“You get tired of hitting your own dudes, seeing them in the locker room and stuff like that. It’s definitely good to see different fronts, different players. They got Khalil Mack so it’s going to be fun to see him up close and personal.”
The Miami Dolphins wrapped up week two of training camp on Sunday and will now have a scheduled day off before traveling to the windy city for joint practices with the Chicago Bears.
Chicago will host the Dolphins on Wednesday and Thursday at Halas Hall before the two teams meet on Saturday for their week one preseason matchup. A matchup that should see two young franchise quarterbacks battle for the first time—albeit in limited action. Two dominate defenses, as well,
Nevertheless, this week will be fun for Brian Flores’s team to test themselves against a very good NFC North opponent. An NFC North team, that in my opinion, is much better off with Justin Fields at the helm and should be competing for the division title for many years to come.
Both sides are eager to compete. However, there’s one matchup the Miami Dolphins RB1 is most looking forward to. A matchup against one of the best defensive players in all of football. I’m obviously talking about the Chicago Bears Khalil Mack.
Here’s what Myles Gaskin had to say about this week’s joint practices.
“Yeah, absolutely. You get tired of hitting your own dudes, seeing them in the locker room and stuff like that. It’s definitely good to see different fronts, different players. They got Khalil Mack so it’s going to be fun to see him up close and personal. Just stuff like that, just trying to compete against some different guys.”
Much of the Miami Dolphins’ success in 2021 will rely heavily on the offensive line. An offensive line that is now without veteran D.J. Fluker. Jesse Davis is also banged up, so the Miami Dolphins have to hope their young stable of inexperienced offensive linemen are ready.
How they fare this week vs. Chicago should give Chris Grier, Brian Flores, and offensive line coach Lemuel Jeanpierre a good understanding of how this unit matches up against one of the more dominant defensive fronts in football.
Myles Gaskin sees the improvement on the team’s offensive line and sees that they’re working hard towards becoming the foundation this offense needs them to be if they want to succeed in 2021 and beyond.
“Very comfortable. They’re just working hard. We got a lot of moving pieces. It’s a brand-new offense, brand-new calls and guys are just adjusting to it, getting better each and every day. I love the way we practice; some days we lose, some days we win. Just seeing the o-line go at it every single day is very important. Guys don’t ever get down on each other. We aren’t afraid to yell at each other, aren’t afraid to get on each other but obviously in an encouraging way. That’s very encouraging.”
I’m not sure how much stock these two coaching staff will put into their joint practices. But the Miami Dolphins and their RB1 are ready. Fans, too, are ready and excited. And like Myles Gaskin said, if anything, this week’s joint practices should be fun.
“Just seeing different fronts, being able to learn something new in the sense of we run a lot of three-down, we’ve got a different defense. Just kind of get into that football season-type learning guys tells and stuff like that, seeing how other guys play. It’s just fun like that. It’s getting close to that football season time.”
Myles Gaskin is right. It IS getting close to football season.
Five more days…
What matchups are you most looking forward to this week as the Dolphins travel to Chicago? Do you think Miami’s high-octane offense can go toe-to-toe with Chicago’s defense? How will the offensive line fair? Will Miami’s secondary prove to be too much for rookie quarterback Justin Fields? Let us know in the comments section below!
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