Fans’ Reactions to Miami Dolphins’ First Preseason Game, Training Camp, and the Depth Chart

We have finally reached the week of the Miami Dolphins’ first 2019 preseason game. We’re only 33 days away from the Dolphins first game of the 2019 season at home against the Ravens. Is it just me, or has summer flown by insanely fast? I swear this year has gone like: Jaaaaaanuary, Feeebruuuary, Maaaarch, April, May, J-July (one big blur) and hello August. Ready or not, football is here y’all and I’m looking forward to seeing what this new team of ours will accomplish. Since we still have yet to have a game, and I did not attend any practices to give personal opinions on players/coaching, let’s just dive into what is going around in the Dolphins Twitter world (I’m looking forward to when the season starts and I can have more material to cover as far as my view as a passionate fan like you all).

Training Camp and Scrimmage

The Dolphins began their third week of training camp today. I’ve tried to follow along as much as possible, which is basically following beat writers tweets/articles and tuning into any press conferences. It seems to me that camp is going as I expected. Here are some things I’ve read the last two weeks: Parker is playing well (like every training camp but regular season is a different story), Mike Gesicki has had good and bad days (that being said still a young guy and some think he’s been a disappointment

and others are waiting to see),

Preston Williams continues to show that he may be one of our best rookies and soon to be top WR (according to Howard),

Drake is shutting down any negative talk by fans (which still amazes me that anyone thought he was overrated),

and the battle between Rosen and Fitzpatrick continues. Side note, Flores stated in his press conference today that Saturday’s scrimmage had way too many penalties. Flores said, “People think of football with touchdowns and sacks...they don’t think of penalties...but nobody thinks about those....that’s how you lose games.” Oh, let me assure you coach, us serious fans know all too well about how penalties will cost us games. We know all too well about those, right guys? Anyways, moving on.

Quarterback Battle

The beginning of training camp Fitzpatrick lead the quarterback battle. However, the last week and scrimmage it appears that Josh Rosen has stepped up some. Here’s a good example of how they have both performed, rating wise, from Three Yards Per Carry.

If you watched the Coach Flores during the press conference today or if you read about it, you would see that as of now Fitzpatrick is still considered the leader. Josh Rosen has strung a couple good days together, as stated by Coach Flores but we still have a lot of practice and preseason games before they make any decisions on the regular season. I like what Flores said when it came to guys performing well over the last couple of practices, “Something we tell everybody...yesterday only matters if you build on it today.” Yes, I agree with you coach and that is how you improve as a player and as a team.

Scrolling through Twitter and reading comments on the Dolphins’ live stream I see various reactions from fans. First off, most fans seem to love what Flores is doing with our team. I agree. Then you have those who are angry we wasted a draft pick on Rosen because he should be starting. Let’s get this straight fans, we got a top QB draft pick for pennies and it’s only been a few weeks of practice, so please be patient (I know that’s harder to do than say because of our history). Of course Fitzpatrick is going to out play him most days. This is what Fitz is good at, if you didn’t know already. He is amazing at playing 4-5 really good games but then he kinda goes downhill from there. After all, he is a veteran QB (has played on multiple teams) and I expected him to come in and outplay Rosen. I mean, at least for now. Did I want us to trade down for Rosen during the draft? No. However, it was a smart move because we didn’t have to give up much for him. I’m really hoping he can develop into a top quarterback, but if not, I have complete faith that our coaches will quickly move on and draft another quarterback in the upcoming 2020-2021 drafts. I do not see this as another Tannehill experiment. I absolutely do not see our team wasting another seven years on a quarterback with the same ole, “It’s because our o-line is just bad”. So, let’s see how they do over the next few weeks and try to have faith in our new head coach and GM. All that being said, there are still many who see Rosen exceeding expectations. Here’s a tweet from a fellow DolFan I follow on Twitter.

Rosen is very young, and I truly hope he does figure it out. We’ll all watch together and see what happens over the next few months. We’ll either be excited because we lucked out on a cheap quarterback or we have a decent backup one as we continue searching for our franchise one.

Injuries, Depth Chart, and Tidbits

-It appears that LB Mike Hull is indeed done for the season.

I feel for him and wish him the best and speedy recovery. He was a hard worker.

-Reshad Jones is injured and it’s unknown if he will be ready for the regular season.

-Jerome Baker limped off the practice field today and it’s said it is a groin injury.

Depth Chart

Are you all done freaking out over this? Okay good. I wouldn’t put much stock in that because it really doesn’t mean anything. It’s the first one. It never means anything. As Flores said today at the press conference referring to the Depth Chart, “We have a lot of packages. We’ll get the best 11 guys out there, trust me on that.”

Preseason Game

The Miami Dolphins’ first preseason game is this Thursday at home against the Atlanta Falcons at 7:30pm. I will be unable to attend but hoping I can stream it. I read the Dolphins will be streaming the game online if you live in South Florida area. Lucky you if you live in the area.

I will see you all back here next week to discuss reactions from the first preseason game and let’s keep all the players in our thoughts that everyone has a safe game with no injuries.