Dolphins coach Adam Gase hasn’t been on the job long, and he’s already faced with the prospect of putting out fires.
In addition to safety Reshad Jones staying away from today’s voluntary minicamp because he wants a new contract, veteran defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh wasn’t on hand.
That’s not necessarily new, Suh has always been an occasional participant, whether in Detroit or Miami. But according to Adam Beasley of the Miami Herald, “Teammates are privately steamed about the league’s highest-paid defensive player again doing what he wants.”
Gase apparently didn’t have anything to say about Suh specifically, but when asked about Jones, replied: “I’m not going to get upset about anything on the first day of voluntary veteran minicamp. We’ll see how everything goes once we get to June.”
Suh showed up for the first day of offseason conditioning, and then went back to doing his own thing. It’s not a question of whether he’s staying in shape, but it can be a problem when a team’s highest-paid player refuses to jump in line with his teammates.
Of course, Suh has the ultimate advantage as it pertains to teammates — he’s better than all of them at playing football. And the Dolphins have always been fine with his training on his own, so they’ve already set the precedent that they’re OK with it.
But the guys he lines up with don’t have to like it, and apparently some of them have already begun expressing it.