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.
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