Thomas still searching for breakthrough
LONDON — The Dolphins brought Julius Thomas in because they badly needed a playmaker at tight end and coach Adam Gase thought Thomas could get back to something along the lines of what he did for Denver in 2013 and ’14.
That did not materialize over the first t wo games, and Gase believes that has a lot to do with defensive schemes. Thomas has been targeted eight times (out of 77 passes by Jay Cutler) and has six catches for 42 yards. While that’s not the production he or the team had in mind, he’s not worried.
“I trust our staff,” Thomas said after Friday’s practice at Allianz Park. “We haven’t been seeing a lot of the coverage we were expecting and probably hoping to see. This is a team game. Regardless of whether I’ve been having the best looks or not, I still have a lot I can do to help this team execute well on offense and hopefully win.
“Going week to week, you never know who’s going to have the best matchups, but you just go to whoever has those. You can’t have an ego about it. It’ll come.”
The majority of Cutler’s attempts have gone to Jarvis Landry (26) and DeVante Parker (19). Kenny Stills is next with 15.
The goal for the Dolphins is to get Thomas, who is 6-foot4, 251 pounds, matched up with a safety or linebacker. That should create open- ings for him, but the Jets and Chargers played a lot of zone coverage, which made it tougher to get Thomas open.
Part of that problem is rootedin teams playing Miami to run first , a reasonable strategy considering how much the team has relied on Jay Ajayi.
“We haven’t got the coverages that make him a difference-maker,” Gase said. It might be part of the reasons why we’re not getting it. We’ve got to win our oneon-one matchups and find some ways to pop some guys free and try to find some consistency.”
Injury limits Stills: It’s been a strange week of practice for Stills as he works through a right hand injury. In an effort to put minimal strain on the hand, he hasn’t been catching footballs.
The majority of Stills’ work has been running routes with the quarterback pretending to throw a ball to him. Stills also spent one part of practice early in the week catching what appeared to be tennis balls on his routes.
Stills appeared to hurt his hand in the Jets game, but neither he nor the team has specified what the injury is or how it happened. Stills declined to discuss it Friday, beyond saying, “My hand’s fine. My hand is good to go.”
The Dolphins listed him as a partial participant in practice Wednesday and Thursday, and he was on the field for Friday’s walk-through.
Stills had two catches for 37 yards in the opener, then four for 51 against New York.
Facing old friends: Ste- phone Anthony always knew he’d be in Wembley Stadium on Sunday.
He just figured he’d be wearing black and gold.
Instead, the New Orleans Saints traded Anthony, a linebacker, to the Dolphins. And so, 12 days after the trade, he has a chance to play against the team that made him a first-round pick in 2015.
“I try not to let it bother me,” Anthony said. “I try not to look at it that way. Those guys, off the field, they’re my friends. And on the field, we’ll be competing against each other.”
Anthony was acquired after Lawrence Timmons went AWOL and was suspended by the Dolphins. Anthony was active for last week’s game against the Jets,although he didn’ t play. Now that Timmons is back, it makes it that much harder for Anthony to get on the field, although the Dolphins did retain him when activating Timmons. Instead, Miami waived Justin March-Lillard, who was picked up by Seattle.
Injury report: The Dolphins have several injury questions for Sunday.
Corner back Alter raun Verner, who has been dealing with a hamstring injury, said he plans to play.
Linebacker Rey Maualuga, indicated his hamstring figures to take at least another week to heal.