The Phins Report

As well me moving into and getting ready for college this week, It is my birthday tomorrow as well. So posts this week and maybe possibly next week will be sparing, Once I get used to my schedule I will be able to post more. So thanks for your patience.

I’ll be here for the whole game so any questions or comments will be answered if you can’t watch it.

The Dolphins aren’t required to cut down to 75 players until Aug. 26, but Tony Sparano and his bosses got a head start Friday by releasing receivers John Dunlap and Selwyn Lymon and linebacker Keith Saunders.

All three were undrafted rookie free agents — Dunlap out of N.C. State, Lymon out of Purdue and Saunders out of Alabama. None had much of a shot at cracking the 53-man roster, anyway, and now that they have been waived, perhaps they have a chance to catch on with another team.

This puts the Dolphins at 75 players on their preseason roster. They can sign up to five more guys, or stick with 75.

Not really any surprises although Lymon, was somewhat unexpected. But it does seem to tidy up the WR position a little bit. The definites to make this team are Ginn, Hagan, Wilford, Bess and Camarillo. But will the Dolphins carry 6? With Kircus or Foster getting on the team. Anthony Armstrong more than likely is gone hes just here as a camp body right now and he was performing better than Dunlap and Lymon.

This will be the last live blogs from all of the media so from here on out it will be straight writing from me, No blogs from other newspapers.

Yes, it’s true. After Saturday’s game at Jacksonville, Training Camp is officially over with, and practices will no longer be open to fans and media.

It’s been a wild three weeks, and we thank you for checking out our blog and coming along for the ride.

But we still have two practices to go! It is a mild 79 degrees right now in Davie, but it will heat up soon. The players are trickling out to the field now, and they will take the field again at 5 p.m., though the practice is closed to the public.

This is an important bounce-back day for the Chads. Pennington was 6-for-21 in team drills yesterday, while Henne was 7-for-15.

Updates will start around 9:25. Feel free to post any comments or questions.

Enjoy the show!

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9:34 a.m.

Nothing big to report yet. A few quick hits to get us started:

• Shorts and shells today.
• Charlie Anderson is back at the field, but still isn’t practicing. He injured his hamstring in Saturday’s game and hasn’t played since then. He was riding the bike at Tuesday morning’s practice, but wasn’t in attendance for the evening practice or yesterday’s session. Now he’s back and riding the bike.
• Joey Porter (back, ankle) is practicing. Michael Lehan (ankle) and Vonnie Holliday (hamstring) are riding the bike.
• The DBs are doing like a backwards crab walk kind of drill. Doesn’t look fun, especially in this heat.
• All four quarterbacks are warming up with the receivers. But I doubt Josh McCown and John Beck will take many reps today. Pennington and Henne likely will receive most of the snaps in Saturday’s game at Jacksonville, and should receive most, if not all, of the practice reps today.

That’s pretty much it for now. Practice should pick up soon.

10:03

Fairly light practice so far. Probably taking it easy, with a game two days away.

• They split out into 11-on-11 drills, but it’s all running plays. And they’re going half speed, so it’s hard to say who is doing well and whatnot.
• All four quarterbacks are taking snaps, though it’s not exactly split equitably. Pennington and Henne take maybe 5-8 snaps, while Beck and McCown take 2-4.
• After about 10 minutes they break out into special teams drills. Brandon Fields is once again practicing onside kicks, along with Dan Carpenter.
• The most entertaining drill of camp is happening on the other field. The defensive linemen are catching punts from the Juggs machine. Watching these guys try to catch the ball is high comedy. I assume they’re doing this to prepare for pooch kicks this season.
• Matt Roth has the best hands of the bunch. These are 45-yard punts, and he’s catching them with his fingertips.
• Randy Starks and Kendall Langford? Not so much. Starks has one go right through the bread basket, while Langford takes one in the facemask.
• Phillip Merling has great hands, too. But his throws back to the coaches reveal why he plays defensive line, and not quarterback.
• Vonnie Holliday, meanwhile, is running side to side and doing quick cuts while catching passes from a coach. I doubt we’ll see him much Saturday, but he’s moving well.
• Rod Wright: Doink. Right off his chest.

And then they break out into more kickoff drills. More in a bit.

10:32

Finally, some action. But not the kind you would expect.

A BIG fight breaks out during 11-on-11 drills. I don’t see how it starts, but then all of a sudden I see Will Allen on top of David Kircus, wildly throwing punches. The entire team rushes over and a big scrum ensues. Guys pulling guys out of the fray, bodies flying. It’s over within a minute, and they quickly return to practice.

Minutes later, Tony Sparano has a little private conversation with Will Allen. Wish I could read lips.

OK, team drills. Before the fight:

• Pennington goes first, and his first pass is a quick out to Ernest Wilford that is intercepted by Mr. Allen himself.
• But Pennington comes back nicely on the next pass, hitting Ginn on a deep fade.
• Henne also throws an interception on his first pass. Renaldo Hill picks off a pass intended for Greg Camarillo. Hill likely needs to keep coming up with big plays to make the roster.
• And like Pennington, Henne comes back on his next throw with a nice pass to Davone Bess on a deep out.
• McCown gets in, and throws two quick outs to Sean Ryan, a slant to Anthony Armstrong and a deep touchdown to Selwyn Lymon over Jason Allen.
• McCown throws another quick out to Sean Ryan, but Joey Thomas forgets that it’s training camp and lays a hurtin’ on Ryan, knocking him to the ground and knocking the ball loose.
• The next snap is the big scrum.
• Eventually, they break out into 7-on-7 drills. Pennington takes most of the snaps.
• He hits Wilford on a quick out, and then Kircus makes a nice catch on a throw that was a little high and outside.
• Ted Ginn sees one go right through his hands on a square in.
• Henne ‘s up, and hits Wilford on a quick out.

And then I came inside. Probably one more update today. It’s definitely getting testy out there.

11:06

Last update. They finished with 11-on-11 drills, but everyone in the media is still buzzing about that brawl.

• I missed the beginning of the Team Drills, but Edgar said Pennington and Henne were mostly working on short throws and running plays.
• McCown takes a few more snaps.
• Throws a playaction incomplete to Jayson Foster, and then another incompletion on a playaction bomb to Kircus. Covering on the play: Will Allen. Don’t see any conversing between the players.
• McCown misses his first three passes, and finally hits Justin Peelle on a crossing pattern.
• Beck takes a few snaps. A couple of short throws, and then he ends the day with an incompletion to Anthony Armstrong over the middle, thrown into triple coverage.

