MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — All coaches have their preferences and quirks, and new Miami Dolphins coach Jeff Hafley has one: He doesn’t like 7-on-7 drills in practice.
They’re great for wide receivers and defensive backs, and some coaches like that it gives the big guys on both lines a period of relative rest, but Hafley, laying out the ground rules for Thursday’s joint practice with the New York Giants, insisted there would be no 7-on-7 work.
“We want to play real football,” he told reporters before practice, “and I want to see if we can block them, if we can pick up the pressures and our protections, if the quarterback can get rid of the ball on time, if the receivers can run the right routes so the ball can get out on time. So it’s going to have to be a team thing.”
It’s a bold move against a talented Giants front — there were plenty of would-be sacks whistled dead Thursday — but if you’re trying to stress the importance of winning the line of scrimmage, the message was appreciated there.
“Absolutely,” said center Aaron Brewer, a second-team All-Pro in a breakout season last year. “I can’t play 7-on-7, so whenever we’re out there and all working, that’s what it’s going to be. I feel like it translates from practice to the game. There are no days in a game where you’re running 7-on-7.”
New Dolphins head coach Jeff Hafley has been setting the tone in practice. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images)
That’s echoed by defensive tackle Zach Sieler, the longest-tenured Dolphins player, here since 2019 and a leader in a locker room loaded with new arrivals.
“My thing is, how do we play on Sundays? It’s 11-on-11,” he said. “When you put every piece together, that’s how the game is played. You want to put game-like stress in practice, pushing us to the limits on every single play, and that’s something we focus on a lot this year.”
Miami went 7-10 last year, but traded off key players as part of a rebuild that included hiring Hafley and a new general manager in Jon-Eric Sullivan. There are few NFL teams with lower outside expectations than the Dolphins, too. The oddsmakers’ projected win total for the Dolphins is 4.5.
However, you won’t hear Hafley or his players use the low-hanging fruit of the perceived slight to fuel motivation.
“I just believe that if that’s what we’re using to motivate, we’re worried about the wrong things right now,” Hafley said. “That stuff wears off after a while. There’s only so much you can use it, only so much you can care about it. I want the motivation to come from within. I want the motivation to come because the players want to be great and the coaches want to be great, because they don’t want to let their teammates down … if you do that, it will last.”
- The Giants’ defensive front is intimidating. One look late in practice had Pro Bowler Brian Burns and second-year pro Abdul Carter at edge, with Kayvon Thibodeaux as an interior rusher and rookie linebacker Arvell Reese standing directly over the A-gap as another potential rusher. They’ll miss Dexter Lawrence inside for sure, but they could easily improve on last year’s 39 sacks as a team. They’ll have a chance to show it early, opening the season against last year’s top two teams in total offense, the Dallas Cowboys and Los Angeles Rams.
- How much does Odell Beckham Jr. have left in the tank? At 33, his last NFL snaps were with the Dolphins in 2024, but he’s back where he started with the Giants. He’s wearing No. 3 now, but the stands were loaded with his old No. 13 on Thursday, and he took time to do selfies and autographs with fans after practice. New York’s top veteran receivers (Malik Nabers, Darius Slayton, Darnell Mooney, Calvin Austin) combined for just seven touchdown catches last year, so even if he’s used as a red-zone specialist, he can help the group there.
- I’ve been to a dozen or so morning practices in Tampa in the past month, and Miami is so much hotter. The Dolphins have lots of shaded seating for fans at their practice facility and for media as needed. On the sidelines, with only two 10-minute periods where reporters can take video clips of practice, my trusty iPhone didn’t make it. I got the “TEMPERATURE” black screen of death popping up midway through the second period. My trifecta of way-too-hot Florida NFL camps concludes next week with two days of joint practices for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Jaguars in Jacksonville, where there’s little relief from the August sun.
- Newly signed Giants running back Najee Harris looked healthy Thursday, showing little sign that he tore his Achilles tendon last year with the Los Angeles Chargers. He signed a league-minimum, non-guaranteed contract, but if he can showcase himself in the next two weeks, the Giants have a tough decision regarding their running back depth. Cam Skattebo and Tyrone Tracy seem safely entrenched as the top two backs, so the odd man out might be Devin Singletary, who already took a major pay cut to stay with the team. In the last eight games last season, he totaled 28 carries for 83 yards, less than three yards a carry, even with Skattebo out with injury.
Gamers To Watch
Offensive guard just isn’t an attractive place for a excessive draft decide, however the Giants and Dolphins each took guards within the prime 12, with New York getting Miami (Fla.)’s Francis Mauigoa at No. 10 and Miami getting Alabama’s Kadyn Proctor at 12. Proctor is huge, listed at 6-foot-7 and 360 kilos and already making a powerful impression.
“He is a giant man. He is quick, he is bodily, and he is only a sensible younger man,” Brewer mentioned of Proctor. “He buys in and provides his effort, so he is only a nice soccer participant.”
Miami left sort out Patrick Paul is 6-7 and greater than the 326 kilos he is listed at, so Miami might have the most important left facet within the NFL.
Quote Of The Day
“General, dominant. I really feel like we did not play to the usual that I maintain us to, or our leaders maintain our protection to as a result of popping out as our first joint, attempting to be sensible, ensure that everyone will get taken care of, however on the similar time, they don’t seem to be our crew. So, when you’ve gotten a possibility to hit them, you hit them. And also you maintain them up and so they get hit once more.
“We began to try this afterward, in the direction of the center of the day and the remainder of the day on. However we had splashes at first, however I wished to swarm from once we first obtained out right here and it simply took a bit of bit to get going, however I perceive it is our first joint [practice]. However I let it’s recognized, we do not wait to get punched within the mouth. That did not occur, however we do not wait to get punched within the mouth to fireside off on any person.”
— Giants edge rusher Brian Burns on his crew’s physicality towards the Dolphins.
