Dolphins’ Weaver on Cam Smith, Robinson, Ramsey, more. And Hard Rock practice canceled

A six-pack of personnel notes from new Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver, offered during a Friday media availability:

▪ Weaver’s early thoughts on first-round edge player Chop Robinson?

“As advertised. He’s still a young player, still trying to learn the finer techniques and fundamentals of the game. But you see his athleticism and his skill set. What I love most about the kid is his intent when he comes to work.

“He’s quiet; he’s not one of these rookies that are out talking all of this stuff and they’re not backing it up on the field. You can see him just contemplating every single thing that’s being given to him and try to see what bits and pieces he can take from people to use for his game.”

▪ On Calais Campbell: “He is one of the best leaders I’ve ever been around. He is what I call a force multiplier. So the effect that he has on a team, not just a defense but a team, is immense….

“He leads through empathy, right? Empathy and example, I think, is what that is. Because on the field, at his age in particular, I truthfully don’t know how he does it. It’s like LeBron James in basketball and Calais Campbell in football, in my mind. They’re just human marvels.

“I don’t know how he gets it done. And then in the locker room, he doesn’t lead from a ‘This is me on top of the mountain’-type approach. He is very relationship-minded, relationship-based, tries to get to know each and every one of his teammates. And then once that trust and just conversation is there, that’s when he can impart some of the wisdom that he’s acquired throughout all his time here.”

Weaver added that “the one thing we need to do collectively to kind of stamp his career is get to New Orleans and win a Super Bowl. And hopefully we can get that done.”

▪ On Benito Jones, who seems to be the early favorite for the starting nose tackle job (my words, not Weaver’s):

“I love the way Benito is playing. Those guys, they’re grinders and they don’t get a lot of headlines. He’s consistent every day in his actions. So I love who he is. I love what he does. I know our inside backers love him.”

▪ On what cornerback Cam Smith was showing before a lower-body injury sidelined him this week:

“Cam is such a young player and he certainly has some scars from the previous year, which if you didn’t play a lot and you’re wondering why, that’s going to occur with any young player in that situation. I think in order to get the best version of him, which we just started to see prior to injury, he needs to be confident.

“So all I’m challenging Cam is to go out there and be confident, be who you are, have faith in your skills and challenge your receivers. And good things will happen. And when he gets back on that field, I know he’s going to be just that.”

▪ Weaver liked what he saw in Kader Kohou’s tape last season, even though he wasn’t as effective as during his rookie season:

“I felt incredibly confident about Kader coming in. Just as soon as I thought I was in the mix for the [Dolphins defensive coordinator] job, I went back and watched all the games obviously and I kept saying like, ‘Who is No. 4? Who is No. 4?’ Like multiple times, just wrote down ‘Who is No. 4?’

“And we see that each and every day out there. The thing you love about Kader is just his competitiveness. He’s not the biggest guy, but he doesn’t back down from anybody so I love his toughness. He is a tremendous player for us and he’s going to make a lot of plays for us.”

▪ Weaver has been able to use Jalen Ramsey in different roles during practice – just as Weaver suggested he would do. (Team rules prevent us from elaborating.)

“So far in practice, it’s been exactly what I thought it was going to be,” Weaver said. “You have a guy like Jalen Ramsey, who yeah, he plays cornerback, he has a cornerback skill set, but he is a football player. Because of his football intelligence and just sheer God-given athleticism and talent, there are multiple places you can use him.

“Ultimately for us as a staff, our challenge is to make sure that we can put him in spots where he can be most impactful in the game. The last thing you want an offense to do is put him to the field and say he’s your field corner, let’s stay away from him. Let’s put him in places where they can’t predict where he’s going to be.”

Two other quick notes from Weaver: He noted that safety: Elijah Campbell “has had a great training camp so far.“...

And asked whether he trash-talks Mike McDaniel when they call plays against each other in practice, Weaver cracked: “I am not much of a trash talker, particularly to guys that are smaller than me. I love him, I love him to death.”

Weaver made some interesting comments about Dolphins edge player Jaelan Phillips. Please here for those.

PUBLIC EVENT CANCELED

The Dolphins’ annual training camp practice at Hard Rock Stadium – which had been scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday – was canceled because inclement weather is anticipated this weekend. The Florida Keys and much of Florida’s west coast are under a tropical storm watch.

Instead, the Dolphins will hold a Saturday practice at their own facility; it’s not open to fans.

Miami’s next practice open to fans is at 10:40 a.m. Monday. The Dolphins and Atlanta Falcons will hold joint practices on Tuesday and Wednesday in Miami Gardens and then meet on Friday night at Hard Rock Stadium in the preseason opener for both teams.