It was close to a hundred degrees Friday afternoon in Davie, FL as the Dolphins took the field on the first day of training camp. Davone Bess was first to come out, thus bringing an end to what seemed like an infinite number of months waiting for football season to come back around. Last out was Brandon Marshall who received a warm welcome from the fans and generated more than his fair share of screams during practice.
Also present on the field was Ronnie Brown, despite not having a contract signed as of yet; a pleasant contrast to other players around the league who despite having a contract are not happy with their situation and have announced they will sit out of camp. Brown seemed pretty comfortable out on the field and there was no evidence of any problems with his foot, so hopefully we will see him on the field for every game this upcoming season. Ricky Williams was also out there and he looked pretty solid, but the RB who impressed me the most was Patrick Cobbs, he was running drills pretty smoothly and looked really confident when running the ball.
Notably absent from training camp was Pat White, who according to a report in the Sun Sentinel, seems to be dealing with issues of a personal nature that are set to keep him of the field at least in the short term. Chad Henne on the other hand was out there and seemed to be comfortable in his starting role. He exuded a confidence which I had never seen before and seems to be doing great in his leading role which might have been what was lacking a bit from him last season. Now when all the guys are huddled up and ready to line up his presence seems to command attention and everyone is waiting to listen and ready to follow, which is a clear sign of a team who is ready to play together and do whatever it takes to win, with Chad at the head.
The most closely followed and intense part of training camp though was clearly that of the WRs. Fans came in ready to see Marshall in action and he delivered, twice he managed to burn CB Sean Smith and the whole crowd erupted into cheers. For the first time in a long time we are seeing the posibility to get that chunk yardage and it is very exciting. As for Smith, I wouldn't be too worried, even as a rookie he showed to be pretty solid at the position when he got thrown into it and playing alongside Marshall will only help him get better, he seems to be a quick learner too because although Marshall left him completely in the dust in that first burn, he managed to stay close by during the second and the catch that Marshall made is something that only a hand full of WRs can make.
That wasn't the only action we saw from the WRs though, it is clear that Hartline, Camarillo and Bess are all competing for the starting spot opposite Marshall, and the competition in intense. Hartline seems at the moment to be edging out the others, running and catching with the confidence of someone who's been out there playing for years, but the other two don't need to worry because Camarillo is still delivering and will surely make his way to the roster and Bess seems to have done all he needs to secure his spot as the slot receiver.
Our newly drafted players were also out on the field and looked to fit in quite comfortably alongside the starting lineup. There was no easing into the teams for the rookies as all of them went out into practice and assumed starting roles. Jared Odrick, the first round pick lined up at right defensive end, and is expected to stay in that role after Philip Merling got sidelined due to an injury; while Koa Misi took his spot as OLB and John Jerry lined up at RG.
All in all, the first day of training camp was very successful. Fans got to get a little taste of what's to come and it looks as promising on the field as it looks on paper, now we just have to wait for the season to start to prove to everyone out there just how good we really are.