Dolphins camp 2025 has been a competitive endeavor. Both sides of the ball have traded wins on a daily basis as the team rips through efficient, quality practices. Wednesday, there was a clearer winner.
"I felt today the defense had the best of us with what training camp had looked prior for us coming into today's practice," quarterback Tua Tagovailoa said.
It wasn't all defense, however. Tagovailoa found running back De'Von Achane for a touchdown strike capping a 50-yard scoring march.
"That's what you want to see," Tagovailoa said. "You want to see that back and forth and if there's swings, you want to try to keep that swing as consistent on that side as possible and I think they did a really good job with that in even situational drills today. I'm very proud of them and we're all looking forward to going to Chicago and seeing what those guys have in store for us."
The defensive backfield made life difficult on all three Miami quarterbacks. Pass breakups, sacks and throwaways were the most common outcomes with coverage and communication in the back end on point.
Cornerback Jack Jones had multiple pass breakups and incompletions forced with sticky coverage. Jones and fellow cornerback Ethan Bonner made a handful of stops against short throws and in the run game, while Bonner also got his hands on two passes.
Kendall Sheffield also found the football securing the only interception of the day. Wide receiver Tahj Washington, who pulled down a juggling catch earlier on a tipped ball by cornerback Storm Duck, tried to elevate for a Zach Wilson throw, but Sheffield got to it first for the takeaway.
"The rotation on the back end, we're intentionally keeping very varied at a lot of places to give a lot of people opps to compete, and I think each player in our secondary will get their opportunity," Head Coach Mike McDaniel said. "We've been building for this competition for a while and I'm pretty excited to see how it unfolds, to tell you the truth."
It was a busy day for the linebackers, too. Willie Gay Jr's. scorching camp continued with two more sacks and a batted pass at the line of scrimmage. Chop Robinson made his usual visit to the backfield for a sack on Wilson. Jordyn Brooks stacked up multiple runs and had a big hit on a pass to tight end Julian Hill. These are every day occurrences for the Miami linebacker.
Wide receiver Jaylen Waddle had the biggest play of the day on offense. He caught a pass from Tagovailoa racing through the secondary for a gain of about 50 yards. Running back Ollie Gordon saw daylight ripping off a 30-yard run. His combination of power and patience has impressed through 12 practices.
All these plays are made possible by an offensive line that's had a good camp, due in large part to the many ways the defense can stress their protection plans.
"One of the reasons why I gravitated towards this defensive scheme with Coach Weaver, is they give a lot of protection issues systematically while being able to throw a lot at you but it's not that much to them," McDaniel said. And in that process, it makes your offensive line collectively better. I've seen pass pro and in the run game, a nice evolution thus far in camp relative to where we've been every year. So, so far so good with that."
The Dolphins are back on the field tomorrow but will do so in Chicago. Friday, the team will square off against the Bears in a joint practice before the preseason opener Sunday at Soldier Field. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. eastern.
For more coverage from Dolphins camp, download the Drive Time Podcast with Travis Wingfield, available wherever you get your podcasts.
