MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Tua Tagovailoa is quite serious about getting a new contract from the Miami Dolphins.
His participation in Day 2 of training camp was far less than Day 1 — and that was presumably by design, as we explain in our July 25 Miami Dolphins practice report.
Dolphins Practice Observations for Thursday, July 25
Quarterback Report
A day after participating in all but a handful of scheduled reps, Tagovailoa seemingly went the Jordan Love route Thursday — no individual reps, no 7-on-7s, and certainly no full team snaps.
Tua showed up to Thursday’s scorching practice in shorts, no helmet, a hoodie, and a baseball cap. Backups Mike White, Skylar Thompson, and Gavin Hardison got all of the practice reps.
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel, in retrospect, may have hinted at a fluid participation plan for Tagovailoa while negotiations continued on before Wednesday’s practice, saying:
“We are taking it day-by-day today. I expect it to be kind of like OTAs, and we’ll move on from there.”
Tagovailoa’s hold-in is designed to send a message to GM Chris Grier and the rest of Dolphins’ front office: Pay me. Sooner rather than later.
He wants a market-value contract that presumably pays him in the neighborhood of $55 million a year, which would make him one of the highest-paid players in franchise history.
After a rough first practice of camp, Tagovailoa’s backups had a better Day 2 Thursday. White and Thompson both had deep completions — White to Alec Ingold in 7-on-7s and Thompson to Tyreek Hill in 11-on-11s on the last snaps of practice.
Still, they had issues at times cracking the Dolphins’ opportunistic secondary (more on that in a bit).
Injury Report
It was a veteran rest day Thursday for a number of the Dolphins’ expected starters.
Defensive lineman Calais Campbell, cornerback Kendall Fuller, safety Jordan Poyer, tackle Terron Armstead, and tight end Jonnu Smith were all held out of practice.
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A big bit of good news for the Dolphins: Jevon Holland avoided injury when he got upended on the second snap of 7-on-7s Wednesday. He was back on the field Thursday.
Stock Up
- With Fuller out, third-year cornerback Kader Kohou made the most of his enhanced role. Kohou had at least two pass breakups during Thursday’s practice, which can only help him in his battle with Cam Smith for the team’s CB3 job. (Smith was the one who surrendered the deep pass to Ingold.)
- While Jaelan Phillips and Bradley Chubb remain on PUP, the Dolphins have to feel good about their other edge defenders. Emmanuel Ogbah has been excellent in his first two practices back (he wore the orange jersey Thursday for being the best practice player Wednesday), while penetration by rookies Chop Robinson and Mohamed Kamara caused multiple negative plays.
- Like Kohou, backup safety Elijah Campbell was also opportunistic Thursday. He got extra work with Poyer out and responded with an interception (and he would have had a second one had Holland not deflected a pass headed his way).
Stock Down
- Thursday was a rough day for Chris Brooks, who can’t really afford to have any of them given Miami’s excellent depth at running back. Brooks fumbled a pitch thrown directly to him and then later dropped a pass.
- The Dolphins’ offensive line will be a concern until they prove otherwise. Granted, neither Armstead nor Isaiah Wynn are practicing at this point, but that doesn’t excuse the pressure and penetration on running plays we saw Thursday. We’ll withhold judgment until the pads come on, but it hasn’t been great early.