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)
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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. Offensive guard is not a sexy position for a high draft pick, but the Giants and Dolphins both took guards in the top 12, with New York getting Miami (Fla.)’s Francis Mauigoa at No. 10 and Miami getting Alabama’s Kadyn Proctor at 12. Proctor is massive, listed at 6-foot-7 and 360 pounds and already making a strong impression.
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“He’s a big guy. He’s fast, he’s physical, and he’s just a smart young guy,” Brewer said of Proctor.
“He buys in and gives his effort, so he’s just a great football player.”
Miami left tackle Patrick Paul is 6-7 and bigger than the 326 pounds he’s listed at, so Miami could have the largest left side in the NFL. “Overall, dominant. I feel like we didn’t play to the standard that I hold us to, or our leaders hold our defense to because coming out as our first joint, trying to be smart, make sure everybody gets taken care of, but at the same time, they’re not our team. So, when you have an opportunity to hit them, you hit them. And you hold them up and they get hit again.
“We started to do that later on, towards the middle of the day and the rest of the day on.
But we had splashes in the beginning, but I wanted to swarm from when we first got out here and it just took a little bit to get going, but I understand it’s our first joint [practice]. But I let it be known, we don’t wait to get punched in the mouth. That didn’t happen, but we don’t wait to get punched in the mouth to fire off on somebody.”
— Giants edge rusher Brian Burns on his team’s physicality against the Dolphins.
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