As you all know, the Dolphins have their first minicamp this weekend and it features just rookies. Below are some of the highlights from the day courtesy of the local papers:
First are some notes from Edgar Thompson:
-Henne does have a long windup at times, but was accurate on many of his passes in windy conditions. He definitely throws a nice long ball.
Henne also was the victim of a lot of drops. That’s to be expected for a QB working with a bunch of jittery rookies hoping to make a good impression.
-One of them did stand out - Hawaii WR Davone Bess. He didn’t get drafted despite catching 108 passes last season and scoring 41 TDs in his college career. Bess (5-10, 195) is a little small and a tad slow (4.63 in 40), but he catches everything thrown his way.
He made the best catch of the day, a diving grab on a down-and-in route thrown by Henne.
-Jayson Foster also looks like he’s pretty dynamic. But at 5-foot-7, 170 pounds, the former Georgia Southern star is going to have to be something pretty special to make this team.
-No. 1 pick Jake Long is amazingly light on his feet. From a distance, you’d never know this quick, nimble athlete is 6-7, 315 pounds.
-DE Phillip Merling, the first pick of the second round, looked explosive in a pass-rushing drill.
More after the jump...
Next are some observations from Armando Salguero:
-Chad Henne, as expected, took the first team snaps at QB while workout player Willie Copeland was second. Henne had an OK day. Copeland, predictably, struggled skipping a couple of passes and overthrowing three or four.
-Jayson Foster, playing exclusively at receiver, was impressive. He has great acceleration and catches the ball cleanly which is impressive because he played QB at Georgia Southern last year.
-Bill Parcells watched throughout. The only player I saw him talking to was Foster, which is great for Foster because Parcells obviously thinks enough of him to even know he exists.
And finally, here are some thoughts from Omar Kelly:
-New Dolphins quarterback Chad Henne is loud. Ultra loud!
His voice can he heard all over the Dolphins practice field. It carries, and that's a good thing. Let's just put it this way. I heard every word he said behind center and never heard anything from the other quarterback in this camp.
I've heard rave reviews about Henne's leadership ability, and if his command of the huddle is a sampling of that, Henne shouldn't have a problem gaining his teammates attention. He throws a quick out pass, and seemed to be fairly accurate on day one, but his receivers didn't catch many of what appeared to be "ouch" passes.
-Phillip Merling participated in all of practice despite his sport hernia, said he's fine and could go "all out" if he needed to. He was warned by the coaches if he started to experience any pain to ease up, but didn't. However, he looked mighty slow to me, and it better be his injury holding him back or else the Dolphins might be looking at a future nose tackle. He needs to be explosive coming off the end, and right now he doesn't have it. But it is day 1, and he is battling a serious injury. I'm honestly surprised he was allowed to participate. And for the record, he's bigger than I expected him to be.
-During offense vs. defense team drills the defense was using a 3-4 base scheme (surprise, surprise) with unsigned linebacker Keith Saunders coming from the edge as the Jason Taylor of this group.
-Bill Parcells spent a great deal of his time watching the defensive linemen work (surprise, surprise). General Manager Jeff Ireland was watching the unsigned players, especially the specialists (returners, flyers, wedge busters). Ireland was taking some serious notes.
-Receivers Davone Bess and Jayson Foster are super tiny, but they have the ability to adjust to the ball, and possess the quickness needed to separate. It's going to be hard to tell how they would do against real competition because I didn't notice anyone worth mentioning in the secondary.
It's only day one and odds are most of these guys aren't going to be around come September. But it's good to finally talk about some actual action.
Tomorrow, I believe the team will hold 2 practices, with one more on Sunday to close things out.