Monday Miami Dolphins Notebook: Sieler Shines, Another Week of OTAs, King’s Rankings, Former Dolphins News, More
Several teams around the NFL began their OTAs on Monday, while the Miami Dolphins kicked off their second of four weeks of Phase Three of the offseason program.
The Dolphins’ second week of OTAs will follow the same schedule as last week, with practices Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.
That will be followed by the two-day mandatory minicamp June 1-2 and four days of OTAs the following week, June 6-7, 9-10.
Zach Sieler Shines
Courtesy of the Miami Dolphins social media team, we know it was defensive lineman Zach Sieler who wore the orange jersey Monday.
The jersey represents the coaching staff’s choice as practice player of the previous workout, in this case last Thursday. Along with being able to wear the jersey, the honor also carries the right to choose the music during practice.
Sieler became the third known winner of the orange jersey, following Jaelan Phillips and Tua Tagovailoa.
While Sieler might not be a familiar name around the NFL, those who follow the Dolphins know how effective he’s been since being claimed off waivers from the Baltimore Ravens late in the 2019 season.
It was no surprise, really, when Pro Football Focus recently chose Sieler for the Dolphins when the analytics group selected the most underrated player for each NFL team.
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The Dolphins in Peter King’s rankings
There are few NFL writers more universally respected than Peter King, now of Football Morning in America, and he came out Monday with his 2022 power rankings.
The Dolphins were slotted in the middle of the pack — at number 16, to be precise.
This is what King wrote: “They have the widest distribution of outcomes of any team in the league this year,” said analytics-cruncher Eric Eager of PFF. Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle and Mike Gesicki are going to be hell for opposing defenses, and Tua Tagovailoa should be better-protected with Terron Armstead protecting his front side. But this will be a referendum season on Tagovailoa. Will his arm strength be good enough for deep shots to two great deep threats? New coach Mike McDaniel was great in San Francisco at divining the strengths of his players (see: Deebo Samuel). And he’ll figure out ways in the intermediate areas to get Hill and Waddle free to make trouble for defenses. The win for McDaniel will be making Tagovailoa the no-doubt quarterback for the near future in Miami, and in passing New England in division supremacy. Two lofty goals, but for a team that won eight of its last nine, attainable ones.
The Dolphins were ninth among AFC teams in King’s rankings, and his top three all came from the conference: Buffalo, the Los Angeles Chargers and Kansas City. Other AFC teams ahead of the Dolphins in King’s rankings were Cincinnati (7th), Baltimore (8th), Tennessee (12th), Las Vegas (13th) and Denver (15th).
Numbers game
— Among the teams kicking off OTAs on Monday was the New England Patriots, and that meant handing out jersey numbers for their newcomers. So for those interested, we can tell you that former Dolphins wide receiver DeVante Parker will be wearing the same number 11 he wore during his seven seasons in Miami.
— Dolphins newcomer Melvin Ingram III still remains without a jersey number with his new team, but he’ll have to come up with a different one from what he’s wore during his NFL career. Ingram wore 54 for his nine years with the Chargers, had 8 during his brief stint with the Steelers last year before wearing 24 for the Kansas City Chiefs. The Dolphins haven’t given 54 to anybody since Zach Thomas’ last season with the team in 2007; Jevon Holland wears number 8; and Byron Jones has number 24.
In closing …
Wide receiver Mack Hollins may have a new team after leaving the Dolphins to join the Las Vegas Raiders, but he’s got the same old personality.
Hollins responded to a question posed by the NFL’s Twitter account asking which player, past or present, has the best hair, and it was vintage Hollins.
