Ironically, other than his back, it’s Garrard’s first injury at 34. What it means is Matt Moore and rookie Ryan Tannehill will split time…Moore probably with the first team and Tannehill with the second.

August 10, 2012; Miami Gardens, FL, USA; Miami Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill (17) throws a pass during the second half of the game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Sun Life Stadium. Tampa Bay won the game 20-7. Mandatory Credit: Brad Barr-US PRESSWIRE

On the Miami side, Tannehill is the most glaring player to keep an eye on. I’ve seen him practice and throw, and the guy’s the Real Deal, folks. His style is in stark contrast to that of Chad Henne, the Michigan product who was released after a four-year stint trying to become their franchise QB. Henne became known as “Checkdown Chad,” and similar rumblings are coming out of Arizona about Kolb and Skelton.

Not so with Tannehill.

He’s not afraid to fit throws in tight windows, has a very quick release and strong arm, can run, can throw ON the run, and is accurate. I had been saying from day one that Tannehill would be their regular-season opening day QB and Garrard’s injury only helps his chances.

With the release of Chad Johnson last week, the Dolphins are without a go-to guy at the WR position. They’re using the preseason to see who steps up and there are two guys to watch here in particular:

First is #81, Chris Hogan. Hogan is an undrafted free agent from football powerhouse Monmouth College and has earned the nickname “7/11″ from teammate Reggie Bush, and the name has caught on. Why? He’s “always open.” Miami QBs would be foolish not to look for him more in this game.

The flip side is #18 Roberto Wallace. He has the size, speed, and physical skills that Hogan lacks, but hasn’t been able to get open much in camp. By contrast, Wallace has earned the nickname “Ankle Weights Wallace” – not exactly flattering for someone in his position and with his god-given ability, but the competition can only help. We’ll see if that starts translating on the field.

See who starts the game covering Steve Smith. Miami CB Vontae Davis (#21), San Francisco’s star TE Vernon Davis’ younger brother, is by far the most physically gifted corner the Dolphins have and is probably most able to cover Smith but look to see if ANOTHER Smith – Sean Smith (#24) – is covering him. If it’s Smith-on-Smith, then Davis still hasn’t worked his way back up the depth chart. He arrived in camp out of shape and for a while he lost his job to Sean, so the Dolphins are challenging his dedication to his craft and making him play his way back in. He has supposedly worked hard on his endurance and tomorrow’s game should help gauge his progress.

Louis Murphy, #83, caught two passes in his first performance as a Panther and looks to be everything the team thought they were getting and more when they picked him up from the Raiders. The Panthers desperately need a #2 receiver to take some pressure off of Steve Smith. If he keeps playing like he did last week, he could well be in the starting lineup opening day.

Aug 11, 2012; Charlotte, NC, USA Carolina Panthers wide receiver Louis Murphy (83) stands on the sidelines during the second half against the Houston Texans at Bank of America Stadium. The Texans defeated the Panthers 26-13. Mandatory Credit: Jeremy Brevard-US PRESSWIRE

As with Miami’s corners, watch the Carolina defenders trying to cover. With 2011 draft pick Brandon Hogan nursing still another injury, look for 2012 5th-round pick Josh Norman, #24, and track his progress. Without some pressure from the front seven, no secondary can cover forever so the two are intertwined. Norman has a chance to make an impression and should see the field quite a bit.

Staying with Carolina’s defense, 5th-yr Panther Jordan Senn, #57, played a heck of a game last week, leading the team in tackles with 10. He was all over the field making plays, as was second-leading tackler Kenny Onatolu, #56. Onatolu also had a sack in the contest.

The linebackers are by far the strength of the Panthers’ defense, the team being long on both talent and depth. With Luke Kuechly’s arrival from play one, their starters are set. With the injuries they suffered at the position last year, I would think that the reserves will see most of the action tomorrow night. Jon Beason was held out of last week’s game with a strained leg muscle and Rivera wanted to take no chances.

Other than Norman on the defense, the other rookie to watch is #90 Frank Alexander. Alexander was traded up for in the fourth round and played pretty well against the run last week but he really needs to show some pass rushing ability. None of that surfaced last week, so it’s important to see how he progresses with another week of camp under his belt. Don’t expect anything out of him if he’s going up against perennial pro-bowler LT Jake Long, but I doubt Long will play much for Miami in this game.

