The Dolphinsreturned to the practice field on Wednesday, after their first off day of training camp. During the interlude, the Dolphins front office was busy. As we have discussed on our pages here, Dolphins right tackle Vernon Careywas given the night off on Monday for "personal reasons." Throughout the day on Tuesday, the speculation flew as to what those reasons were. Late Tuesday, it was fairly well assumed the Dolphins had asked Carey to restructure his contract.
Wednesday, we received the confirmation. Carey had indeed been asked to rework his contract, looking to lower his salary cap number. However, that was not the only change in store for Carey. When the Dolphins lined up for practice, Carey was on the offensive line - just not in the right tackle position. Suddenly, Carey has become the Dolphins answer to a lack of depth at the right guard position.
But that was not the only happening in Miami on Tuesday. Jay Glazer of Fox Sports tweeted yesterday, "First Tiki sighting. Tiki Barber worked out yesterday w the Dolphins. Heard he looked good, Fins 1st wanna see how their current crop does." He later added, "Fins are smart by bringing in guys for a look. Doesn't hurt them to look, does it? Information is power." The Dolphins eventually confirmed they had worked out Barber, but no signing was considered eminent.
As for the happenings on the field Wednesday, our own AlejandroN posted a great look at the individual player performances from each phase of the practice.
Some of the standouts from the day included wide receiver Brian Hartline. Hartline, after being silent for the first four practices, suddenly established himself with the team, going up and challenging the defensive backs repeatedly during the day, making numerous catches.
The biggest star of the day, however, was rookie safety Jimmy Wilson. The seventh round draft pick wrestled a ball out of Brooks Foster's hands, picking off the Pat Devlinpass. Later in the day, Wilson continued his superb coverage, deflecting a pass that Reshad Jones then intercepted.
As for the most maligned member of the Miami roster, quarterback Chad Henne rebounded on Wednesday. He suddenly looked in control of the offense. While some of his passes were still off target, Henne's performance during the day gives hope that, as he gets comfortable within the new offense, maybe he will respond and produce like the 2009 Chad Henne.
The Dolphins announced a change to the training camp schedule yesterday. Instead of the 11am practice that was scheduled, the Dolphins are going to do a simple walk-through in the morning. The practice, which will still be free to the public, will take place at 7:15 pm. Once again, the Dolphins franchise is making shrewd moves without many noticing. With the movement of practice to after 4pm, the Dolphins will not be practicing until the start of the new league year, allowing all of the newly acquired players to get onto the field and practice.
Once again, if any of you head over to Nova Southeastern University for the practice, please feel free to follow AlejandroN's example and post a Fan Post about your experience.