The Miami Dolphins are reportedly set to make up for lost time with their preseason efforts after a 2020 season that saw Miami forced to embrace practices against themselves and only themselves. We found out earlier this month that the Dolphins would be embracing a series of joint practices against the Atlanta Falcons ahead of the team’s home preseason contest in South Florida — a bold decision given that the Dolphins will be hosting Atlanta twice this season; once in the preseason and yet again in Week 7 of the regular season as the two teams clash for real.
But according to a new report from Adam Jahns of The Athletic, that won’t be the Dolphins’ only set of competitive practices this preseason. Jahns reported this morning that the Dolphins will be headed to Chicago a few days early in advance of their first preseason contest to hold joint practices with the Bears, too.
This should be fun. I’m told that the Bears will be hosting the Dolphins for a couple joint practices before their preseason game on Aug. 14. They will be at Halas Hall. The Bears’ plans to practice with the Broncos last year were scrapped because of the pandemic.
— Adam Jahns (@adamjahns) June 28, 2021
Miami will, in consecutive weeks, be practicing against the Bears and the Falcons before strapping up for the regular season. This shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise given Brian Flores’ thoughts on the matter, which he shared earlier this month when first asked about the opportunities involved with joint practice.
“I’m always in favor of doing joint practices. I think they bring a lot from a camaraderie standpoint, from a competitive standpoint. I think you can get a lot out of those. I know we did with Tampa a couple of years ago and my experience is you get a lot out of those and it kind of breaks up training camp in a good way, in a positive way,” said Flores.
And now we know he’s willing to put his money where his mouth is — because the Dolphins aren’t just holding one set of joint practices this summer; they’re apparently now holding two.