The team huddles up at midfield, and gets an extra long speech from Sparano.

As the team breaks up and heads to the locker room, Sparano keeps the veterans on the field for another speech — Channing, Matt Roth, Ricky, Ronnie, Will Allen, pretty much anyone who was on the team last year.

Will Allen and David Kircus don’t go near each other as they walk off the field. In fact, Kircus is the very last player to leave the field.

And that just about wraps ‘er up. Talk about some unexpected fireworks. Between the fight, and Joey Thomas taking several shots at some offensive players, these guys look like they’re getting restless.

Source

On the field, both QBs Chad Pennington and Chad Henne struggled again today.

After working on the running game for the first portion of 11 on 11s, Pennington’s first pass was dropped by Derek Hagan. Then there was a miscommunication on a handoff and Pennington was P’od. He came back to hit Hagan on a slant. He then was picked off by Will Allen, who stepped in front of a non-aggressive Ernest Wilford.

Pennington lofted a strike down the sideline to  Ted  Ginn Jr. and then hit TE Justin Peelle on a slant.

Henne came in and hit Ginn with a dart, but then was under pressure when he threw it behind Greg Camarillo into S Renaldo Hill’s arm for a bobbled interception. Henne then hit Davone Bess in motion, before being sacked by Hill on a safety blitz.

Josh McCown worked the scout team and hit WR Selwyn Lymon deep for a long TD. He later scrambled and hit TE Matthew Mulligan on the run.

John Beck took over and had hit arm hit just as he was set to throw for an INC. He recovered and hit Camarillo in stride for a nice TD.

Moments later the Will Allen brawl ensued and took the reporters’ focus away from charting every snap.

Source

Otherwise, I’ll let you know if Chad Pennington bounces back from a couple of so-so practices and all things Dolphin.

This is it for the practice blogs. Next week, the team will open only the first 30 minutes for the media to watch individual drills and stretching, basically a chance to take a head count.

Heading out to the bubble here, will be back in a bit …

5:35 p.m.

Team’s warming up for practice, with the usual suspects on the sideline nursing injuries: CB Michael Lehan (ankle), DE Vonnie Holliday (hamstring) and LB Charlie Anderson (hamstring).

Coach Tony Sparano said earlier today he’d evaluate Holliday following the evening practice. Based on that, Holliday won’t be playing at Jacksonville this weekend.

Also, QB John Beck is at practice and taking snaps in individual drills. Word of his release on Pro Football Talk created quite an uproar today.

For now, it’s only a rumor.

• It’s pouring rain and we’re inside, but Sparano continues to wear his sunglasses.

  If I was a player, it’d make me a little nervous seeing the head coach looming in dark glasses, not sure if he’s watching me on not. It actually makes me a little nervous as a reporter on the sideline.

  Sparano is checking out the DBs working on pass drops, while the LBs do the same off to the side.

• All four QBs are taking snaps in individual drills.

  Afterward, coaches are working with them on screen passes to the RBs in the flats and in the middle of the field. Expect to see a lot of those this season, especially given how well Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown catch the ball.

  Ronnie might have the best hands on the team, other than Davone Bess, who doesn’t drop anything.

  Bess and the other receivers are across the field from the RBs working on fade routes, a pass QB Chad Pennington seems to throw well.

• Football czar Bill Parcells and GM Jeff Ireland share a laugh at midfield.

  Parcells seems to have a pretty good sense of humor, based on the reaction of the people who speak to him. It’s unfortunate the South Florida media isn’t among those people.

  OK, not much to say there, but we’ll hopefully have some action to report in a bit.

  6:05 p.m.

  Beck and McCown are getting a lot of early work today during passing drills.

• Not much to report from short yardage 11-on-11, other than an incompletion from Beck to rookie WR Anthony Armstrong that ended with LB Reggie Torbor and DB Travis Daniels running into each other full speed.

  Torbor and Daniels laid on the ground for about 10 seconds to shake out the cobwebs before popping up.

• In 7-on-7, McCown hooked up with David Kircus on a skinny post to beat CB Andre Goodman, but S Jason Allen had Kircus in his crosshairs and mercifully let him go.

  McCown was 4-of-5 in 11-on-11, his only incompletion when rookie WR Jayson Foster dropped a pass.

  The highlight was a perfect touch pass on a deep out between two defenders to WR Ernest Wilford. A beautiful throw there.

• Beck completed a series of short passes in 7-on-7, but on his final throw found rookie WR Selwyn Lymon behind rookie CB Will Billingsley down the sideline for a long gain.

  Beck relies too much on checkdowns and short passes, but can really throw the deep ball with accuracy.

  He showed it again in 11-on-11 when he hooked up with Kircus on the play of the day, a long TD over CB Joey Thomas.

  Beck was 3-of-5 in the drill.

• Pennington and rookie Chad Henne haven’t done much yet.

  Pennington was 0-for-2 on one drill, including a slant when WR Derek Hagan didn’t look for the ball. Still working out the kinks with a new receiving corps.

  Henne was 0-of-1 and suffered a coverage sack in four snaps in team drills.

  Heading back out, will be back with more …

  6:35 p.m.

• LB Joey Porter is sitting out with an ice pack on his back.

  After the morning practice, coach Tony Sparano said he felt Porter was beginning to make a few plays after missing some recent practices.

  But Porter has had two injuries in a month. If this keeps up, he could have a few nagging injuries to deal with by the middle of the season.

  The ghosts of Cam Cameron and Randy Mueller live.

• Pennington bounces back in 7-on-7, going 4-for-4, highlighted by a nice shoestring catch by WR Ted Ginn Jr. on an out pattern along the sideline.

  Pennington is not nearly as impressive in 11-on-11.

  He hit two short throws, but tossed an interception to CB Nate Jones, who returns it for a touchdown, and took a coverage sack.

• Henne is 4-of-5 in 7-on-7, hooking up on two really nice plays - a fade to Wilford, who’s having a good day, and a sideline pass to Hagan, who makes a gorgeous leaping catch.

  In 11-on-11, Henne sticks to throws underneath the coverage and looks sharp.

