Hyde: Dolphins receivers: talented, deep, very fragile
Williams’ return to practice, Bowden’s injury tell the story
MIAMI GARDENS — Hold your breath. Cross your fingers. Have Tua Tagovailoa throw some salt over his shoulder among the footballs downfield.
Preston Williams returned to Dolphins practice Thursday.
“Happy to be out here with the guys,’’ receiver said.
He’s ready to be the receiver he showed before suffering a midseason foot injury while scoring his team-leading fourth touchdown.
“The ceiling is still high,’’ he said. “I’m still relatively young in this league, still trying to prove myself. The confidence is still there. The competitive edge is still there.”
Williams’ return stayed true to the Dolphins’ receivers fragile theme, though, as Lynn Bowden was helped off the field the same practice clutching the back of his thigh with an apparent injury. Bowden was a guy you didn’t worry about, too.
DeVante Parker, Will Fuller, Albert Wilson — they still watch practice from the sidelines, just as they have for chunks of this summer, just as they might as well for another week or so to downsize the risk.
Can they wear bubble wrap standing there, too? Already, Allen Hurns, who had his own injury history, is gone for the season after being placed on injured reserve.
This isn’t just a health problem. It’s a larger construction issue. Do you think receivers who came with buyer-beware tags will be fine in such a violent game?
The only receiver to play every game the past two years is special-teams savant Mack Hollins. He suffered various injuries the few years before that, too.
So virtually every receiver is like a hand grenade with a loose pin. They might go off any minute. Or they might be lucky and just fine. Either way, there’s a constant jangling of nerves over their safety.
Everyone sees the good blend of
talent. Repeat: Good, not great. The mix of all their tools is necessary to make it work, because there’s not a certifiable No. 1 receiver demanding double coverage each play.
The idea behind the matching parts makes sense: the size of the 6-foot-5 Parker and Williams; the speed of Fuller, Jakeem Grant and rookie Jaylen Waddle; and athletic tight ends like Mike Gesicki and perhaps Adam Shaheen.
That’s a decent set of targets for Tagovailoa — if enough of them can stay on the field. And if he’s healthy enough to stay on the field. And, well, do you see why this is a cross-your-fingers offense?
The whole idea of this Dolphins summer is to get these receivers to September. And then? Well, play the combination that’s healthy. It’s still easier to see this group surviving a mile swim with piranhas than a 17-game season intact.
Parker, to be sure, has shaken off some of the injury history of his first several years while playing all but two games the past two years. Fuller hasn’t played more than 11 games in any season the past five years. Grant has missed 14 games the past three years.
Williams has played eight games each of his first two years. Wilson has played eight games in three years, though he opted out last year due to COVID-19.
Even Waddle, the sixth pick in the draft, came to the Dolphins off an ankle injury that kept him out of pre-draft workouts. That’s not a big concern anymore considering he’s practicing each day and offering glimpses of the electricity in his game.
The larger question isn’t of taking on some individual risk here. Every team does that. But the collective health questions make you wonder what this receiving unit will look like come January. Isn’t that the idea — play into January?
Much has changed in the NFL, but all abilities still start with availability. It’s to that end the Parker and Fuller have sat out practices for weeks now. Wilson joined them last week. None of them seem too hurt. Maybe all of them could play if a real game was Sunday.
But the Dolphins seem to have embraced in some form the Allen Iverson line of, “Practice. We’re talking about practice. Not a game.” They had a choice here — but it came in assembling this unit more than not practicing them.
No doubt something is missed by these players missing practice. Tagovailoa dismissed the idea. But wouldn’t he, with just nine NFL starts, benefit working with the first-unit receivers than the second and third units day after day?
Hollins answered a question about the progress of the offense by noting how a training camp’s “pain and suffering bonds everyone. And there’s little communications, hand signals, the way guys move or know how to pick each other up, because they’ve been around and know what will help certain guys. There’s been a great evolution.”
Not with the top receivers. They’re on the sideline. Bowden joins them now. Williams returned Thursday, but was held out of the scrimmages with Atlanta.
“Day by day,’’ he said.
That sounds like a mantra for these receivers. Day by day, who’s available? Day by day, cross your fingers and hold your breath it will be enough.