Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
The return of DeVante Parker brings back the threat of the deep ball for Dolphins.
DAVIE — DeVante Parker is back, and Dolphins quarterback Jay Cutler thinks that’s a good thing. It means that intermediate to deep 50-50 ball, the one you throw up for grabs in the receiver’s general vicinity, favors the Dolphins once again.
“He’s a big, big dude out there, a big weapon,” Cutler said of the 6-foot-4 Parker, the dynamic but oft-injured, play-making wide receiver.
“He kind of changes the complexity of our passing game because you know you can put some balls in some areas that he’s going to go get. He’s going to make some tough catches for you. He’s going to stretch the field. Getting him back is big for this offense.”
Parker has missed the past three games, and essentially the last four games considering he injured his right ankle three plays into the Tennessee game.
There’s a chance the Dolphins rely on Parker and fellow receivers Jarvis Landry and Kenny Stills even more this week because of the Jay Ajayi trade and the loss of their previous offensive identity.
Offensive coordinator Clyde Christensen thinks it could go that way.
“I hope it will be some big plays,” Christensen said of what Parker’s return could mean. “I think that all of a sudden, you know it’s bigger than just Parker.
“It shifts everything. It gives us a chance to get Jarvis [Landry] back in the slot a little bit more. It gives us a chance for them not to be able to double [now] that you have three guys.”
Fell into trap
Defensive coordinator Matt Burke said the defense has to be careful not to try to do too much with the offense struggling. Burke said he made that mistake last week against Baltimore, trying to force the action with blitzes and things.
“It doesn’t work like that,” he said. “If you start doing that, you get out of being a sound team. We just have to play sound defense and again, this is a good offense that’s coming into town. They’ve got good players, good weapons, good line, a good quarterback. We just have to series in and series out get stops and do our job and we’ll see where the chips fall after that.”
Backup kicker
Pro Bowl defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh is the Dolphins’ backup kicker, according to special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi. “We get him a few kicks in [training] camp and in a regular [season] week we try to get him a couple,” Rizzi said. “We’re not going to overdo it.” Rizzi said Suh’s range is between 35 and 45 yards.
Special teams duties
Running back Kenyan Drake, who also handles kickoff returns, might have his special teams duties reduced this week because of added duties from scrimmage, and the same goes for fellow running backs Dami
en Williams and Senorise Perry, who are core special teams players. “They’re still getting work on everything,” Rizzi said, “we’re just trying to figure out what the best solution is here by the end of the week.”
Not a fun weekend
Christensen was the subject of some heckling on the Hollywood Broadwalk over the weekend, days after Thursday’s 40-0 loss at Baltimore. Christensen had on his Dolphins apparel while he was getting some exercise. “Some guy was carrying something and he made a comment about the Dolphins, ‘Hey, I’m moving slow, kinda like the Dolphins,’ ” Christensen said. “So it’s everywhere. Yeah, it’s no fun… It wasn’t a fun weekend to be a Dolphin.”