Dolphins-Bucs First Joint Practice: What They Said

Miami Dolphins players were overall satisfied with their first practice with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Alain Poupart - SI Fan Nation All Dolphins

TAMPA — Checking out selected comments from Miami Dolphins players after their first of two joint practices with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Wednesday, along with some of Mike McDaniel's pre-practice thoughts and some Tampa Bay comments about the Dolphins.

QB Tua Tagovailoa on how the offense performed

“I would say you can never be too high, you never get too low. We’ll obviously look at the film. I think there are some things operationally that we can work on – getting guys set, understanding the snap count, just little things. But I think for the most part, it was really good to build off of to go into tomorrow with.”

Analysis: It was overall a pretty solid day for the offense, actually about what one would expect at this stage of training camp.

C Connor Williams on how the offensive line responded to the challenge

“I think we responded. We came into a new area and I think we all kind of came together and responded well throughout all of the groups.”

Analysis: There were some rough moments in 1-on-1 protection drills, but the line held its own in team drills for the most part, which was a very good sign against what is a pretty good Tampa Bay front.

Head coach Mike McDaniel on where the joint practices provide a measure of where the team is

“No, every time you’re on the football field, something I really try to instill in the guys — every time you’re on the football field is telling you where you’re at. Everything else is fake. It’s all made up, so you’re exactly right. It’s something that you’re excited to see where your team is at that day and then whatever that is, can they best handle that for the next? Do you use whatever’s happening – successful or failure – you use that for the next day. To me, that’s the trick because whatever records are in the first quarter of the season, for instance, nothing is decided by that. There’s countless number of teams that are 4-0 that don’t make the playoffs. There’s teams that start behind the 8-ball. I think I was on a team last year that was 3-5 and we were in the NFC Championship game, so it is all about that day and it tells you a lot, but then even more so, you get an opportunity to figure out what they’re going to use with whatever the result was for the next day which is why we’re all so pumped to be here.”

Analysis: Yes, in theory, this makes sense and every coach wants to see progress every single time the team steps onto the field. But there's clearly something different about practicing against another team because, human nature being what it is, the intensity ramps up closer to regular season level for joint practices. To that end, while it was only one joint practice, what happened Wednesday was encouraging for the Dolphins.

DE Emmanuel Ogbah on the defense having a sense of anticipation to go against the Tampa Bay offense after the teams' 2021 regular season matchup

“Oh, yeah. We’ve been waiting on this day. We feel like we got embarrassed last year. We’ve got to go out there and do better this year. It was a good practice against them and we’re looking forward to tomorrow.”

Analysis: This makes for an easy storyline, the Dolphins facing the Bucs offense after their 45-17 loss at Tampa Bay last October, but let's be real here. This was a joint practice, where there's no tackling, teams don't really game-plan or scheme things up very much, so it's not even remotely close to the same thing. It's not surprising that Ogbah would go along with the premise, but it's hard to believe the Dolphins really felt a sense of redemption given the totally different circumstances.

CB Xavien Howard on getting extra energy from what happened in Tampa Bay last October

"When we were back at home, I already knew about it. That was on my mind 24/7. It still is. So I feel like that brings a little bit of fire to it. I feel like if you want to get motivated, you can watch that game, the people that were there last year, and they see what they did to us.”

Analysis: This goes along the same lines as Ogbah's comments.

Bucs CB Carlton Davis III on facing Tyreek Hill

“He’s a different kind of receiver all around. He brings something to the game that no other receiver does, so to be able to go up against him in practice, especially early on in camp, just helps you fine-tune your skills and your technique. It was pretty good today. I’m excited to go back up against him tomorrow, him and [Jaylen] Waddle. They’re just two fast, twitchy guys that you’ve just got to love and embrace going up against them. Like I said, there’s no other receivers in the league that can do what they do.”

Analysis: Yep, the Dolphins wide receiver tandem has the attention of defensive backs around the league. Trying to cover Hill and Waddle is no joke, and Hill had another really productive practice Wednesday.