Dolphins defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh sees plenty of reason for optimism this year.
First, he’s a fan of new coach Adam Gase. But he also remembers the thrashing they gave the league’s best offense last year, filing that away for future reference.
The Dolphins held joint practices with the eventual NFC champion Panthers last summer, and the practices were intense enough that the Panthers reportedly asked the Dolphins to dial it back the next day so they could work on their pass protection.
“There was a team in the championship [game] that we destroyed in camp,” Suh said, via David Neal of the Miami Herald. “But it doesn’t matter what you do in camp. It matters what you do through 17 weeks during the year.”
Of course, what the Dolphins didn’t do over the course of the year cause the change at the top, leading to them hiring Gase.
And while the 37-year-old Gase doesn’t have experience as a head coach, he was willing to take a gentle poke at one of the guys with more job security than he has, as Suh said the new coach mentioned his body composition during an early meeting.
“I love coach Gase,” Suh said. “In my short interactions with him, he’s a great coach. He’s very fiery and competitive. He was talking about my weight the other day and said, ‘I see you’re at only 17 percent body fat. I thought you’d be better than that.’ Things like that. Him being nagging, at the same time having fun with it.”
For now, Suh’s fine with it. And if it helps the Dolphins translate August practice field success to the regular season, he’ll probably be fine no matter what Gase says about his weight.