In the first of three back-to-back-to-back OTA practices for the team in Davie, Dolphins WR Chad Ochocinco showed flashes of brilliance in the eyes of teammates and onlookers.

Although he spent quite a bit of time on the sidelines speaking to coaches who were spoon-feeding him tips on the playbook, he worked in with the second team during team drills and made several nice catches. His best was a leaping grab down the sideline over cornerback Sean Smith, who is 6-3, 214-pounds and 10 years younger than Ochocinco, who is 6-1 and 192 pounds. Smith said afterward that Ochocinco displayed excellent footwork and added, “you can tell by his releases and the stems on his routes he’s a definitely a vet who still knows how to weave” through coverage.

“The things I’ve seen of him, moving around the field, he’s still very quick out of his breaks. That’s usually the No. 1 decline for an older receiver, and I don’t see that,” said quarterback David Garrard, who played with Ochocinco on the 2009 Pro Bowl team.

“And I definitely don’t see it with the hands, because he’s making some great catches, going up over DBs and making the catch. Those are the things you want to see him do, and he’s still doing it.”

There was a lot of optimism surrounding Ochocinco's arrival in Foxboro, but he was never able to fully grasp the Patriots' offense and his 2011 turned into a bust. He has another chance in Miami, where the Dolphins are desperate for talent at WR.

Dolphins QB David Garrard is working with first team in early portion of practice on Tuesday. Matt Moore second team. Ryan Tannehill is the No. 3.

Don't read too much into this, but Garrard is in the mix until HC Joe Philbin says he isn't.

Dolphins RB Reggie Bush sounded in an interview on NFL Total Access like he thinks first-round draft pick Ryan Tannehill is the favorite in the three-way quarterback race with incumbent starter Matt Moore and free agent signing David Garrard.

“Ryan Tannehill, he’s a really good quarterback, he’s very smart,” Bush said. “Obviously he has the upper hand coming into an offensive system that he already knows basically. Now he really just gets to work on his skill set as a quarterback, improving and he has that advantage on his side.”

Chad Ochocinco wasn't out of work for long. The veteran wide receiver has signed a one-year deal with the Miami Dolphins, the team confirmed on Monday night.

Ochocinco joins a Miami offense attempting to fill the void left by Pro Bowl wideout Brandon Marshall, who was traded to the Chicago Bears in March. Other receivers on the roster include Brian Hartline, Davone Bess and Legedu Naanee.

Ochocinco, 34, was released by the New England Patriots last Thursday. He had just 15 receptions for 276 yards and one touchdown in his lone season with the team.

Miami is an ideal landing spot for Ochocinco, given that Brian Hartline and Davone Bess are currently the top two wideouts on the Dolphins roster. By all accounts, Ochocinco was simply a bad system fit in New England. The Patriots expect their WRs to run precise routes and Ochocinco is known to be... well, not so precise. He's more of a freelancer on the field.

Ochocinco is 34 and has only one 1000 yard receiving season since 2007. While he is in a good position to grab a starting job in Miami, it remains to be seen how much gas he has left in the tank. With some combination of rookie Ryan Tannehill, Matt Moore and David Garrard throwing him passes, a return to fantasy relevance seems unlikely.

Dolphins coach Joe Philbin thinks he has about three months to pick a quarterback, and he plans to get a close look at all of the quarterbacks on his roster before he does.

“We’re really pleased with the room that we have,” Philbin said on ESPN’s NFL 32. “David Garrard is a proven player. Matt Moore did an exceptional job last year in Miami. We think Ryan Tannehill has a lot of promise for the future. And we’ve got a young man named Pat Devlin who’s worked extremely hard as well.”

Philbin said Week 3 of the preseason is the point at which he thinks he’ll know who his starter is.

Week 3 of the preseason is Aug. 23-26, so it may be a while before we know who the starter is in Miami.

QB Ryan Tannehill was third in line for snaps at Dolphins OTAs. Matt Moore and David Garrard are mostly taking snaps with the starters.

