Miami Dolphins Project Player: Tony Lippett

While he did play wide receiver in college, Tony Lippett is starting to look like a solid option at the cornerback position for the Miami Dolphins.

Despite what some people might believe, OTAs truly are one of the most wild parts of the offseason. While some NFL followers believe that OTAs are the doldrums of the offseason, the fact of the matter is that OTAs are the period where players experiment with different positions.

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Usually, that means a player will try a position that won’t take a huge risk. For example, cornerbacks take snaps at safety and safeties take snaps at cornerbacks. That’s not the case with Tony Lippett, who was one of the Miami Dolphins’ fifth-round picks and the last pick in their draft class.

At Michigan State, Lippett was primarily known as the No. 1 option in the passing game. However, he also played cornerback as well. He played both of these positions at 6-foot-2, 195 pounds.

That said, Lippett was one of the more intriguing players in the nation. Some people have clamored about the similarity between Lippett and Richard Sherman. After all, Sherman had similar size when he came into the league and he also split time at wide receiver and cornerback at Stanford.

Since begin drafted by the Seattle Seahawks, Sherman has turned into one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL. With that being said, I’m not saying that Lippett will turn into Sherman, but there are some intriguing similarities.

Through two weeks of OTAs, Lippett is a guy that has been playing extremely well and turning some heads. This is great news for the Dolphins, who lack depth the position. On Monday last week at practice, MiamiDolphins.com‘s Alain Poupart reported that Lippett intercepted three passes. On top of his performances at practice over the past few weeks, Lippett has received praise from the highest level in head coach Joe Philbin:

"He doesn’t have a ton of position experience [at cornerback] in games, but he seems to be a guy that’s learned the system pretty well. Every rep that he gets is extremely valuable at this stage of his development. I caught a couple of [the interceptions], and he went up and high-pointed one of the balls. He was in the right place at the right time."

One thing I love about Lippett is his willingness to take on the challenge of doing whatever is asked of him. Lippett will have a better chance of contributing at cornerback rather than wide receiver, but his versatility to play both just deems more reasoning why he should be a lock to make the final 53-man roster.

Currently at the cornerback position, the Dolphins’ only player who is set in stone with a job is perennial Pro Bowler Brent Grimes. Behind Grimes, the Dolphins have guys like Jamar Taylor, Will Davis, and Zack Bowman. That being said, the Dolphins, who will be much improved on the defensive side of the ball, thanks to Ndamukong Suh, in 2014, have some room to take a chance on a player.

That being said, Lippett has turned a ton of heads in training camp. The best thing for the Dolphins would be to give Lippett some playing time in a real NFL game to see just how well he holds himself. However, for now, it’s clear that the Dolphins have done a great job with Lippett, who came to this team as a project player.

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