Receivers Shine In Final Dolphins Training Camp Practice In Davie
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DAVIE (CBSMiami) – The Miami Dolphins wrapped up the local part of their training camp schedule on Monday at the team's practice facility in Davie.
Now the Dolphins will travel up to Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina and join the Carolina Panthers for their final two practices of training camp before the two teams face off in a preseason game on Saturday night.
The only players held out of Monday's practice were Koa Misi and Jordan Tripp, who are dealing with calf and ankle injuries, respectively.
One person who was finally absent from the injury report was wide receiver Kenny Stills, who took his first team reps in over two weeks.
Dolphins players were given a pre-practice hint that Stills would be returning when college highlights of the speedy receiver were playing on the team's weight room televisions.
After seeing Stills make exciting plays in highlight form before taking the field, players were treated to more of the same once practice began outside.
Stills burned Brice McCain on a deep sideline route and caught a perfectly placed ball from Ryan Tannehill for what would've been a pretty substantial gain.
It was a sign of things to come as Stills continued to impress throughout practice, showing that his time off didn't take away from what he can do on the field.
"I thought he looked good," Dolphins coach Joe Philbin said of Stills. "Obviously he's been working hard, doing what he's capable of doing, but it's good to get him out here and work on the route concepts and the timing with the other receivers and the quarterbacks. It was good to have him."
Another positive that came from the receiver group is the growing chemistry between Tannehill and Greg Jennings. The two seems to find each other all over the field, especially during team drills.
The combination of Jennings' precise route running and Tannehill's improved accuracy could provide huge results for the Dolphins offense in 2015.
Starting left tackle Branden Albert continued on his steady pace of progress, participating in team drills for the first time during training camp. He was only out there for a handful of snaps, working with both the first and second teams, but just seeing him continue to take steps forward means that his rehab is going very well.
As far as the rest of the first team o-line, Dallas Thomas and Billy Turner took the majority of the snaps at guard.
Defensively, there wasn't much that stood out aside from a few quarterback sacks. Ndamukong Suh had a would-be sack on Tannehill while Terrence Fede had a pair on Matt Moore.
Miami's veteran kickers took their turn in the daily rotation on Monday, with Caleb Sturgis and Brandon Fields handling the kicking and punting.
Sturgis attempted four field goals during team drills. He was good from 41, 46 and 51 yards away but he missed wide-right from 50.
Finally, Dolphins rookie wideout DeVante Parker also took some strides in the right direction, both literally and figuratively.
Parker was seen doing light jogging in the practice bubble before the team portion of practice, and then later in the day he was jogging around the entire practice field, walking from sideline to sideline but jogging from goal line to goal line.
It was the first time since his foot surgery that he was seen doing any kind of running. After practice Philbin said that while it's long rehab process, he's hopeful Parker would play in a preseason game.
"He's just starting the running phase," said Philbin. "I think every day we'll learn a little bit more. It's really a day at a time. [Monday's jogging is] step one. We don't want him to get out here with the other guys until he's ready to go. It's hard to put a timetable on that right now.
"I'm always optimistic [he'll play in the preseason]. I'm an eternal optimist as you guys know."
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