Stills/Parker injured during drills

I remember when Parker was the steal of the draft for us and not a China Doll ever since.

Here's to hoping he's on the field for the opener.

"Aqua4Ever04 wrote:

I like how three of our 10 most important players are on the brink of serious damning injury news and this thread is a ghost town but the thread about our practice squad quarterback is lighting up like Laremy Tunsil in an Ole Miss dorm room.

Speak of the devil. Wait till I start a thread about Laremy Tunsil's encounter with Throatzilla.

I am sick of hearing Parker get hurt. He is not the alpha I thought he would be, and to me is a Diva. I am frustrated at the fact that overtime he goes hard, he gets hurt.

All we can do is cross our fingers. Seems that all of the injury news for the preseason hit the same day.

Dolphins' WR Kenny Stills, who went down during today's practice, had his back lock up on him, per source. Injury not considered serious. .. From Adam Schefter

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

"LI phinfan wrote:

Dolphins' WR Kenny Stills, who went down during today's practice, had his back lock up on him, per source. Injury not considered serious. .. From Adam Schefter

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Good that it's "not considered" serious, but my fingers are still crossed on this one. He looks entirely different this year and it looks like he and Tanny are on the same page. I hate that Parker's hammy is still nagging, but besides his late-year flashes last season, I'm not sure that he will fulfill that potential. We'll see. Anyone missing Rishard Matthews yet? I know I am.

"Colmax wrote:

Good that it's "not considered" serious, but my fingers are still crossed on this one. He looks entirely different this year and it looks like he and Tanny are on the same page. I hate that Parker's hammy is still nagging, but besides his late-year flashes last season, I'm not sure that he will fulfill that potential. We'll see. Anyone missing Rishard Matthews yet? I know I am.

I agree, if you think the injury to Stills is more impacting, I was thinking the same thing. Stills and Tannehill have made great strides on connecting and getting on the "same page" this year. I too miss Matthews for this very reason. I also don't think that Parker missing time will be all that bad, because he is so good at adjusting and going up and getting the ball at it's peak. Parker has a large catching radius... sure having him and Tannehill on the same page would be a huge boost, but I think the link between him and Stills is more important. Parker can overcome what Stills can't... provided he can get, and stay, on the field.

Tweaked hammys ain't ****...gonna nag him all season

"Aqua4Ever04 wrote:

I like how three of our 10 most important players are on the brink of serious damning injury news and this thread is a ghost town but the thread about our practice squad quarterback is lighting up like Laremy Tunsil in an Ole Miss dorm room.

Thats because we can't argue about who's a "victim" or not...

I mean, maybe we could blame the grass or something.

"dirtylandry wrote:

I am sick of hearing Parker get hurt. He is not the alpha I thought he would be, and to me is a Diva. I am frustrated at the fact that overtime he goes hard, he gets hurt.

.....How is he a diva?

Parker is beginning to remind me of Yatil Green. A big WR who was suppose to be able to open up the offense, but injuries ended his career before it began.

Hopefully Parker can avoid this same scenario but it just seems he has suffered one injury after another since being drafted. He also missed several games during his college career due to injuries.

It doesn't matter how great he is projected to be if he can't play on game day.

"Ophinerated wrote:

I agree, if you think the injury to Stills is more impacting, I was thinking the same thing. Stills and Tannehill have made great strides on connecting and getting on the "same page" this year. I too miss Matthews for this very reason. I also don't think that Parker missing time will be all that bad, because he is so good at adjusting and going up and getting the ball at it's peak. Parker has a large catching radius... sure having him and Tannehill on the same page would be a huge boost, but I think the link between him and Stills is more important. Parker can overcome what Stills can't... provided he can get, and stay, on the field.

The problem with Parker it seems (besides the nagging injuries thus far), seem to be that he's behind when it comes to his route running. I don't know if he was the best route runner in college, but Gase has pointed this out a couple of times regarding Parker. I think some of his athleticism can overcome some of the inconsistencies in his routes, but by how much?

"MikeHoncho wrote:

I remember when Parker was the steal of the draft for us and not a China Doll ever since.

Here's to hoping he's on the field for the opener.

Can't say he was the steal of the draft, he was injured when we drafted him. While I like him as a player, I did not like the pick for that reason. A foot injury for a WR is a bad thing.

"jw3102 wrote:

Parker is beginning to remind me of Yatil Green. A big WR who was suppose to be able to open up the offense, but injuries ended his career before it began.

Hopefully Parker can avoid this same scenario but it just seems he has suffered one injury after another since being drafted. He also missed several games during his college career due to injuries.

It doesn't matter how great he is projected to be if he can't play on game day.

little bit of a reach. Parker came in and dominated the last 5 games. Yatil never had a highlight that wasn't in preseason.

"Ohio Fanatic wrote:

little bit of a reach. Parker came in and dominated the last 5 games. Yatil never had a highlight that wasn't in preseason.

Yeah, Green was drafted in 97, but then didn't even play in a regular season game until 99. Parker had more catches, for double the yards, in the final five games of last season than Green had in his "career". I'm not sure that there's a good WR comparrison to Parker with the Fins, at least in my time as a fan. Ronnie Brown is a little similar, as a player who always dealt with one injury or another, but was generally very productive when he was on the field.

My favorite note about Yatil Green though, is that he was a total loss as our first round pick in 97, but that didn't put a dent in the overall draft, since we took Sam Madison in the 2nd and Jason Taylor in the 3rd that year, plus Derrick Rodgers and Ed Perry.

"dolphin25 wrote:

Can't say he was the steal of the draft, he was injured when we drafted him. While I like him as a player, I did not like the pick for that reason. A foot injury for a WR is a bad thing.

To bad gurley didn't fall to us at 14.

