TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Miami Dolphins held their first joint practice on Wednesday ahead of their pre-season matchup this weekend.
Seeing another team on the field with the Bucs and hearing the crowd cheer the loudest it has all training camp, the joint practice with the Dolphins really felt like another step closer to the start of the season. It got a little chippy towards the end of practice, but overall it was pretty amicable.
“We were keeping it cordial today,” Bucs cornerback Carlton Davis III said about his interactions with Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill in particular. “Keeping it real cordial. Nice practice etiquette. (We’ve) got to see them again tomorrow so you know, anything you say today you’ve got to live up to it tomorrow.”
“It had its moments,” Bucs running back Leonard Fournette said. “We knew it was going to happen and that’s what happens when you go against somebody else competing and you’re trying to get the best out of your guys, out of your players, so we expected that today.”
The early portion of work between the two teams was highlighted by the Bucs receivers getting the better of the Dolphins defensive backs.
“I’ll take our (receivers) against anybody,” Bucs Head Coach Todd Bowles said. “I’m sure every coach would say that about their team so it’s nothing new. But we like our guys– the way they work– one through however many we have.”
Those one-on-one drills set the tone for a productive day of work against Miami.
“It showed us where we were,” Fournette said. “We’re kind of going at it with the defense the last couple of weeks. But we came out, I think today we did a tremendous job going against a different team, a different opponent.”
“Yeah, we doing the thing,” Davis said. “We doing it. We are ready. Going up against our offense every day, we look good. But you can never really measure yourself too much because you’re going against the same guys every day. It gets repetative. So going up against new competition and being able to still perform and have that chemistry really just shows you how far you guys are with the chemistry and just getting into our season form.”
The Bucs and Dolphins will hold their second and final joint practice Thursday morning, ahead of an off day Friday and their first preseason game against Miami on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.