Conversely, #93 Antwan Applewhite and #98, Thomas Keiser each had a couple of tackles and a sack. Applewhite has 5.5 career sacks in 5 years, so I wouldn’t read much into one preseason game. At least he got noticed with a strong performance. Keiser was signed as an undrafted free agent in 2011 and could be developing into the pass rusher the Panthers need. Last week’s play may have earned him some more playing time to evaluate his progress and should help light a fire under Alexander as the battle heats up. So far, Alexander appears to be better against the run, so it’s possible Rivera may use Keiser in situational substitutions on some passing downs. It’s an interesting and unpublicized competition going on that die-hard fans will want to follow.

Keep an eye on the entire interior defensive line for Carolina especially early on. They had their woes stopping the run last season and didn’t look any better last week against the Texans, save for their goal-line stand on the first Texans possession. Watch those tackles on any inside running play that the Dolphins throw out there.

One interesting combination to watch, should they ever be on the field together, is Cam Newton and #18 Darvin Adams. Like Newton, Adams is a second-year pro out of Auburn and was Newton’s main target during their BCS national title season. With a year of learning under his belt and his history with Newton, be watchful and see if the two hook up any. Probably not, since Adams is down the depth chart, but if you do see his number on the field while Cam is taking the snaps, it bears keeping in mind.

As for the special teams, Carolina return specialist Joe Adams, #15, showed us last week why he won the Johnny Rogers Award last year as college football’s best return man. He had one return on the night, which undoubtedly had Panthers’ coaching going “NO NO NO NO NO…YES!” on a 34 yard return where he probably ran more like 80 in actual yards in going from one sideline, bowing back to lose some yardage, then turned the corner to pick up those 34 yards.

Aug 11, 2012; Charlotte, NC, USA Carolina Panthers wide receiver Joe Adams (15) returns a punt during the second half against the Houston Texans at Bank of America Stadium. The Texans defeated the Panthers 26-13. Mandatory Credit: Jeremy Brevard-US PRESSWIRE

On any punt that he can’t return this week, however, look for him to be NOWHERE NEAR THE BALL. Last week, he decided not to field a punt that landed close to the sideline and awkwardly and narrowly missed touching it as it bounced. I’m sure his special teams coordinator, Brian Murphy, had a few words with him about it after the play and again in the film room this week. We’ll see if Adams is retaining those tidbits this week.

It might not be sexy, but there’s a battle of punters in Carolina. 6th-round pick Brad Nortman out-punted Nick Harris 49.7 to 44.7 – a five-yard average per punt difference, but Harris downed one inside the 20, which skewed the numbers on 3 punts apiece. The fact that a punter was drafted at all means the Carolina brass felt they needed to improve the position or that Nortman has some ability – either leg strength, coffin-corner accuracy, or both – that they coveted. Preseason games are where you look to see how the battle works itself out under pressure situations. Nortman had a 57-yard effort from his own endzone last week that was fair-caught. That’s why you use an actual draft pick on a punter right there instead of sorting through the heap of undrafted free agents after the draft.

Overall, on the Panthers’ side, it’s all about the pass rush and stopping the run.

Special Teams coverage must improve – The Panthers’ kick and punt coverage picked up where it left off last season – horrible. It stunk the joint out against the Houston Texans, with one return being a 90 yard TD. They gave up way too much yardage on average on the others as well. When you’ve got a young team going through growing pains, it can be quite deflating to lead a long, arduous TD drive…only to see the other team negate that effort completely in ten seconds. Young players are especially susceptible to emotional highs and lows, so stopping big plays of ANY kind is likely very high on the list of priorities for Ron Rivera & company.

The defensive line has to show SOME progress – DT Ron Edwards is back off an injury this year, but even when he was in there, the Panthers couldn’t stop the run in between the 20′s. The good news is that it stiffened at the goal line, but that’s as much due to Kuechly’s veteran-like play than it was the line standing up to the blocks, plus Jon Beason didn’t play. Sione Fua did manage to string together a few good plays, and that’s a start though. It might be that Edwards has some rust to shake off, but he can’t really do it all alone. At least one of the several young tackles the Panthers have needs to step up. The good news is, they’ve got some young bodies. The bad news? Nobody’s stepped up to be consistent. Yet. The other thing is that the Texans have a very good offense and two very good running backs in Arian Foster and Ben Tate, so they’re going to cause most teams some problems. A bit of a trial by fire the first game for the Panthers’ defense; the Dolphins are considerably less evolved there so it _should_ be harder for them to move the ball but they’ve got a pretty good offensive line and a lot of depth at running back.

