass attempt was completed to Sherfield for a 10-yard gain.

OTHER PRACTICE OBSERVATIONS

-- Since we mentioned it already, let's break down the final two-minute drill that had each team taking a turn to move downfield for a field goal. After Tua completed four passes to get the Dolphins into position, Mike McDaniel called a running play up the middle on third down, which meant a hurry-up situation to get the field goal unit onto the field as time was running down. As it turned out, time expired with Liam Eichenberg still running off the field, so the Dolphins never got to try a field goal. Tampa Bay then got its turn and Brady completed five passes, the last one a deep comeback to Deven Thompkins against Noah Igbinoghene and the Bucs kicked a field goal.

-- The play was the capper for what, by all accounts, was a very rough day for Igbinoghene, who early on was beaten deep in a 1-on-1 drill.

-- There weren't any brawls or fights during practice, but Christian Wilkins and Leonard Fournette got up close and personal on a couple of occasions, and safety Brandon Jones was starting to get under the skin of Tampa Bay offensive players in that two-minute drill. Jones was getting a bit physical for a practice for the Bucs' taste, while their problem with Wilkins had to do with his penchant for yapping (yeah, shocking, right?).

-- Quick highlights from the 1-on-1 drills included a deep completion from Bridgewater to Erik Ezukanma; Preston Williams making a nice adjustment on a pass from Bridgewater; running back Gerrid Doaks standing up a Tampa Bay player on a back-vs.-backer pass protection drill; DB Quincy Wilson with a nice pass breakup against TE Cade Otton; linebacker Sam Eguavoen dropped what should have been an interception; rookie linebacker Channing Tindall was badly beaten downfield; rookie tight end Tanner Conner beat Pro Bowl linebacker Devin White with a great move out-and-up move. As a recurring disclaimer, the 1-on-1 coverage drills heavily favor the receiver, who have the width of the field with which to work and no pass rush to help the defensive player.

-- Interesting that Connor Williams called harsh in his media session a question about how he can go about cleaning up shotgun snaps that don't necessarily go over the head of the quarterback but still are higher than desired. There were two of those Wednesday after he had a clean practice in that department Sunday.

-- Jason Sanders went 8-for-8 on field goal attempts.

-- Robert Hunt had a good battle with Bucs defensive lineman William Gholston in 1-on-1 pass-blocking drills with each winning a rep.

-- Watching Tom Brady on the far field, one thing that jumps out is how quickly the ball comes out of his hand on most snaps.

-- Tight end Hunter Long looked like he was holding on an outside running play and the Dolphins were flagged for another holding later on (though unclear who the culprit was on the second one).

-- Chase Edmonds was yanked down by the facemask — and hard — by Joe Tryon-Shoyinka on an outside running play, with three or four flags flying at the point of the very obvious infraction. Luckily, Edmonds was not hurt.

-- Rookie free agent CB Kader Kohou sustained what appeared to be a minor injury. He was observed talking with trainers and then testing out his movement before walking with a bit of a limp.

-- Speaking of Tryon-Shoyinka, maybe the coolest play of practice occurred when fullback Alec Ingold put him down on a running play and afterward gave a look to McDaniel standing way behind the play, with McDaniel pointing in his direction as a signal of a job well done.