Brandon Marshall’s debut in Miami went rather well.
He caught eight passes for 53 yards and made a few nice plays after the catch. The numbers would have looked a lot better if Chad Henne hadn’t underthrown a deep ball when Marshall had clearly beaten the Bills secondary. Marshall came back for the throw and dropped it in traffic.
Marshall’s presence should open things up for the other Dolphins receivers, but so far fellow starter Brian Hartline isn’t taking advantage. He had a poor preseason and struggled to get separation last Sunday and didn’t catch any of the three targets sent his way.
“There’s some opportunities there for him so Brian is going to have to make the most of those opportunities,” coach Tony Sparano said. “Now what I liked about what Brian did a year ago and there’s good evidence there is he makes some hard catches and he makes some run-after catch yards and I think that that’s really what I’d like to see.”
Ethan Skolnick of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel notes that’s as close to calling out a player as Sparano really gets.
The Dolphins sent a message to Hartline this week in practice as well. Davone Bess is now getting some snaps when the Dolphins practice in two receiver sets. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Marlon Moore get additional snaps too.
Miami made a great move to get Marshall, but the team still doesn’t have a true vertical threat.