Penalties plague practice with Bucs

TAMPA — The first day of joint practices between the Miami Dolphins and Tampa Bay Buccaneers was insightful for both teams. Each team had their moments, but various units struggled at times, exposing areas that need improvement before the regular season arrives.

Tuesday’s session was plagued with penalties, so that’ll be an area the Dolphins and Buccaneers will try to clean up on during Wednesday’s joint practice.

“It was way too many penalties on both sides. Both of us play man-to-man [defense] and we have to get our hands off jerseys,” Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians said, assessing Tuesday’s joint practice.

Stock up

Xavien Howard acknowledges that he hadn’t faced a receiver as big and powerful as Mike Evans since covering Brandon Marshall, but the Dolphins Pro Bowl cornerback seems up for the challenge. Howard picked off Bucs quarterback Jameis Winston’s first pass of 11-on-11 drills and ran it back for a touchdown, delivering the best showing of any Dolphins player during Tuesday’s joint practice. Howard got beat a couple of times by Evans and other Buccaneers receivers during 1-on-1s, but he redeemed himself when the live periods started.

Stock down

Isaiah Prince didn’t even make it out of position drills before the rookie offensive tackle’s position coach put him on a timeout.

Dolphins offensive line coach Dave DeGuglielmo got so tired of reminding Prince about his sloppy technique he pulled the former Ohio State standout from the team’s first drill, and made him go stand by the goal post until the 10-minute session was over. Prince’s day, which began with him getting the call-up from the third team to work as the second-team right tackle, only went downhill from there because he was consistently beaten during Tuesday’s joint practice.

On one third-down sack Prince allowed during 11-on-11s, Miami quarterback Josh Rosen didn’t even have time to look down field before the defender was in his face.

Observations

Rosen got a handful of snaps with the starting offensive line and starting receivers, which indicates that Miami’s coaches either feel he’s closing ground in the competition with Ryan Fitzpatrick to be Miami’s starter, or they wanted to get a good evaluation of him working behind a decent offensive line since Miami’s backups are struggling . ... Preston Williams, the undrafted rookie receiver who is having a sensational camp, got some reps with the first-team offense for the first time since camp started . ... DE Jonathan Ledbetter, an undrafted rookie from Georgia, and Nate Orchard, spent most of Tuesday’s practice working as the first-team defensive ends.