The Miami Dolphins came into this week of practice believing rookie wide receiver DeVante Parker would be available for the regular-season opener against the Washington Redskins.
That seemed good enough news because Parker had only worked into full practices last week and played only nine snaps against Tampa Bay in his lone preseason action.
And then this week's practices happened.Although practices are generally closed to the media, players said Parker looked good on Monday. And better on Wednesday. And then better again on Thursday.
And now the question is no longer about having Parker available, but expecting him to be a legitimate weapon in Sunday's game. That's because players are saying privately that Parker has improved dramatically over the past week to the point he's often making plays in practice.
That sentiment was echoed, albeit in a much more tepid manner, by head coach Joe Philbin on Thursday.
"He's done a good job," Philbin said. "He's gotten better and better. His volume of practice time and the amount of things he's seen from a coverage standpoint against specific routes is growing every single day. I think there's improvement. We'll see how the end of the week goes, we've got a couple of more practices before we make a final decision on play-time at the end of the week."
If Parker continues to impress, the volume of plays may not jump dramatically this week but the Dolphins may expect bigger things out of those plays because, well, that's what practice work suggests. The number of plays may climb dramatically, however, next week at Jacksonville and beyond -- assuming he continues his current arc.
And so how good has Parker been?
One player said Parker still isn't in the same league with Greg Jennings on route running or showing the kind of chemistry with quarterback Ryan Tannehill that Jarvis Landry has. But that he's a good combination of the two and is getting back some of the explosion he had at rookie minicamp.
This is all good, of course. The rookie is on the right course.
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/dolphins_in_depth/
That seemed good enough news because Parker had only worked into full practices last week and played only nine snaps against Tampa Bay in his lone preseason action.
And then this week's practices happened.Although practices are generally closed to the media, players said Parker looked good on Monday. And better on Wednesday. And then better again on Thursday.
And now the question is no longer about having Parker available, but expecting him to be a legitimate weapon in Sunday's game. That's because players are saying privately that Parker has improved dramatically over the past week to the point he's often making plays in practice.
That sentiment was echoed, albeit in a much more tepid manner, by head coach Joe Philbin on Thursday.
"He's done a good job," Philbin said. "He's gotten better and better. His volume of practice time and the amount of things he's seen from a coverage standpoint against specific routes is growing every single day. I think there's improvement. We'll see how the end of the week goes, we've got a couple of more practices before we make a final decision on play-time at the end of the week."
If Parker continues to impress, the volume of plays may not jump dramatically this week but the Dolphins may expect bigger things out of those plays because, well, that's what practice work suggests. The number of plays may climb dramatically, however, next week at Jacksonville and beyond -- assuming he continues his current arc.
And so how good has Parker been?
One player said Parker still isn't in the same league with Greg Jennings on route running or showing the kind of chemistry with quarterback Ryan Tannehill that Jarvis Landry has. But that he's a good combination of the two and is getting back some of the explosion he had at rookie minicamp.
This is all good, of course. The rookie is on the right course.
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/dolphins_in_depth/
