While the mantra this time of year is competition, competition, competition, the current status of practice and training camp under the collective bargaining agreement forces some general managers and coaches to be practical.
Yes, the Dolphins signing Arian Foster can help push Jay Ajayi and Kenyan Drake, but the team would not have signed the four-time Pro Bowler if there wasn't some sense of unease surrounding the position group.
"I just think it adds great competition to that (running back) group," Gase said, via the team's official site. "I really like his skill set. I've been an admirer of his for ... I don't know how long he's been playing. It just feels like forever. A great opportunity for us, him still being out there. We had been in conversations with him for a while. We had brought him in on a visit and we had a really good talk and just kind of allowed him to get healthy and work to get back. It'll be interesting when we get him out there and just to see how he kind of fits in."
Gase said Tuesday that it's difficult to predict workload numbers or playing time, and perhaps Miami's limited investment in Foster ($400,000 of dead cap space if he's released) leads us to believe that is true. However, signing someone like Foster during camp is not like the Giants signing James Jones or Aaron Curry, for example. Foster had options and several different head coaches vying for his services -- there has to be some type of assurance in place.
"He's the type of guy that he can run his route tree similar to what a wide receiver's is," Gase said. "When we worked him out, I put him in a couple of spots just to see how that looked and he runs about as smooth as any running back that I've ever seen."
That will be the biggest hill for all running backs to climb during camp with contact at a minimum, and Foster already seems ahead of the curve.