• McCown is 3-of-6 during 11-on-11 in the red zone, but none of the completions is for more than short gains.
• In his turn, Beck goes 2-of-5, but telegraphs a pass in the end zone to WR Greg Camarillo, allowing S Renaldo Hill to jump the route and come up with his second pick of the day.

  OK, one more update to come, but not until we catch players heading into the locker room …

  7:11 p.m.

• Pennington shined during the red zone drill, hitting back-to-back post patterns (to Ginn and Ricky) for TDs. On the first one to Ginn, Pennington really sold the play action fake.

  In tight red zone, Pennington used play-action a couple of times on TDs to Foster and FB Boomer Grisby. He also found TE Justin Peele on a quick hitch.

• Henne hooked up with Ronnie on a short TD, but had limited reps.

  Well, that’s all I got for you today. Thanks for reading the practice blogs the past few weeks.

Source

As training camp fights go, coach Tony Sparano said, he has been around more memorable ones than the fisticuffs this morning between cornerback Will Allen and wide receiver David Kircus.

“A receiver and DB fighting, I don’t think that’s much of a fight sometimes,” joked Sparano, a former offensive lineman.

But it didn’t take long for the Allen-Kircus tussle to end up with much of the team in a scrum.

A minute later, cooler heads prevailed and the team resumed practicing.

Speaking to the media after practice, Sparano said he wasn’t sure how the scrap began.

“Things happened so fast out that I didn’t really see how the play went,” he said.

Following an incomplete pass, Kircus fell to the ground and Allen suddenly was on top of him, throwing punches. Kircus didn’t retaliate, and when Allen stopped swinging and walked off, an unidentified offensive player jumped on him, leading to a team-wide skirmish.

One observer said the spark could have come when Kircus laid a hard block on Allen two plays earlier. Sparano didn’t care.

“It’s not smart,” Sparano said. “It’s not something I condone at all out here. I mean, stuff happens, we’ve been out 16, 17, I don’t know how many days now. But that’s our second fight we’ve had …

“Bottom line, we’re trying to teach discipline in games and that can cost you a player in a game in a critical situation. You don’t want that. It’s not what we’re trying to do.”

Sparano said he spoke with Allen and Kircus on the field and “they’re fine right now.” Sparano knows from personal experience that’s not always the case for everyone involved in a training-camp scuffle.

The coach recalled trying to stop a fight during his first season as an NFL assistant in Cleveland. The details are a little fuzzy because Sparano caught an inadvertent right hand to the face from 6-foot-7, 360-pound Orlando Brown.

“I didn’t know any better, I thought it was college,” Sparano said. “I kind of dove in the middle of it. The next thing you know I came out of there like I was shot out of a cannon.”

Sparano, who coached the Browns’ offensive line, said tight ends coach Ray Perkins, a former NFL head coach, looked at Sparano and said, “Well son, did you learn something?”

Sparano said he wouldn’t have known if he did.

“I don’t remember,” he said. “I got hit in the face.”

Somewhat dumb, but who cares. If Allen needs to get his agression out why not do it on a highly padded man. But whoever jumped on him, that wasn’t quite a good idea although some people would feel the need to retaliate. But cooler heads should of prevailed, But this is pretty much a non story and not sure why I am posting it but it was all the media was talking about this afternoon.

Source

Three more to go until the team closes practice to the fans and media. Looks like we’ll be outside today, but we’ve been getting thunderstorms almost every day around 2 p.m., so I’m not holding my breath.

Expect to see plenty of Chad Henne-ton today, and probably not too much of Josh McCown or John Beck. And let’s see if Joey Porter’s balky back will let him participate in two practices in a row.

Feel free to post any questions or comments, and I’ll try to address them in the posts.

Enjoy practice!

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2:31

Hey gang, a few quick updates before practice gets going:

• Shorts and shells today.
• Injury situation is the same as yesterday. Vonnie Holliday (hamstring) and Michael Lehan (ankle) are sitting out. Joey Porter (back) is practicing. Charlie Anderson (hamstring) is MIA.
• Holliday and Lehan are taking turns on one of those speed skating things. They have bags wrapped around their feet, and are gliding back and forth on the slick white board. Looks like a lot of fun. Holliday has better balance than Lehan.
• All four quarterbacks are participating and individual drills. The 7 on 7 and full team drills are the real barometer, though.
• Nice one-handed catch by Andre Goodman during interception drills. And Jason Allen catches the ball like a wide receiver. Very smooth. The position coach that is throwing all these 35-yarders is going to need plenty of Advil tonight.
• On the other side of the coin, Channing Crowder drops an interception.
• The quarterbacks start working with the receivers. Lining up alongside First Teamers Ted Ginn and Derek Hagan is rookie Davone Bess, who by all accounts has had a great training camp.

That’s it for now. Back soon.

3:01

Hey guys, sorry about the delay. Some technical problems at the Palm Beach Post world headquarters.

Here are the goods:

11-on-11 team drills

• Pennington looks a little rusty. He throws high to Hagan, broken up by Will Allen, and then throws a slant a little bit behind Ernest Wilford, which he drops.
• Pennington comes back with a deep sideline route to Camarillo. Beautiful job by Camarillo to jump up over Andre Goodman and come down with the ball.
• Pennington ends with a dump-off to Ricky, a playaction roll-out screen to Ricky and a slant to Davone Bess. Nice finger-tip catch.
• Henne’s up. He overthrows Hagan, who was wide open deep down the field.
• Henne finds Patrick Cobbs in the flat after checking down his other receivers. Nice job by Cobbs to scoot past Channing Crowder.
• He throws a playaction roll-out out of bounds, a slant to Jayson Foster, and a slant to Camarillo. Great diving catch by Camarillo. This guy has looked really sharp in camp. Edgar and I would be shocked if he doesn’t make the team.
• They break out into punt drills. Brandon Fields starts from his own end zone and does some quick punts. They slowly trickle down the field until they are practicing coffin corners.
• Really nice job by Patrick Cobbs on punt coverage. Bess waives for the fair catch but lets it drop, and Cobbs downs the ball on about the 1-foot line.

They break out into more 11-on-11 drills. As I’m typing this, Edgar says McCown is finally getting some snaps.

More in a bit.

