Chris Perkins: Dolphins vets offer advice to rookies — don’t fall asleep, and learn quickly
Austin Jackson: "You’ve got to take every day like it might be your last day. That sounds so morbid, but it’s true."
MIAMI GARDENS — The mental toll that’s about to be exacted on the 46 Dolphins players at this week’s two-day rookie camp and the camps that follow – OTAs (Organized Team Activities), minicamp and training camp – will be unlike anything they’ve ever been through.
This is the biggest job interview they’ll ever have.
But they can get through it successfully.
According to Dolphins veterans, guys who have been through this stressful situation before, the rookies have got to stay focused, ask lots of questions, and learn quickly.
At stake: a six-figure salary in the NFL while fulfilling a lifetime dream, or wearing a suit and working an entry-level office job for $40,000 a year.
“Most of those guys come into a place where you’re now one of the lowest on the totem pole,” Dolphins defensive tackle Zach Sieler said. “And it’s humbling. You’ve kind of got to re-establish yourself and learn the game in a whole new light because a lot of these guys have been playing.”
The rookies will get stressed, and they’ll get put in unfamiliar situations.
Plus, it’s going to be a grind in the South Florida heat and humidity. At certain times, it’s not going to be fun.
But don’t tell any of that to edge rusher Mo Kamara, the rookie fifth-round pick out of Colorado State.
Kamara, an energetic, personable sort, was predictably excited at the Dolphins’ two-day rookie camp that started Friday.
“I’m still rockin’ and rollin’,” Kamara said. “I’m fired up.
“Even (outside linebackers) coach (Ryan Crow) had to tell me to calm down today when we were in walk-throughs.”
This is nothing new.
On draft night, Kamara was full of energy, announcing to the world he was “very, very angry” about being selected in the fifth round and warned “everybody else, all 31 other teams, look out because the way I’m about to play against these guys, you should’ve picked me before.”
With all due respect to Kamara and his attitude, life is about to get tough and stressful.
The Dolphins rookies will have to figure out a way to excel under trying conditions.
It won’t be easy.
Dolphins linebacker David Long Jr. remembers his first NFL training camp.
It was 2019. He was a sixth-round pick by the Cincinnati Bengals out of West Virginia
“That was real tough for me because coming in they were trying to put me as a special teams ace,” Long recalled.
He thought he should have been playing linebacker.
“Then you learn quickly that you’ve got to earn that,” Long said of playing from scrimmage, “no matter how good you are.”
That’s what the Dolphins’ rookies are going through now.
To stave off the down days, guys such as edge rusher Chop Robinson, the first-round pick from Penn State, are trying to learn something every day.
In Robinson’s case, he’s also trying to fight the pressure of being a first-rounder. He said he’s been successful in this early part of the process by doing one thing.
“Just focus on ball,” he said. “That’s the main thing. It’s not really a big message to it. Just hang with my guys, keep my mind off of it.”
Dolphins right tackle Austin Jackson, a 2020 first-round pick out of USC, said his advice to rookies would be to always pay attention, always be focused, and stay on yourself to make sure you’re paying attention and focused.
“I would say a big thing for youngsters during OTAs and training camp, is I guess you could fall asleep, meaning there’s not much asked of you up front,” he said, later adding, “There shouldn’t be a rep where you’re making a mistake someone on the first team made, because technically you already saw that mistake.
“(So) I would just say not falling asleep. You have to constantly be on yourself to do more than what’s asked of you at the time.”
Jackson had this to say, too: “A lot of times I’ve seen guys come in and just kind of let themselves fall asleep with their work ethic.”
Sieler was a 2018 seventh-round round pick by Baltimore out of Ferris State.
He spent most of his first two seasons in Baltimore and Miami trying to stay off the practice squad, on the 53-man roster, and on the field. He wasn’t always successful.
That first round of camps as a rookie was especially tough.
“Obviously it’s a hard path,” Sieler said. “Not a lot of us make it and it takes a long time. I mean, it took me six, seven years to get to where I’m at. It’s staying determined and it’s staying right as in knowing, ‘Hey, look, I’m here for a reason. It might be hard, I might not be having the best plays, I might be getting confused out there, the speed of the game is going crazy.’
“It’s just taking those times, watching those reps, watching the plays, watching the older guys and just learning off of their techniques and habits.”
Most of all, Jackson said the rookies need to take this job seriously every single day.
“Looking back on my career there’s definitely some situations I wish I had a different sense of urgency on,” he said. “But once you understand it, you realize it’s an everyday thing. That’s what it is. Every day I show up to work. The NFL, some call it the ‘Not For Long’ league or whatever. That’s all true. You’ve got to take every day like it might be your last day.
“That sounds so morbid, but it’s true.”