Dolphins second year CB Cam Smith is putting in work in the offseason, and trying to develop in ways that will, finally, see him take the field more often.
“I didn’t have the season I wanted. I didn’t really get the opportunities that I wanted, but I mean that’s that,” Smith said. “In the end, ain’t nothing given to you in this league. Stuff happens and I’m here so I feel like I’m free.”
Dolphins haven’t been great at nurturing Corners
Hot on the heels of the Noah Igbinoghene disaster, Smith’s development, or lack thereof, last season has left a familiar bad taste in fins fans mouths. Outgoing Dolphins DC Vic Fangio was accused by many of holding the rookie back. Given how poor some of the replacements were at times makes you wonder if Smith was really that bad.
“Just improve in all areas,” Fangio said last season. “Assignment, technique, execution, know-how — just a little bit in all areas.”
However, Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel seemed to support some of that assessment from Fangio this offseason. “It’s just the natural growth,” McDaniel said. “There’s many different journeys that players take and he’s got a room of very capable players. I think you have to do right by the team and right by the player to make sure they’re appropriately versed.”
“You don’t just have guys learn on the fly with a position like that in my opinion because it’s like a quarterback where you don’t want to hurt their progression by having them see the field too soon. There can be scar tissue with that.”
“It wasn’t really that bad. I’m under two of the greats in the league, two of the best to ever do it, in X and Jalen,” Smith said. “So it wasn’t really a bad thing about it or anything like that. … I literally learned so much from them just sitting in a room with them just picking their brain and stuff like that. Just seeing what they see when I’m on the field. So it was just kind of really a learning experience. I just went to school for a year.”
“Definitely, it was some frustration,” he said. “It was during camp, so it was early, I wasn’t really homing in on it during the season. I mean, of course you think about it at certain times during games, but I wasn’t really focused on [the frustration] because when I was focused on it, I felt like I was losing my love for the game doing that.
“So just kind of staying in and honing in on what I can do and what I could control was a big thing.”
Year two for the Dolphins may still be tricky for Smith as he has to learn a new system, and while X may now be gone Kendall Fuller has come in to take his place, and this is a team with Championship expectations.
So while Smith may be growing, he may still struggle to see the field in a Dolphins uniform in year 2.
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