3:30

Hey guys, I realize you can’t read this in real time. I suggest turning back your clocks before you read this, so we can pretend like we didn’t have any technical issues.

• Team drills, 11-on-11. Beck and McCown each take snaps.
• Beck had a real nice deep pass to David Kircus, but also a couple of incompletions and a pass that was tipped at the line.
• McCown looked pretty good. He completed three short passes — a curl to Camarillo, and out to Davone Bess.
• But McCown also struggled a bit on the deep ball. He threw a couple of ducks, and Will Allen comes down with the interception on the second one.
• Pennington struggled a bit today. He missed on his first four throws and finished 1-of-5. Andre Goodman also let Pennington get away with a bad throw, dropping an interception.
• Henne completes a square-in to Ginn, real nice sliding catch by Teddy G. Then he throws over Boomer Grigsby’s head on an out pattern in the flat.
• Kickoff drills. Dan Carpenter is booming them down between the 5 and the goal line every time. He kicks the ball really high, and puts a nice little draw on it. Wish I could get my 9 iron to look like that.
• Rotation of special teams drills: punt blocks, fair catches, long field goals, etc.
• Punt block drills. Brandon Fields gets it off every time.
• Carpenter lines up for a 60-yarder, but with no defense and no snap. John Denney is holding the ball, and Carpenter essentially gets a free kick. His kick has PLENTY of distance, but goes wide left. That kick could’ve reached the goalpost from 75 yards.

That’s it for now. Thanks for your patience. Gotta talk to players soon, so the last update will probably come in an hour.

4:34

A few more updates to end the day:

• Pennington worked with all three units in 11-on-11 drills. He began on his own 40, and slowly marched down the field.
• Pennington throws a quick out to Sean Ryan and misses Davone Bess on a deep out.
• A little miscommunication between Pennington and and Wilford. Pennington throws a deep out, Wilford runs a curl.
• Kendall Langford is running with the 3’s, by the way.
• Now they’re in the Red Zone. After a Jalen Parmele run up the middle, Pennington throws to Sean Ryan in the end zone. Ryan runs a flag route and is wide open in the corner. The throw is right there ….. and it goes off Ryan’s hands, right to Courtney Bryan, who takes it 108 yards the other way. Ryan, clearly upset with himself, chased Bryan all the way down the field.
• Pennington scrambles into the end zone, and his final pass of the day is an interception to Will Billingsley on a fade to Derek Hagan. Way underthrown.

Here are some final passing numbers for the two Chads. It ain’t pretty:

Pennington: 6 for 21 with two interceptions.

Henne: 7 for 15

That’s 13 for 36, combined. Yuck. But tomorrow is another day.

Source

Josh McCown and John Beck had the best day of Miami’s four quarterbacks in Wednesday’s practice because, well, they took only a handful of snaps in team drills while Chad Pennington and Chad Henne took the 36 between them and stunk struggled.

Pennington was 6 of 21 with zero touchdowns and two interceptions during the entirety of the team drills, which were split up into three parts. Pennington and the starting receivers were not always on the same page but he was also victimized by some horrible happenstance.

On one sure TD pass he hit TE Sean Ryan in the hands and the guy not only drops the pass, he drops it into the hands of Joey Thomas for an INT. Pennington’s second INT was legit as Will Billingsley simply plucked a weak pass in the corner of the end zone out of the air. Derek Hagan, by the way, didn’t exactly defend well, which is what he’s called to do when he doesn’t have a chance to catch it himself.

Pennington did have the nicest completion of the day — a 40-yard-plus connection with Greg Camarillo. Camarillo also had a leaping grab of a Henne pass across the middle later in the practice so he had a good day.

Henne was not so good either. He completed 7 of 15 passes without a TD nor an INT. Henne also took a sack.

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An item in profootballtalk.com today confirms an item on this blog from Saturday that Chad Pennington’s deal could be worth $11.5 million but only if the guy takes Miami to the Super Bowl and he wins the MVP. The real value of the deal is more like $8 million. He got $500,000 to sign last week.

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It was surprising to see but only hours after coach Tony Sparano said he’s seeing improvement from Ernest Wilford in practices, I see him fall another notch in the ever-changing depth chart.

While we all know Wilford dropped from starter to third receiver last week behind Ted Ginn and Derek Hagan, today while the team worked in three-receiver sets, he wasn’t one of the three receivers. Rookie Davone Bess, Ginn and Hagan were the three WRs working with the starters. Wilford was working with the second group. Interesting.

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The Dolphins want to find a place for RB Patrick Cobbs on this team so don’t be surprised to see him on kick returns Saturday versus Jacksonville.

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Quickie Jake Long update: Good news. Nothing to report. He doesn’t give up sacks, he doesn’t jump offsides. Does he have work to do? Yes, on his technique. But he’s never overmatched.

Source

Today we will bring you Day 2 of the Chad Pennington Era, as well as updates and insight on the position battles going on all over the field.

I’m interested to see how many reps John Beck and Josh McCown get today in 11-on-11 drills. Yesterday, they combined for four throws. Pennington and Chad Henne, meanwhile, combined for 36. Advantage: Chad.

Feel free to post any comments or questions, and I’ll try to address the good ones after practice ends around 11 a.m.

Enjoy the show!

UPDATE: Kicker Jay Feely called into Joe Rose’s morning show today on WQAM and told Joe that he has been cut this morning. Edgar Thompson will have more on this shortly. Rookie Dan Carpenter is now your kicker.

Edgar here. Yes, It’s true. Jay has been cut following a season in which he set a team record for field-goal percentage, hitting 21 of 23 kicks (91.3 percent).

He doesn’t fit into the team’s long-term plans and said several teams are interested in him.

Jay was a class act from Day 1 and was among the only players who spoke to the media during last year’s 1-15 nightmare season.

It will be interesting to see undrafted rookie Dan Carpenter standing over a 43-yard field goal in Week 6 with the game on the line. The Dolphins might wish they had Feely back then.

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9:36

It’s true, Feely has been cut. Not that I don’t believe Edgar, just that the team’s PR staff confirmed it.

