Miami Dolphins Game Ball - Preseason Game 1

Last night, the Miami Dolphins lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 20-7 in the opening preseason game of the year for both teams. In the loss, however, there were several players who stood out during the game. And, while none of us likes to celebrate a loss, the preseason is more about the development of the players and the team as a whole.

Since it's a preseason game, we are going to start working on the Game Balls post style. Three years ago, we did the weekly game balls post through the awarding of yardage, with a five yard game balls going to the top producer from the previous game, four to the next down, and so on. After the five game balls were presented, we also gave out a sack, with a negative yardage from 1 to 5, to whomever was the worst performer of the week. At the end of the year, we were able to tally up the total yards gainied and lost by every player, to award an overall year game ball.

Two years agom we did the same process, but added in a one-yard Fan Game Ball. This was decided by the readers of the post, who would either point out someone I forgot, or wanted to give an extra yard to a player. Whomever received the most support in the comments of the thread was awwarded that game ball.

Last season, we returned to the normal one game ball per game format.

But, I think we are going to change it up a little bit. I am going to nominate a series of players each week who could be awarded the game ball. Then, you all can select the winner in the poll at the end of the thread. After you all select one game ball recepient, I will add one of my own, and we will award two game balls a week.

Let me know if you like this concept. If you do, we can work out the bugs now in the preseason. If you don't like it, we can come up with a new format after next week's game.

The nominees and the poll are below:

1 - Ryan Tannehill, QB, 14-21, 167 yards, 1 TD

2 - Julius Pruitt, WR, 6 Rec, 52 yards

3 - Roberto Wallace, WR, 4 Rec, 71 yards

4 - Charles Clay, TE, 3 Rec, 49 yards, 1 TD

5 - Jason Trusnik, LB, 6 tackles, 1 Fumble Recovery

Vote below, and let us know what you think of the potential format.