After only their second day of rest since the start of training camp, the Miami Dolphins returned to the field on Tuesday, looking to continue to ride the high from Sunday's scrimmage.
Unfortunately, that wasn't in the cards.
Quarterback Chad Henne has a less than stellar day on the field. While there were no interceptions and the day was not horrible, it was disappointing for Henne to not follow up Sunday's performance with another strong practice. Although multiple dropped passes from wide receivers and some strong defense from the secondary did not assist the third year QB, Henne's accuracy problems returned, with multiple overthrown passes.
However, the offense was not all disappointing. Tuesday saw the offensive line begin to gel, with rookie Mike Pouncey leading the way. After a week of being in the NFL, it seems as though the presumed starting center has figured out the position. Multiple observers reported that Pouncey's ability to snap the ball has been surprisingly efficient, including the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's Omar Kelly, who tweeted, "This snapping issues people have with Mike Pouncey appear to be nothing more than talk. He's a pretty solid snapper based on 1st week's work."
Across the board, the Dolphins running game seemed to find their stride as well. All of the Dolphins running backs found space on Tuesday, with Reggie Bush and rookie Daniel Thomas working with the first team, while Nic Grigsby and Kory Sheets worked with the second and third teams.
But the surprising backfield move news came out of the full back position. In another tweet, Kelly stated, " I'm starting to conclude Lousaka Polite is in the danger zone. Charles Clay taking plenty of his reps. Just saw Polite drop passes." Clay began practice working with the first team, while Polite was relegated to third team reps. However, later in the the day, the two swapped. Kelly later tweeted, "Lousaka Polite is working with the first-team line now as the lead blocker for Daniel Thomas. Maybe it's package driven."
Either way, this could be an interesting position to watch the rest of camp.
The defense also saw a noteworthy move. For a good portion of practice, defensive end Randy Starks found himself playing nose tackle. Last season, Starks was projected to play the d-line's center position, until injuries forced him back to the defensive end spot - and opened up the door for Paul Soliai to dominate as the team's nose tackle.
Overall, the practice on Tuesday was nothing special, but it wasn't too disappointing either. While hopes have been raised following Sunday's scrimmage, the team's practice may have seemed disappointing, but really was a decent performance. As long as the team has some spectacular performances mixed among solid days, the Dolphins will be ready for success in 2011.