Not much for you yet in terms of the 78 guys who are here today:

• Vonnie Holliday (hamstring), Michael Lehan (ankle), Joey Porter (back) and Charlie Anderson (hamstring) are still not practicing. They are all riding the bike.
• Donald Thomas is still a First Teamer. I keep waiting for him to be bumped down, but it looks like it may not happen.
• Everyone is doing positional drills. The wide receivers are doing tight one-on-one stuff to work on getting separation in man coverage. Tony Sparano specifically mentioned this yesterday as an area to improve.

Be back soon.

9:59

A few hot reads for you:

• OL and DL are doing some one-on-one type of stuff, and the quarterbacks are working with one receiver, against one cornerback.
• Once again, Pennington and Henne are getting most of the reps.
• Pennington throws a real nice ball on a slant pass. I see him complete four in a row, putting the ball exactly where it needs to be.
• Henne does well, too, but his final throw is an interception to Will Allen. The INT is probably Ted Ginn’s fault, he didn’t run a crisp route, and Allen was able to undercut him for the INT.

11-on-11 drills

• It’s pretty much all running plays. Ronnie, Ricky and Cobbs working on counters, sweeps, bellies, etc. No tackling, so it’s hard to evaluate the running backs or OLs.
• What is telling, though, is which quarterbacks are taking the snaps. Pennington gets most of them, and Henne watches while standing next to quarterbacks coach David Lee. When it’s Henne’s turn, Pennington stands next to Lee. Meanwhile, Josh McCown and John Beck are on the other sideline, standing next to quality control coach Steve Bush. Their body language suggests they know they’re not getting many reps in practice.
• Matt Roth and Quentin Moses are lining up as the OLBs with Vonnie, Porter and Charlie Anderson out with injury.
• Special teams drills. Dan Carpenter hits all three field goals, each from 40-plus. Then they do a fake field goal and a field goal return, with Ted Ginn back deep.
• As I walk inside, they break out into kickoff drills. Sparano mentioned yesterday how unpleased he was with the special teams unit last Saturday against the Bucs. I’m sure special teams is a point of emphasis this week.

That’s it for now. More in a bit.

10:45

Last update of the morning. Practice went about 1:45 today. Forget about the players, I’m dripping with sweat.

They start with 11-on-11 drills.

• Pennington throws a nice skinny post to Hagan, who goes up high for the catch. Pennington can put the ball just where it needs to be.
• Me and my big mouth. Pennington sails a screen pass to Ginn, and isn’t pleased with himself.
• Chad Henne does a couple checkdowns, and hits Boomer Grigsby on a playaction roll-out.
• Uh oh, Ricky Williams is slow to get up, and he walks VERY gingerly off the field. Looks like his right ankle.

Goal line drills

• Pennington does another playaction roll-out to Boomer, but throws it low and outside.
• Where are Beck and McCown? They might as well be watching today’s practice from the media tent.
• Interesting subplot: With Feely now gone, Brandon Fields is practicing onside kicks, along with Dan Carpenter.
• UPDATE: Sorry I forgot to include this. Ricky is back on the field and looks OK.
• Pennington throws a quick-out touchdown to David Martin.
• Lex Hilliard runs one up the gut for a touchdown, and puts a nice thump into Travis Daniels.

Then they break out into 7-on-7 drills. And OL vs. DL 1-on-1. I’m trying to watch both at once.

• Pennington goes first, of course. He’s throwing short stuff, outs and slants and checkdowns.
• Donald Thomas does a nice job blocking Randy Starks.
• Pennington completes a slant to Wilford, throwing it low, giving the defender no chance. Nice fingertip grab by Wilford.
• Justin Smiley dominates Phillip Merling.
• A quick hitch to Jalen Parmele goes off his hands and into the air, but Davone Bess comes down with it.
• Nice job by Rod Wright, blowing past Donald Thomas to the inside.
• David Kircus drops a slant from Pennington, which was thrown a little behind Kircus. That’s the first drop we’ve seen today.
• Henne’s up.
• He throws a post to Anthony Armstrong, a quick hitch to John Dunlap and a quick hitch to David Martin.
• Trey Darilek stands up Kendall Langford.
• Phillip Merling jumps offside, and Jason Ferguson clearly isn’t happy with the rookie.
• And then Quentin Moses is chewed out by a coach for not beating Ikechuku Ndukwe.

Back to 11-on-11, Red Zone drills.

• Pennington goes first, of course. Merling and Langford are with the First Team.
• A couple runs by Ronnie, mixed in with a check-down to Reagan Mauia and an incomplete pass to Martin over the middle (pass interference on Yeremiah Bell?).
• A couple draw plays to Ricky up the middle, and then a beautiful lob to David Martin in the corner of the end zone for a touchdown. An even nicer catch by Martin, who goes up and gets it over Courtney Bryan.
• Henne’s in now. First pass is out of bounds in the end zone, over Ted Ginn.
• A screen to Armstrong is followed with a batted pass by Rod Wright.
• Final two plays of the day: First Henne feels the pressure, scrambles up the middle and gets into the end zone. Then he throws a wobbly slant pass to Ginn, but he catches it anyway for the touchdown. Ending on a positive note.

UPDATE: Got a few final numbers from the two quarterbacks:

Pennington: Took 33 snaps in team drills, and completed 5 of 9 passes. Then completed 6 of 7 in 7-on-7 drills.

Henne: 25 snaps in team drills, and completed 4-of-8 passes. Went 3 for 5 in 7-on-7 drills.

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That’s all she wrote. Interesting day, to say the least. McCown and Beck were glorified clipboard holders today.

Still a little shocked that Jay Feely is gone. Another example of the Dolphins’ washing their hands of the Cam Cameron era.

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Easy morning for Josh McCown and John Beck at practice this morning. Neither quarterback took a snap in team or 7-on-7 work.

Basically, the Dolphins are showing their hand with the Chads. Or as Dolphins GM Jeff Ireland calls them, “Penny and Henne.”

One is the Mr. Right Now. The other one seems like Mr. Right for the longterm future of the team. Coach Tony Sparano said it is pretty obvious that Pennington will play versus Jacksonville Saturday evening. I would imagine, based on the work so far this week, either he or Henne would start.

Pennington took 33 snaps this morning. He was 5 of 9 with a TD to David Martin. Henne took 25 snaps and was 4 of 8 with a TD to Ted Ginn.

By the way, the catch by Martin in the corner of the end zone was the best play I’ve seen from the tight end since he’s been a Dolphin. The throw to Ginn by Henne was zipped between two defenders on a slant. Good stuff on both counts.

