NFL fans need to tread lightly in mid-August. With football just returning from a long hiatus, every single story tends to be over-exaggerated and over-reported. Caleb Williams misses a net during a drill and he's suddenly the worst quarterback in the NFL. Tajae Sharpe makes a few nice plays in training camp in 2016 and he's a stealth threat to be the Tennessee Titans' No. 1 wideout.
A lot of bold proclamations get made about this time every single year that ultimately amount to nothing ...
With that said, it sure sounds like the Miami Dolphins really stunk up the joint Wednesday.
The Dolphins took part in a joint practice with the Detroit Lions, and every single reporter who experienced the full event made it sound like it was an embarrassing performance for Miami.
After watching the teams go at it for roughly two hours, at least three reporters used the same word to describe the joint practice: Lopsided. Two went so far as to call it the "most lopsided joint practice" they've ever seen.
The most charitable review of the Dolphins' performance came via Mike Payton of A to Z Sports, who opined that the Dolphins might be "really bad" before concluding it was "not a great day for Miami." When that's the nicest thing a reporter can say about a team after a joint practice ... you know it had to be a pretty terrible performance.
But how bad did it actually get? Thankfully, the Miami Herald chronicled the entire practice in a live blog Wednesday. Here are a couple of the highlights lowlights.
• Lions receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown apparently put up a stat line equivalent to Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game. St. Brown "torched" Dolphins defenders in 1-on-1s, scored a long touchdown in 7-on-7 drills and tore apart the Dolphins' secondary during 11-on-11 drills, making multiple chunk catches and hauling in a nice one-handed ball even when a defender seemed to be on him.
• Lions quarterback Jared Goff was described as being "very sharp" during the event. The Miami Herald did not mention any instances in which Goff turned the ball over Wednesday.
• Dolphins quarterbacks Tua Tagovailoa and Zach Wilson were both sacked at least once and flushed out of the pocket multiple times during the scrimmage. Wilson began the day by throwing two interceptions in 7-on-7 drills and was inaccurate on at least two throws. He did throw at least two touchdowns later, though. Tagovailoa had a touchdown on a screen pass, but overthrew a fourth-down attempt and had another pass dropped by Julian Hill.
• A fight between Dolphins safety Ifeatu Melifonwu and Lions receiver Jameson Williams at the end of practice. And while details weren't provided, we'll just assume the Dolphins took another loss there based on how the rest of the day went.
To make matters worse, the Dolphins turned in that type of performance after one member of the Lions talked smack ahead of the joint practice. On Tuesday, Lions linebacker Grant Stuart said he didn't know if the Dolphins would be "ready" for the Lions. "I don't know if they practice how we practice," Stuart added. Even after getting bulletin-board material from the Lions, the Dolphins still came out extremely flat.
All of this may wind up amounting to nothing. This was a practice during training camp, after all. For as much as fans want to live and die on every highlight or report that comes out in mid-August, you can't expect a joint practice to live up to the same intensity as an actual game.
Two months from now, this may prove to be a humorous blip on the radar. There's certainly a scenario where Tyreek Hill returns to form, Tagovailoa stays healthy and De'Von Achane rips through opposing defenses to get the Dolphins out to a 5-2 start.
If you think that's unlikely, try and remember when there were training camp reports suggesting Ja'Marr Chase couldn't catch the ball. Those were very real ... and aged like milk.
The beautiful thing about training camp is that it doesn't count. For as bad as the Dolphins' performance was Wednesday, the team is — and will remain — 0-0 until Week 1. There's time to iron out issues and get better. That's the purpose of practice.
Unfortunately for Dolphins coaches, they probably need to relive Wednesday's beating at least one more time. Mike McDaniel and his staff will very likely review the tape and use it as a teaching and motivational moment when the team meets Thursday.
At that point, though, it might be wise for McDaniel to burn those tapes. By all accounts, Wednesday's joint practice was an absolute horror show for the Dolphins, and some films are simply too scary to watch a second time.
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