MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — On a Miami Dolphins roster stacked with superstars, head coach Mike McDaniel chose a little-known linebacker who was a college wide receiver to wear the orange practice jersey Monday.
Quinton Bell’s wardrobe change (and control of Monday’s PA playlist) was his reward for having the best practice of any Dolphins player on Saturday.
But that was no outlier performance. Bell, as we explore in our Day 10 Miami Dolphins practice report, has consistently been one of the team’s most pleasant surprises of training camp.
Quinton Bell Is an Emerging Miami Dolphins Playmaker
Bell has been one of the team’s best players the last two weeks, providing an unexpected boost to a pass-rush unit working without its two best (Bradley Chubb and Jaelan Phillips remain on PUP).
Bell has been a constant thorn in the Dolphins offense’s side this summer, a trend that continued Monday when his pressure forced quarterback Tua Tagovailoa into an incompletion.
While the expectation has been that rookies Chop Robinson and Mohamed Kamara would be the top beneficiaries of Chubb’s and Phillips’ absence, it’s actually Bell — a Dolphins practice squadder in 2023 who was cut six times in his first five seasons — who’s gotten the biggest promotion.
“You learn so much about players based upon how other players react and when he gets an edge of a lineman and is creating a hurry, pressure or sack or he’s long-arming while setting the edge, people lose their minds,” McDaniel said last week.
“And I think that’s because here’s a guy that comes to work every day with no excuses, doesn’t tally how many opportunities he gets; he makes the most of the ones that he does get. And because of that, when you have that type of mindset, you get more and more opportunities.”
Assuming Bell keeps it up, the question won’t be so much whether he makes the Dolphins’ 53 but how much he’ll play on defense when he does.
Bell, who switched from wide receiver to EDGE late in his career at Prairie View A&M, acknowledged that he saw the Dolphins’ injury situation at outside linebacker as an opportunity to contribute in 2024.
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“I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t think about it,” Bell said. “But also, you know, I definitely knew that the opportunity was there. Either way it goes, no matter what the opportunity was, no matter what the draft was, I was gonna come in here ready to play and ready to look like this and ready to fly around.
“It’s a blessing to be at the right place at the right time and really doing what I feel like I wanted to do in this training camp.”
Dolphins Injury Update
McDaniel’s MO is to not reveal much more than he has to about injuries, and at this point in the year, he doesn’t have to reveal anything at all.
The team’s first injury report is still a month off, and that might be the first time we know what has been ailing some of the team’s biggest names.
While McDaniel wouldn’t talk about the nature of the injuries that kept Jordyn Brooks, Anthony Walker Jr., and Jordan Poyer out of practice Monday, he did hint at the severity for two of them.
“It’s not something I’m worried about,” McDaniel said of Brooks and Walker.
Brooks, Walker, and Poyer have had company in the training room. Cornerback Cam Smith has been limited by an injury suffered earlier in camp, while wide receiver Erik Ezukanma and running back Salvon Ahmed remain out of action altogether.
Cornerback Jalen Ramsey and wide receiver Jaylen Waddle were among those given a veterans’ rest day Monday.
Meanwhile, the Dolphins continue to take things slow with Terron Armstead, who has not yet taken a snap in 11-on-11s this camp.