Receiver Anthony Armstrong, who had a good night on returns Saturday, seems to be in the mix on starting kickoffs now. He got as many reps with the first-team kick return team as Jayson Foster and Ted Ginn Jr.

Matt Roth continues to work at OLB, getting ALL his snaps at that position.

Rookie Donald Thomas continues to run with the first team OL, at right guard.

Speaking about the decision to cut Jay Feely, Sparano said the veteran simply got beat out by rookie Dan Carpenter. According to Sparano, Carpenter has connected on 93 percent of his 40 field goal tries and until he missed one in practice today, he had connected on 23 consecutive kicks.

“The numbers weren’t close,” Sparano said.

Sparano also noted the Feely has, “been hurt twice,” since the spring, the most recent a groin injury that sidelined him the past week or so.

On the injury front: Vonnie Holliday (hamstring), Michael Lehan (ankle), Joey Porter (back), Charlie Anderson (hamstring) missed the practice. Ricky Williams seemed to tweak his ankle on one play but returned later.

Sparano said he expects Porter back on the field pretty soon — I would guess as early as this evening.

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Since I was forced to pay so much attention to quarterbacks yesterday I needed a trench fix this morning, and the Dolphins obliged, putting one-on-one line battles right in front of me.

What a thrill! I should send Mike Maser and Kacy Rodgers a thank you note because it taught me a lot about this team’s line play.

I’ll get to that stuff later, but I’m sure you want you junkies want your daily QB fix.

Chad Pennington again took all of the work with the first team, and while he wasn’t as impressive as Monday’s showing, he was still steady, which is a step in the right direction. Rookie Chad Henne took all of the snaps with the second team during team drills while John Beck and Josh McCown watched EVERYTHING but individual drills.

I know coach Tony Sparano said they are out of the business of worrying “about hurt feelings,” but damn. Not a snap? I guess the writing is on the wall. South Florida’s a two Chad city. Sparano flat out said they - the coaches and receivers - need to get a look at Pennington, and Henne needs the work.

Maybe McCown and Beck will be worked in during the afternoon session. I’ll keep you posted with my afternoon report.

As for my practice observations….

Sparano blew up at the first-team offensive line when they half-tailed the first snap of the inside run drill. He removed the entire line and put in the second unit to work their reps. When they returned the holes were much more respectable….

While I haven’t projected that DE Rodrique Wright is making this team, I’m starting to second guess myself after watching him the past two days. He stood out on Tuesday as the hardest player to block during inside run drills. He recorded a sack and deflected a pass at the line of scrimmage in the morning. Wright’s fighting to make this a tough cut for the Dolphins….

The Dolphins new starting kicker Dan Carpenter connected on two of the three field goal attempts he tried during the morning. I’m guessing the distance on the one he missed was 42 yards. But he followed it up by making a 47-yarder….

Former Green Bay G.M. Ron Wolf was again at practice hanging with fellow retiree Bill Parcells. Get this guy a consulting job already….

While I wasn’t pleased with the play of the inside linebackers on Saturday, I must say they were balling during Tuesday’s session. Channing Crowder was everywhere….

It seemed as if Ricky Williams hurt his right leg or ankle during a team drill when Quentin Moses ran him down and actually tackled him. But Williams returned to the field about 10 plays later. He was till running hard afterwords. I’ll let you know if I notice anything in the afternoon session.

Before I get into what I saw during trench work, I’d like to summarize what happened during redzone drills….

Boomer Grigsby dropped what would have been a sure touchdown from Pennington on a play-action roll out….

Matt Roth is looking a lot better as an outside linebacker. He’s been fairly effective in run support, but he does need work dropping back. Sparano said it’s an experiment the coaches are still gathering information on. If you think about it, Roth is only a few months behind Moses in making the transition….

Tight end David Martin caught two touchdown passes during the morning practice, but only one of them was good because of a penalty. There were plenty of flags thrown this morning, and that can’t please Sparano considering how many controllable mistakes the team made against Tampa Bay….

Ted Ginn Jr. also caught a 3-yard touchdown pass on a quick slant from Henne. Andre’ Goodman was in on the coverage. Someone needs to put out an APB on Ernest Wilford.

Now onto the good stuff, line play. I’ll just give you a blow-by-blow of the one-on-one work so you can come to your own conclusions.

Randy Starks eats up Donald Thomas with a bull rush and forearm shiver….next, Samson Satele stands up (completely stops) Paul Soliai….Phillip Merling commits a false start and earns a slap on the wrist…. Justin Smiley seals out Merling on his second try….Jake Long stands up Keith Saunders….Daren Heerspink washes out Titus Brown….Kendall Langford commits a false start and earns a slap on the wrist….Anthony Toribio metrorails Steve McKinney into the imaginary QB….Rod Wright beats Shawn Murphy with an inside move. Murphy starts beating himself up afterwords….Ikechuku Ndukwe washes out newcomer Maurice Fountain….Starks shakes Vernon Carey to easily get around him….Rod Wright surges past Thomas on a great inside move….Mike Byrne stands up Soliai with ease….Matt Spanos gets off the line real slow, but he stops Lionel Dotson in his tracks with ease….Long stands up Saunders again….Brown powers past Heerspink getting to the imaginary QB….Langford bull rushes Ndukwe to collapse the pocket….Satele stands up Toribio with little difficulty….Merling false start again (time to go to the Principal’s office)….Ndukwe easily washes out Quentin Moses, earning the starting outside linebacker an earful from his position coach….finally, Carey washes out Roth to end the drill.

Now wasn’t that good. I need a cigarette, and I don’t even smoke anymore.

For those UM fans trolling my blog I’d like to point out that former Hurricane receiver Jason Geathers, who starred for the AFL San Jose Sabercats, which made it to the Arena Bowl, came to Dolphins camp looking for a tryout. Geathers, who caught 37 passes for 365 yards and five touchdowns, is trying to latch onto an NFL team and left the Dolphins his game-film. I remember Geathers as a good special teams player. Maybe if the coaches have seen enough of Selwyn Lymon, who didn’t play against Tampa Bay, they’ll give him a look.

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Kicker Jay Feely was cut by the Dolphins Tuesday morning, clearing the way for rookie kicker Dan Carpenter to take the starting spot.

