The Miami Dolphins are in the midst of a successful season, one that offers a lot of promise looking ahead to the playoffs, and they're moving along without many contributions from their recent draft picks.
When it comes to their top pick of the last two drafts, Channing Tindall and Cam Smith, that contribution has been practically nonexistent except for some special teams work.
And it doesn't look like that's going to change anytime soon based on what defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said Thursday morning when he indicated that Smith sustained an ankle injury in practice that was likely to sideline him later in the day and that Tindall hasn't gotten practice reps on defense recently.
"It's been so long since Channing has gotten any reps on defense, but he's doing a good job on special teams," Fangio said. "Still think he's a good player with good potential in his future."
Tindall has played a grand total of nine snaps on defense in the first seven games this season, the same number he played in 16 games last year.
Tindall is listed second team on the depth behind Jerome Baker, with Duke Riley listed behind David Long Jr. at the other inside linebacker spot.
"I think he's in a room full of good players right now, too," linebackers coach Anthony Campanile said. "That's the other thing, part of his process, where we have a lot of confidence, me personally. I coach, those guys have a great degree of confidence in all of them. And then you gotta Gink (Andrew Van Ginkel) in there who's kind of rotating around playing outside, playing inside. So there's a lot of guys in there who have contributed, but he's just got to keep fighting for reps.
"At this level, the NFL, it's work every day, you're competing every day, and he's around a bunch of good players and his reps on the other side against the offense have been good. He's been playing physical, he's been playing fast. Channing has got a ton of ability. I know I've said that in here a bunch before, and I still feel like it's a matter of time for him."
SMITH SUFFERS SETBACK
Fangio has been asked about Smith on a regular basis, but he almost left his weekly media session Thursday without the 2023 second-round pick being mentioned.
But when he was asked, Fangio revealed the reason Smith showed up on the injury report Wednesday as limited with an ankle injury, indicating he got injury very early in practice.
Smith has gotten four reps on defense the entire season, and that's with Jalen Ramsey sidelined so far because of the knee injury he sustained on the second day of training camp.
So it's really difficult to envision Smith suddenly being trusted to handle snaps on defense once he returns from his ankle injury now that Ramsey is expected back soon along with Nik Needham also ready to return after being activated off PUP on Tuesday to join Xavien Howard, Kader Kohou, Eli Apple and Parry Nickerson.
"He's got to overcome that to continue his progress," Fangio said about Smith, "but he's been getting reps and doing better."
The bottom line, really, when it comes to Tindall and Smith is that the Dolphins aren't really counting on them very much on defense this season. The hope is their time will come at some point.
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