After a couple of weeks practicing against their teammates orange and teal, the Dolphins are now heading out to the nation’s capital for joint practices with the Washington Commanders before their preseason opener. With training camp in full swing now, the Dolphins are looking to step up the in tensity before the start of the regular season, with joint practice sessions with the Commanders ahead of their preseason contest on Friday. “Oh, it’s gonna be great. [I] can’t wait to go out there and compete against another team and see how we look, you know, we’ve been out here practicing with each other for almost three weeks now so going against another team is surely great,” said Dolphins offensive tackle Patrick Paul. According to first-year Fins head coach Jeff Hafley, he plans on giving his entire squad a chance to show what they’ve got. “Everybody who is on our team right now needs to be ready to play,” said Hafley. That’s been a critical message for players, who look forward to seeing how the team stacks up against other NFL rosters. “It’s finally good to go against people who don’t know what we’re doing and, you know, we check on something they don’t know what’s going on so I’m excited, man,” said Fins running back De’von Achane. As the intensity ramps up for players, coaches are looking forward to making better assessments as to what gameplans work and what needs working on for the regular season. “The Washington practice is really important to me. I think it’s a really good time to see where we’re at with the competition, not really to evaluate the team, but to evaluate the individuals. Now I think you always wanna evaluate everything so I say that loosely but I think it’s an important time to go against a different [team] color, jersey, different stimulus, change of environment,” said Hafley. The Dolphins return to the gridiron for their first preseason game against the Commanders on Friday at 7 p.m. ...read more read less