Feely, a seven-year veteran, set a franchise record last season for accuracy, converting 21 of 23 field goals.

Feely has been battling a groin strain that forced him to sit out practice last week and miss Saturday’s 17-6 exhibition loss to Tampa Bay.

In that game, Carpenter, an undrafted rookie free agent from Montana, converted a 41 and 49 yard field goal.

This really, really surprises me as i thought Dan Carpenter would just be another one of those kickers that just gets cut after training camp. But really the MVP of last season Jay Feeley was cut, I am just amazed by this.

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We had a problem with the server and we lost a lot of the newer posts. We have a backup from July 22nd, that for some reason didn’t work properly. We will try and get alot of new posts soon.

One exhibition game is in the books. Next up is Jacksonville this Saturday. Six practices plus a walk-through to go. It’s Sink or Swim time for the 79 guys in camp.

“We’re kind of out of the hurtin’ people’s feeling business right now,” Tony Sparano said this morning. “We’re getting into the real deal here.”

These practices are especially important for Josh McCown and John Beck. Did you see this item from Peter King this morning? He expects Beck to get cut, and he won’t get many sniffs from other teams once he is available.

The heavens opened up right on time, so we likely will be moving into the bubble.

Practice starts at 2, and the updates will start around 2:20. Feel free to post any comments or questions.

Enjoy the show!

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2:24

Lets get started, shall we?

• Big news, guys. Chad Pennington is here at practice.
• OK, seriously. Vonnie Holliday (hamstring) isn’t practicing today. He did some high-leg stuff during warm-ups and is riding on the bike, but isn’t in pads.
• Joey Porter isn’t practicing either. He strained his back before Saturday’s game, and is day-to-day.
• Jay Feely (groin), Michael Lehan (ankle) and Charlie Anderson (hamstring) also aren’t practicing, and are riding the bike.
• With injuries to Porter, Anderson and Kelvin Smith (“serious” knee injury, Sparano said) not practicing, the Dolphins have added OLB Maurice Fountain from the Utah Blaze in the Arena Football League. You may remember him from his four years as a defensive end at Clemson (2001-04). Fountain apparently was named to the AFL’s 2008 All-Rookie Team, and also spent some time with the Manchester Wolves of AFL2.
• Matt Roth continues to do individual drills with the OLBs.
• McCown and Beck are both here. Guess Sparano was serious when he said he would work out all four quarterbacks.

That’s it for now. Back with more updates soon.

2:58

Hey guys, sorry for the delay. Wanted to watch the QB drills before I did an update.

• During individual drills, Sparano wanders over toward the OLBs. Matt Roth gives a so-so effort against Rob Ninkovich during one-on-one drills, and the linebackers coach shouts out, “Do it again! Look who just came over!”
• Donald Thomas is once again the First Team RG.
• Ernest Wilford drops a pass from John Beck during individual drills. No one is covering.
• Chad Henne is a perfectionist. He throws a slant to Derek Hagan that is maybe a quarter-inch behind his receiver. Hagan easily catches the ball, but Henne slaps his hands together in disgust.
• The quarterbacks are doing a lot of short stuff. Pennington gets rid of the ball fairly quick.
• The running backs do receiving drills against the linebackers, the receivers work on getting separation from the CBs, and the OL goes up against the DL.
• Pennington throws an interception to Chris Crocker on a pass intended for Justin Peelle. Nice job by Crocker stealing the ball away.
• John Beck throws a nice deep flag route to Ronnie Brown, who continues to look great catching the ball.
• Real nice throw by Chad Henne, threading one to Sean Ryan over the middle, with Edmond Miles covering.
• Real nice throw from McCown to Anthony Fasano deep down the left side.

They break out into 9 minutes of 11-on-11 drills. Pennington gets the snaps for about the first 6 minutes.

• First pass is a fade to Ginn on the right side. Ginn doesn’t look soon enough, and the ball glances off his fingers.
• Next pass is a quick slant to Wilford, who runs right to the spot that was left vacant by a blitzing Channing Crowder.
• Then a quick out to Fasano, an incomplete pass to Hagan, another quick out to Fasano, and incomplete fade to Jayson Foster and a high throw to Hagan, who still comes down with the catch.

Henne goes next.

• A quick slant to Wilford is followed by a real nice square-in to Ginn, about 20 yards.
• Next pass is incomplete to Greg Camarillo down the right sideline. “Camarillo, keep your hands in!” a coach shouts.
• Next play is a rollout, and Camarillo makes a nice catch on the sidelines.
• Final pass is an out pattern to Ginn, who catches it with Andre Goodman draped all over him.

That’s it for now. Back in a few.

3:33

Some more quick hits:

• I come back and they’re doing some kickoff drills, nothing too fancy.
• Roth and our new guy Fountain are getting private instruction from Pasqualoni.

11-on-11 Red Zone drills.

• Pennington is up first.
• After a quick out to Bess and a sweep left by Ricky, Pennington throws a Pick Six to Andre Goodman. Anthony Armstrong was the intended receiver. Easy interception for Goodman.
• Pennington comes right back and throws a real nice fade pass to David Martin in the right corner, over Yeremiah Bell.
• Will Allen and Channing Crowder get tangled up on a fade pass in the end zone, and come down hard. Allen sits out for a few plays, but eventually comes back.
• Pennington certainly has a long way to go, but several members of the media are commenting about how practice is running a lot smoother with Pennington under center.
• Henne is up next. He and Pennington have taken the Lion’s Share of snaps today. Beck and McCown have barely gotten anything in team drills.
• Henne throws an out to Peelle, a playaction dump-off to Mauia and an end-around to Camarillo.
• Finally, McCown gets in there. Jalen Parmele drops an out pattern, but then runs the same route on the next play and comes up with the catch.
• McCown scrambles out of the pocket on his third pass and throws it away. And that’s it. He gets three snaps.
• Now it’s Beck’s turn.
• Nice lob to Bess in the right corner for a touchdown over Chris Roberson.
• Then Parmele runs left.
• And that’s it for Beck. Two snaps.

Now they do 11-on-11 drills, with no defense.

• Pennington up first, once again. But they’re only working on the old Standford Marching Band lateral play that teams use at the end of a half. This is my favorite play in football.
• Henne gets to run the drill, too. Anthony Armstrong manages to drop a lateral from Patrick Cobbs. These drops are contagious.

