Tua Tagovailoa showed up sick on the perfect practice for a quarterback to miss because Tuesday’s session featured a ton of blitzing pressures from the Miami Dolphins defense.
That left backup quarterback Teddy Bridgewater and rookie QB Sklar Thompson to fend off the numerous linebacker, cornerback and safety blitzes during the hour-long OTA session after Tagovailoa was sent home with a non-COVID-related illness.
It wasn’t exactly a sack-fest like those witnessed in past practices over numerous regimes, but there was more than half a dozen would-be sacks logged.
Jaelan Phillip and Christian Wilkins consistently pressured the quarterbacks, and each delivered multiple would-be sacks if the action were live.
Emmanuel Ogbah was in attendance for Tuesday’s OTA session, but he didn’t practice with the team, which is the norm for the Miami’s top pass rusher during the offseason.
Wilkins wore the orange jersey, which designates who the top performer of the previous practice was, and the fourth-year defensive tackle was seemingly dialed in again on Tuesday.
Outside of the sacks and pressures Wilkins made a handful of would-be stops at the line of scrimmage on run plays. As for his musical taste, it was quite eclectic, and featured a ton of 80′s and 90′s music. There was also one country music song.
Other observations
The top play of practice came in the final 11-on-11 session when safety Jevon Holland picked off Bridgewater at the 40-yard line, which would have put the offense in position to score if this were a game scenario. …
Phillips applied enough pressure on that pass, delivering a would-be sack on his chase down of Bridgewater, who scrambled to the left before throwing the errant pass. …
While it was a defense dominated day, the Miami’s offense did have some moments like the deep ball touchdown Braylon Sanders, an undrafted rookie from Ole Miss, caught from Thompson. …
Tyreek Hill caught a deep slant from roughly 30 yards from Bridgewater during the first 11-on-11 series. At the conclusion of the play Hill pulled a Brandon Marshall, punting the ball away. …
And tight end Mike Gesicki caught a 20-yard reception in the seam during the final 11-on-11 series. In the two practices we’ve been able to watch watch Gesicki has gotten better at his releases, which I’ve always felt was an issue. …
Tailback Salvon Ahmed continues to deliver a couple of impressive outside runs per practice while getting an extended look with the offense because of Sony Michel, Raheem Mostert and Chase Edmonds all sitting out Tuesday’s OTA session.
Mostert and Michel were in attendance, but each worked on the side. …
Myles Gaskin had a respectable 20-yard run, which came behind the right side of the offensive line. It’s clear that the Dolphins are working on the outside tackle runs, which makes sense considering coach Mike McDaniel intends to run a wide-zone scheme. …
Hard to say whether there will be respectable holes based on what we’ve seen in these two OTA sessions because nobody is wearing pads, and the contact is limited. …
Next week the Dolphins will hold their mandatory minicamp on Wednesday and Thursday, so we’ll have a more thorough assessment of what’s going on during the offseason program.
()