I remember when this FO was asked about acquiring all these injury prone players, they said they weren't concerned because of the great sports science group they have, but it seems like it has been an injury riddled preseason.

"Aqua4Ever04 wrote:

We have one starter in jeopardy of missing opening day at this point...

Are you talking about Parker, Stills, Pouncey, Jenkins or Howard?

"Finster wrote:

I remember when this FO was asked about acquiring all these injury prone players, they said they weren't concerned because of the great sports science group they have, but it seems like it has been an injury riddled preseason.

There is still much to learn from that side of things, and the more we learn, the likelihood of mitigating some of these potential injuries increases. The science is certainly not perfect, but as we can see, these two are back practicing. Injuries are going to happen in this sport. It's how they move forward after the injury that's exciting.

"Finster wrote:

Are you talking about Parker, Stills, Pouncey, Jenkins or Howard?

Yes

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

do we even know what Parker's situation is?

"dirtylandry wrote:

do we even know what Parker's situation is?

Yes, he has a minor hamstring pull. Not out long term. Likely playing in week 1.

Armando had an interesting piece on Parker:

"Dolphins trying to get DeVante Parker to be a professional

The Miami Dolphins were only a couple of days into their 2016 training camp when receiver DeVante Parker felt a twinge in his hamstring. And then what was a minor nuisance turned into a hamstring strain a couple of minutes later. And as Parker missed practice time the team was figuring out what happened, and why it seemingly happened so often because this wasn't Parker's first injury issue. That's when this revelations came to light:

The Dolphins coaching staff learned that their prized first-round pick of a year ago hadn't really been getting a good breakfast every morning. Some days he'd skip breakfast altogether.
And he wasn't drinking enough water. Indeed, sometimes he wasn't drinking much of anything throughout the day to stay properly hydrated.

And the collective reaction from some in this organization that hired a team nutritionist in the last year and is placing a big emphasis on sports science for their players was, "Whaaaaat?"
DeVante Parker, grown man and physically gifted as he is, didn't know how to be a professional. The NFL is not Louisville, Parker's alma mater where he dominated by using mostly his raw athletic gifts.

The NFL requires more. The NFL requires everything.

And so the Dolphins explained to Parker if he is going to thrive in the NFL, he has to stay healthy. And to stay healthy, the team decided, Parker had to grow up off and on the field.
"A lot of the job of making him a good player has been getting him in a routine of learning to do things in life," receiver coach Shawn Jefferson told me. "He's got to get up every morning and get a good breakfast. Hydrate. You know what I'm saying? So we put a system in place now that I think is going to pay big dividends down the road."

This was almost a month ago. But on Monday, Parker felt a tweak in his leg again. And he stepped out of practice. Again.

And while the Dolphins are still hoping and indeed expecting big things from Parker this season, coach Adam Gase is making it clear the young man has to mature in several respects beyond just taking care of his body.

DeVante Parker has to take care of business on the practice field as well.

"Parker's going to be day to day right now so we’re just going to keep working with him and strengthening him up," Gase said. "When you’re a second-year receiver, I feel like I’ve been through this a couple of times. I just go back to Demaryius (Thomas), when we were in Denver. It just felt like he was always hurt. It was just one of those things, it was just like one thing after the other.

"The thing is, these guys, the longer they start doing this, the more they realize how much they have to take care of their body, how important it is to practice fast every day ...''
There it is.

"...and make sure they really push themselves because now, all of a sudden, when you go to turn it on, especially on game day and your body’s not ready for it, this is when you can possibly have these kind of issues.

"So that’s been our point of emphasis with him is all the little tiny things that you have to do off the field, in the building, and then when you get out to practice you have to treat every day like a game. Sometimes it takes some guys a little longer to learn than others. Eventually it gets to the point where you get tired of being the guy standing on the sideline.
"I do think he’s a little frustrated as far as he’s been the odd man out all the time. Kenny (Stills) and Jarvis (Landry) have been out there working together now and he’s kind of had to watch. We’ll keep working and he’ll eventually figure it out to where he knows his routine; he knows how to stay healthy, he knows how to push through certain kind of pains where it’s not going to really deter him from where he’s going to miss some games. "It’s a fine line there, especially at that position. You really have to be locked into your body."

It is a fine line between calling a player out and simply being honest. Gase is being portrayed in some places as having called Parker out. The fact is he doesn't have to do that in the media because this coach does it directly to a player's face. And he's had this career chat with Parker already.

So Gase isn't trying to embarrass Parker. He's doing what a good head coach does. He's trying to help Parker get better. Parker, for his part, is going to have to learn to fight through pain. And when he feels no pain, he's going to have to practice harder as in at game speed at times. Remember that last year, coaches didn't want to put Parker on the field because both head coach Joe Philbin and then interim Dan Campbell said they needed to "see it" from Parker in practice. And they didn't see it. Well, that's because Parker wasn't showing it in practice. He wasn't the same guy in practice he was in games (when he finally got the opportunity).
Unfortunately, whatever lesson the last coaching staff showed Parker about working hard during the week to make game day easier didn't seem to stick. Parker, it must be repeated because it seems he forgets, has to practice harder.

DeVante Parker is a kind, laid back, soft-spoken individual. He doesn't play that way. But he practices that way. He has to stop practicing that way. He has to practice up to his potential if he ever wants to play to his potential. And what is that potential? "A special talent," Jefferson said. "Trust me, he's a special talent. He's blessed athletically. Trust me. He can do it all."

The Dolphins are in the process of remaking DeVante Parker. They monitor what he eats to make sure he's energized. They monitor what he drinks to make sure he's hydrated. They are nursing his legs. They are trying to help him grow up. Part of the growth is learning to be a professional. And part of being a professional is going to work every day the team is practicing as well as on game day."