Dolphins team drills avoid tackling

[DolFan619]

http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/football/miami-dolphins/story/624145.html

Dolphins team drills avoid tackling

BY DAVID J. NEAL
Miami Herald

As physical as this training camp has been when it comes to line play and bodies banging around ball carriers, tackling has been avoided in the team drills.

That might seem strange for a team run by hard-nosed men such as Dolphins executive vice president of football operations Bill Parcells and head coach Tony Sparano. Also, this is a team that tackled poorly last season.

Injuries, however, never go out of style. So, in fear of the big hurts, Dolphins defenders have been ''thudding'' ball carriers, making initial hard contact and trying to wrap up offensive players to halt their progress without bringing them down.

''I think, in any training camp, you really don't want to do that,'' Sparano said of tackling. 'I have not been part of that where you're bringing the back to the ground. It's a `thud' situation. I think when you start to bring the ball carrier to the ground, you start to get into people rolling on people and ankles and all of those things.''

Sparano pointed out the Dolphins have several drills designed to work on tackling, ball-stripping and ball security.

Also, he doesn't want defenders avoiding tackling to the point of playing matador.

''Early on in this training camp, I've seen a lot of one-hitters,'' he said. 'Our guys come flying up, they take the swipe, boom, they give them one hit, and then they're off of it. That's not what we want. We want arms around the ball carrier, `thud' them up, getting into a good football position that way. The one-hitters, I've seen those things end up in big plays on the other side [in games].''

SLOW RETURN

When cornerback Michael Lehan landed on the practice bubble turf during the Jun. 4 organized team activity day with a right ankle that appeared to suddenly go in two directions at once, most of the media standing nearby thought Lehan might be out for a while.

Then the Dolphins announced that Lehan's predicted return was two weeks.

That was eight weeks ago. Wednesday, during the afternoon practice, Lehan worked in solo agility drills with a coach.

Each push off the ankle directly forward or backward was done gingerly and with a mighty grimace.

By the end, as he step-hopped through a drill, he resembled someone who had lost his crutch.

Lehan's spot as the third cornerback has been taken by Nathan Jones, a former Dallas player signed also for his special-teams play.

TRIMMING BACK

The Dolphins cut undrafted free agent cornerback Scorpio Babers on Wednesday morning and signed cornerback Chris Roberson. Roberson's NFL career comprised the last six Jacksonville games in 2005, the year the Jaguars made him a seventh-round draft pick out of Eastern Michigan. He was injured throughout the 2006 season.