Joint practices frequently see tensions boil over, but when the Miami Dolphins visited the Chicago Bears’ training camp Friday, it wasn’t just the opposing team getting on Dolphins players’ nerves. At one point, a pair of Miami teammates needed to be separated.
The dust-up appeared to involve linebackers Jordyn Brooks and Tyrel Dodson, who are currently listed as the Dolphins’ pair of starters in the middle of Anthony Weaver’s defense.
While the in-fighting certainly appeared like a bad sign for the Dolphins and had some writing the team a way-too-early obituary, safety Minkah Fitzpatrick said the opposite.
“He was holding people to a higher standard,” Fitzpatrick said of Brooks, via David Furones of the Sun Sentinel. “It becomes necessary when you do anything to a higher standard. … He’s another guy whose energy is infectious.”
Brooks, 27, signed with the Dolphins as a free agent on a three-year contract last offseason. Following the departures of veterans like Calais Campbell, Jalen Ramsey, Jevón Holland, and Kendall Fuller, Brooks is set to step into a leadership role for the Dolphins defense in 2025.
“When you talk about our inside attackers with Tyrel Dodson, Jordyn Brooks, the leadership strides they’ve made coming into year two have been outstanding,” Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver said earlier this week. “They’re flagbearers for what we’re trying to do from a culture standpoint. So the expectations we have for that front seven, they’re high and rightfully so, but that standard has been set daily by those guys and that’s why we have those expectations.”
Brooks, who was the Seattle Seahawks’ first-round pick in 2020, recorded three sacks, 11 tackles for loss, six pass deflections, and two fumble recoveries in his first season with the Dolphins.
This article originally appeared on Dolphins Wire: Minkah Fitzpatrick explains ‘necessary’ in-fighting in joint practice
Reporting by Adam Stites, Dolphins Wire / Dolphins Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