Hopefully this will tide you over for now. Practice ends soon, and I gotta talk to some players.

I’ll have one more update for you, but it won’t be for another hour.

4:27

A few more to finish the day:

• 11-on-11 drills. Pennington gets most of the snaps.
• He throws a real nice sideline pass to Armstrong, and Hagan does a great job dragging his feet to complete a sideline pattern.
• Henne throws an interception to Will Billingsley. Nice diving catch from the CB.
• Sparano isn’t happy with the pace of practice. “This isn’t touch football, let’s tackle somebody!” Next play, Ed Miles gives a nice thump to Parmele.

Here are the final passing stats from practice:

• Pennington: 13 of 21, one (maybe two) touchdowns
• Henne: 9 of 15, 1 INT
• Beck: 1 of 1. Yes, 1 of 1
• McCown: 1 of 3

So it’s pretty obvious who the coaches wanted to see today.

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Let me preface this blog entry by reminding you I’m not a fan of quarterbacks, and I wasn’t a fan of Chad Pennington.

Notice the word WASN’T! I don’t like the Jets at all, and I don’t like quarterbacks who don’t have the arm to throw deep. But with that said, and with the warning that I’m FAR from a guy who buys the company line, I’m pleased to report that Pennington’s performance today was the best I’d seen ALL CAMP.

It seemed as if Pennington has been in this offense his entire career. Balls were being thrown before receivers made their breaks. Balls were placed either right in their hands, right over their heads for jump balls, or about to hit their helmet. Sometimes they didn’t even see the ball until it was two feet in front of their face like the one Anthony Armstrong pulled in.

Pennington is indeed pinpoint accurate like advertised. NOW I understand why he’s the NFL’s most accurate passer. He had great anticipation with players he’d never thrown a ball to before.

Pennington worked with the first team all practice, getting about 65 percent of the total snaps, and completed 13-of-21 passes during team drills. And very few of them were checkdowns. He threw one touchdown during redzone drills on a fade to tight end David Martin. But he also threw a pick-six that cornerback Andre’ Goodman totally anticipated, which made me conclude the Dolphins opponents will be playing plenty of tight zone coverage this season.

Miami’s opponents might not be afraid of Pennington’s deep ball, but he might be able to pick them apart on the short and intermediate game. I saw about six or seven perfectly placed passes from Pennington on Monday. I’m talking passes where only his receiver could have caught the ball.

After watching this one practice, and it was just one practice, I immediately put him atop my list of quarterbacks for that starting job. But I’m not doing it because he’s the hotshot new guy. If John Beck would have had Pennington’s practice showing he would have immediately moved himself up my depth chart.

“He was very accurate today, putting the ball on point. That’s what you want from your quarterback,” receiver Ernest Wilford said of Pennington.

While I initially thought it was impossible for Pennington to learn this offense in two weeks, like coach Tony Sparano hoped, now I’m a believer.

He made it look easy on Monday.

“To him the plays are kind of second nature and he just has to look at the coverage,” Beck said of Pennington, who has a similar QB style.

As for the other QBs, Henne was exclusively working with the second team, and got the most work of the other three. He completed 9-of-15 passes and was hot and cold, like usual.

Beck got the least work, but he threw a touchdown pass on a fade to Davone Bess, who jumped over Chris Roberson to get it. It was a beautiful catch and throw.

Speaking of Bess, it appears that he’s been moved up the depth chart. He’s now the slot receiver with the starting unit. Greg Camarillo played that role in Saturday’s exhibition game, and Ernest Wilford held it last week after getting unseated by Derek Hagan for the starting spot.

Wilford is steadily sliding down but coach Sparano admitted he had a sit down with him on Monday and gave Wilford a vote of confidence. Wilford said that talk helped boost his confidence.

Here are the rest of my practice observations from Monday’s session….

Dan Henning spent a couple of minutes working with Chad Henne on his mechanics. I couldn’t help wonder what that was about considering Henne throws the best ball of all four QBs.

As you might already know the Dolphins signed a new linebacker to cushion the loss of Kelvin Smith (knee injury) and absence of Charlie Anderson (hamstring pull). The Dolphins waived Smith this afternoon. Maurice Fountain is an outside linebacker who is coming from the Arena League. I don’t know much about him, but he did contribute a sack in his first practice. That now gives the Dolphins two players from the Arena League. I guess Jeff Ireland was telling the truth when he said the scouting department scouts the AFL and CFL.

Joey Porter (back) didn’t practice with the team today, so Quentin Moses and Matt Roth worked as the starting outside linebackers. It appears Moses peaked in his first week of camp because he’s been very quiet lately. This is his opportunity to challenge Anderson for that starting spot, so he better get active in a hurry….

Bess handled a lot of the punt returns in Monday’s practice and I suspect he’ll be the receiver getting the tryout as a returner against the Jaguars.

Steve McKinney is now exclusively working as the second-team center, but Trey Darilek also got some work in there today. I say Darilek makes the roster because of his versatility. McKinney still has plenty to prove before his name gets written in pen….

Ricky Williams made a couple of VERY impressive runs during the session. On one there was a hole the size of a Honda Civic, which was opened up by Jake Long and a pulling Donald Thomas.

CB Will Allen hurt an ankle or leg covering a pass during the session but finished the session. While he did return, that injury sparked a headed debate amongst me and my fellow cohorts about how valuable Allen is. Think about it. If he goes down the Dolphins top four cornerbacks for Saturday’s exhibition game would be Goodman, Travis Daniels, Nathan Jones, and Joey Thomas. So basically, Will Allen needs to stay healthy.

While I’ve been impress with Jalen Parmele the runner, the rookie keeps fighting the ball on passing plays. It kind of makes sense that he’s struggling with catching the ball considering he only caught 41 passes in his four-year career at Toledo, which last I remembered was a pass-happy offense (I could be wrong about that…Ohio natives, help a brother out on that).

Since I’m talking about running backs, I’d like to point out I noticed Ronnie Brown running with a mild limp during Monday’s practice session. This is not out of the norm for a tailback 10 months removed from an ACL injury, who just played in his first game. But if I’m picking a tailback for my fantasy team and it has to be someone from the Dolphins I’m going with Ricky all the way. The way Ricky has been running lately he could be a fantasy football

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