The pass rush is just not there – We know that veteran DE Charles Johnson is up to the job. He’s proven it year in and year out. However, Frank Alexander, the team’s 4th-rounder that they traded up for, didn’t show anything as far as that goes. I wouldn’t read too much into this yet because it’s the first game ever in the NFL for him, and he did play pretty well against the run, but so far Johnson is the only player Rivera can count on to generate pressure. One guy just isn’t enough.

The secondary needs to step up – Again, it’s early, and we knew coming in the Panthers group of defensive backs lacks talent beyond CB Chris Gamble. Perhaps that’s too strong, since there are a number of youngsters on the squad. A couple of those young players need to start showing some coverage or ball-hawking skills. The Panther team did show some signs that they’ll be causing more turnovers this fall but the Texans moved the ball both in the air and on the ground too easily. The secondary is where I’ll be paying special attention to in their next preseason game. Let’s hope the unit shows some slow but steady improvement through week 4.

The game against the Dolphins should show exactly where the team stands. The Dolphins have probably the least-experienced group of WRs in the entire NFL, so limiting big gains against that team would be a good sign that they’re not blowing assignments or losing people in traffic. Should the Dolphins move the ball in the air at will, either Ryan Tannehill really might be a stud and game-one starter or the Panthers’ secondary is that bad. When Miami QB Matt Moore is in the game, it should be a better barometer.

Amini Silatolu’s pass blocking is a work in progress – He showed his huge motor in last weekend’s Texans game, sometimes finding two different guys to block and the kid is a LOAD. The flip side is his pass-blocking is still well below par if you’ll recall Cam Newton’s sack inside the 5 yard line. Keep watch on the LG spot while he’s in there and see if he’s more solid this game than the last one or if he’s still missing some assignments. I have to think a lot of it is just that he’s from a small school and still steep on the learning curve, but watch for his progress and compare his play in the last game with this one.

With so many substitutions in early preseason games, it can often be hard to keep track of who is in on any given play. Make note of the jersey numbers and you can tell if the player you want to look for is in there or not. And then hope you hear the announcer calling his name for making a good play.

In order to improve from season to season, players must get better.  Believe it or not rookies can help improve a team more than by performing well.  You constantly hear that Luke Kuechly or Joe Adams had great stats but never how they served as a leader to the team.

Ron Rivera stated earlier this week that once Jon Beason was out for the season, the defense lacked communication.

Even if all of the rookie, which is very unlikely, are not starters, then if the starter were to get injured they must bring that leadership to fill in the void.  While coaches would want to have the void filled statistically, the rest of the defense or offence could suffer without that glue to make them a team.

I look at two rookies who I think will make an impact immediately:  Luke Kuechly and Joe Adams!

If Beason or Davis were to get hurt again, knock on wood, then it is important that Kuechly communicate and keep a struggling defense in tact.  Kuechly is a leader that can still be heard even if Beason is on the field, you could say that he has Beason’s blind side!

Joe Adams not only will bring a dead special teams back to life again, but he will encourage everyone in the process.  Many people that meet Adams refer to the Tennessee game, where he broke nine tackles on a punt return touchdown.  It’s that fight in him to never give up on a play that will really boost the spirits on special teams.

He will also carry a momentum to the offence to help them start closer to the endzone and finish drives more efficiently.

Other rookies like Amini Silatolu and Josh Norman will be two rookies that will give a good competition for there respective positions, but will more than likely extend on being a leader under Chris Gamble and Jordan Gross.

Rookie punter Brad Nortman will have to show that he can handle competition being that he is not the only punter on the team anymore, thanks to Nick Harris.

Frank Alexander will defiantly need to step up if he wants to start.  The opposite end of Charles Johnson needs to apply pressure and the only way I see Alexander showing leadership is that he steps up and plays big like he did in Oklahoma.

DJ Campbell, the last of the draft picks, can really only watch as the position of safety has seven people in the depth chart, with him being last.

It will be interesting to see how the rookies step up from here, but one thing that I do know is that the Carolina Panthers will most likely have improvement to their 6-10 season a year ago.