Rules for camp
Dave Hyde’s guide for watching the Dolphins train.
Welcome back, football. Finally, Dolphins training camp starts today.
It’s good to end any offseason. It’s even better to end this one full of questions, doubts, spit- balls and, in the Google-ization of America, infernal lists ranking players’ “body of work” and “portfolios” — as if we’re comparing Monet’s water lily series to Michelangelo’s sculptures.
The start of training camp is a day to remain at Walden Pond with a bag of Oreos if you’re a New England fan. In a South Florida sports landscape stuck on empty and a team looking for a new narrative, it arrives with a hallelujah chorus.
You don’t have to put yourself in the vulnerable position of believing in the Dolphins just yet, considering scars might still be healing from last year. But understand the Dolphins three-headed brain trust — coach Adam Gase, vice president of football operations Mike Tannenbaum and general manager Chris Grier — followed the exact plan they wanted this offseason.
Will it work? That’s what we start to see now. And just for the Google age, here are 10 tried-and-true rules for watching this Dolphins training camp:
1. Please, please, no “culture” talk unless you carry a petri
dish. If there’s been one overplayed card this offseason, it’s the one of a revamped team “culture.” And I get it. The honchos running the Dolphins wanted some better “team” players than Jarvis Landry or Ndamukong Suh. Still, if either player’s contract was lighter, they’d still be here. The larger point is everything looks great in training camp. Everyone is upbeat. Every culture works. In December, let’s revisit this idea. If they’re winning, it’s a good culture. If not, it’s not.
2. Understand the national dismissal on the Dolphins. There are good and simple reasons even Madden video dissed the Dolphins with their low player ratings. Still, there’s also a proper answer for this if you’re an upbeat Dolphin fan: 2016. Remember? Gase first came to the Dolphins to zero expectations, endless questions, an over-under line of seven wins in Vegas and no one remembers any of that because they made the playoffs.
3. Let’s keep Ryan Tannhill’s knee in surgical perspective. A year ago, the knee injury was an over-riding concern. He took an uncertain path to repair a torn ACL. Now the knee is surgically repaired. Sure, it remains a topic. But he’s not a running back or cornerback whose game depends on speed. Unless something flares up, this isn’t the story it was a year ago.
4. If you find your mind wandering in a particular practice, focus on this mystery of the universe: Why is it a borderline FCC violation for the Dolphins to get on prime-time television, but Jim Gray keeps showing up there every year?
5. Don’t over-do how good receiver DeVante Parker looks in camp. Or left tackle Laremy Tunsil. Or even second-year player Charles Harris, if that’s the case. July and August aren’t the proving grounds for them.
6. Do notice how the plethora of defensive ends are used. And roles for the remade receiving corps. And Minkah Fitzpatrick, at least once he gets his rookie legs under him. Early bet: Fitzpatrick will be the most impactful Dolphins rookie since Jake Long in 2008.
7. Look for some guy who could be standing next to you in line at Target to raise eyebrows. This is the fun part of training camp going back to Zach Thomas and Larry Izzo. My early hope: Quentin Poling, who not only is a good quote to help us poor sports writers, but hails from someplace called Gomer, Ohio.
8. Best thing about the sound-a-like contest between emotional defensive line coach Kris Kocurek and mating rhinos? It will take your mind off the fact you might not be watching anything important in a particular practice.
9. Understand you’re watching the end of an annual, training-camp riddle: Will the Dolphins have two decent guards? The two-decade run looks done as veteran Josh Sitton and rising Jesse Davis don’t just seem capable. They seem the strength of what could be a capable line. Verification needed, of course.
10. Appreciate football’s return. Sure, it’s just training camp. But we’ve had a nothing bigger in local sports since the Heat season ended in April. Enter football. Sound the hallelujah chorus.