Sparano: Grading 1st Preseason Game Will Be Tough
DAVIE (CBS4) -- Tony Sparano was working Wednesday on a script to get some more basic elements of his Miami Dolphins' playbook installed sometime next week.
Problem is, his team plays before that.
Such is life now in this most harried of training-camp summers around the NFL.
Ready or not -- and Sparano wonders which side of the ledger his team falls under -- the Dolphins open their preseason schedule in Atlanta on Friday night, after less than a dozen practices and with plenty of chapters within the playbook apparently still untouched.
"I don't want to use the term `vanilla,' but it's kind of where you're going to be," Sparano said Wednesday. "You've got to let these guys have a chance to play. To put them out there and to ask them to do something that maybe they've only done once out here on the practice field right now doesn't really give them a chance. ... You've really got to just ask these guys to do minimal in this ballgame."
Which will make Sparano's evaluation of the tape after the game that much harder.
Jobs may not necessarily be won or lost in the preseason opener, but just about every club figures to start shortening the rotation of candidates for those open depth-chart spots at some point before too long. And after a spring without minicamps and organized-team-activity days, thanks to the lockout, everything about the way the Dolphins are grading their players seems to be changing this summer.
For their part, the players say they're welcoming the chance for a game, in that it'll provide a brief respite from the grind of camp.
"It's hard going against our defense every day," running back Daniel Thomas said Wednesday. "We've got a top-five defense in the league. So it'll be nice to go against a different-color team."
Sparano said that most of his starters will play, but as is customary in the first preseason game, they won't be out there for long.
"I can't afford it," Sparano said. "I have no gauge on how many plays we're going to play ... if our offense isn't going to be out there for 40 plays and our defense out there for 70 or vice versa. So with that in mind I can't afford to keep a group out there too long without getting some of these young players evaluated. I need to make sure these players get evaluated because as we get going here into the next couple weeks I really can't waste that kind of time."
Sparano said that in a normal year, some guys would have around 60 "opportunities for them to be in house and to be better at something." The lockout eliminated that, which is why he's scrambling now to get a plan together. He's not even thinking about what the Falcons will try on Friday, thinking only about his own club's plan.
"It's always good to see another opponent," defensive end Jared Odrick said. "It's only preseason, but definitely, we're very excited."
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