Ten Things I Learned At Miami Dolphins 2024 Training Camp

The Miami Dolphins' preparations for 2024 are well underway. I've spent the last two weeks with the team — what have I learned about this year's squad?

The Miami Dolphins’ 2024 training camp will continue through the end of August. My time with the team, however, has sadly come to an end. I spent two weeks in South Florida with the Dolphins as they’ve geared up to contend and worked to lay the foundation for a successful season in 2024. Make no mistake — the Dolphins should expect to contend this coming year.

With Miami facing renewed flexibility against the salary cap thanks to a contract extension for Tua Tagovailoa and potentially even more courtesy of the Tyreek Hill contract restructure, you get the sense that this football team is knocking on the door of adding talent. But they’re also well positioned to carry over a boatload of cap space into 2025 to help the team soften the blow of their new big investments this summer.

It’s the next stage of Miami’s recalibration as a franchise in 2024. What they’re doing isn’t necessarily unexpected, but rather how they’re doing it is quite informative. The trip to Miami Gardens was enlightening in more ways than one.

Here are 10 other things I learned during my trip to Dolphins training camp this summer.

1. Tua Tagovailoa’s psychology is different.

Tua Tagovailoa spoke to the local media twice during my stay — the first time on the heels of his record-setting contract extension with the Dolphins and the second on my final day at the team facility. Both times Tagovailoa exuded a level of personality that he had yet to really break through during his first four seasons with the team.

I’ve often pondered Tagovailoa’s case study from a sports psychology perspective. He was no stranger to tough love from both his father and college coach Nick Saban. But Brian Flores brought something completely different into young Tua’s career. The first two years featured quick hooks and a not-so-discreet, year-long courtship of a sexual deviant from Houston.

In a stunning turn, the Dolphins picked Tua over Flores despite a 19-14 record between 2020 & 2021. The Tagovailoa reclamation project was underway and has borne wonderful fruits for Miami already, in spite of the questions that still linger about postseason success. And Tua was better. But THIS Tua? He’s got the big question answered in his long-term future. And you can tell. Tagovailoa is taking more ownership as a leader this season — highlighted by his persistent messaging of player ownership and accountability.

“This isn’t Mike’s team – this is our team. At the end of the day, that’s what it is. Our coaches, they’re out there to give us the tools that we need to help us go out there and be successful. Sort of our mantra of how we go out there and do things is if I go out there and I throw a pick, it’s not Darrell Bevell that threw the pick, it’s not Mike McDaniel’s play call that threw the pick, that’s my name on that. That’s our offense’s name on that. So that’s sort of how our outlook is on how we go out there, our style of play, our mentality, our mindset as we go out there.”
- Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa

Tua has his own growth as a player awaiting him in Year 5 and beyond. I saw promising signs he’s going to continue to be a more efficient passer based on what the defense is giving the Dolphins. But the psyche of Tua will ultimately take the Dolphins as far as they’re capable of going. This is a player who is at his best when he’s comfortable and confident. Miami has afforded him plenty of both with their 4-year, $212M contract extension this summer.

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