ESPN's Adam Schefter compared the Dolphins' QB situation to the 2011 Titans, where Matt Hasselbeck remained the starter as long as he was productive. The Dolphins figure to struggle in 2012, so we may be seeing Tannehill sooner rather than later. That said, Moore was not bad in 2011, so he could stick as the starter if Miami can remain competitive.

The Dolphins had an extra coach on the field Friday for the start of their three-day rookie mini-camp.

That extra coach also happens to be the club's first-round draft pick and quarterback of the future. But Ryan Tannehill, who learned offensive coordinator Mike Sherman's playbook during their time together at Texas A&M, spent just as much time helping his new teammates Friday as he did working on his own game.

"Being in the offense for four years back at A&M, it's not my first go-around," Tannehill said. "So I'm trying to help these guys learn as much as I can. Just help speed their learning curve up."

Tannehill, the Aggies' starting quarterback the previous 1 ½ seasons, has a lot more than a rookie knowledge of the offense. He estimated that he already knows "80 to 85 percent" of the new playbook.

"I would probably say 65 to 70 is the exact same, pretty much, and the other 15 that I'm familiar with is pretty much just changing of a few words," he said. "But it's basically the exact same thing.

Coach Joe Philbin said Tannehill will be given the same opportunity to win the starting job as veterans Matt Moore and David Garrard, but shot down the notion that Tannehill knows more about the offense than the other two quarterbacks.

"Those guys have been working hard since April 10," Philbin said of Moore and Garrard. "At some point that knowledge is going to even itself out, and the difference is going to be the decision-making, the accuracy, the playmaking ability."

Typically, the main thing that holds back a rookie QB is his knowledge of his new team's offense. In this case, Tannehill is already as comfortable with the offense as his competition, so it's reasonable to believe that the team could hand over the reins if he proves he can make the proper reads and hit the open man as well as Matt Moore and David Garrard. Given the sad state of the WR corps, Tannehill will probably only be fantasy-relevant this season in two-QB leagues, but it's still a situation to monitor.

The Dolphins quarterbacks-- David Garrard and Matt Moore -- split the minicamp reps "almost dead even" HC Joe Philbin said and Wednesday Pat Devlin will get more work.

The way owner Stephen Ross and GM Jeff Ireland tell it, incumbent quarterback Matt Moore seemingly has the edge to be the Dolphins' starter in 2012.

"I'm very excited about Matt Moore," Ross said Monday at the NFL owners' meetings.

"There's a lot to be said of Matt Moore and what he was able to accomplish last year," Ireland said.

New coach Joe Philbin, though, doesn't quite see it that way.

The Dolphins recently signed former Jacksonville starter David Garrard to a one-year contract, and Philbin is ready to give him a full shot to win the job.

"It's going to be an open competition. We told both guys that," Philbin said Tuesday. "I told David, my only obligation to Matt Moore is he's a member of the 2012 Dolphins. He's under contract, he played well last year and he deserves an opportunity to compete for a starting job, just like David does."

Moore posted 2497 yds, 16 TDs & 9 INT in 13 games, which prorates to 3073/20/11 over a 16-game season. Those are QB19 numbers, but he (or Garrard) will have a tough time matching them without an influx of talent at WR. Losing Brandon Marshall really hurts Miami's offense.

Quarterback David Garrard’s NFL career appeared to be going south after being released by Jacksonville before the 2011 regular season and undergoing back surgery while missing the entire season.

As it turns out, Garrard’s career did head south — to the Dolphins, who signed him to a one-year deal Monday night. Garrard, who started in Jacksonville for four seasons, will go into training camp with a chance to beat out Matt Moore to be the Dolphins’ No. 1 quarterback.

"At least he’s in a position to compete for a starting job," said Al Irby, Garrard’s agent. "I think Miami got themselves a great quarterback."

The Dolphins' QB situation is shaky after the franchise failed to sign Peyton Manning, Matt Flynn and (probably) Alex Smith. It appears that the team will go into 2012 with Matt Moore (2497 yards & 16 TDs in 13 games), Garrard and possibly a rookie signal caller. Whoever wins the job won't have the luxury of throwing to Brandon Marshall, who was traded to the Bears after he allegedly punched a woman outside a NYC nightclub.