Joe Philbin talks about Ndamukong Suh & the impact he has made so far

The Miami Dolphins opened their first OTA session on Tuesday and leading up to that, there was a lot of talk about whether or not Ndamukong Suh would show up. This is because for the first two phases of voluntary workouts, Suh was not with the team, with the exception of the very first day. With that in mind, this wasn't something that wasn't expected as Suh never trained with his teammates while in Detroit. Instead, he preferred to work out on his own with his own personal trainer. So when Suh showed up and was ready to go for on field workouts, head coach Joe Philbin wasn't complaining.

“Again, everything is voluntary as we all know. We’ve told the team what we believe in in terms of the significance of the offseason program. Just happy that everybody was here today.  I thought the energy was good. I thought he looked good. His quickness looked good. He seems to be in pretty good shape. He seems to be catching on to the scheme and the defense well.”

Philbin noted that with Suh being there, it sent a message to the entire team that the on field workouts are an important part of the offseason. After all, he's the team's highest paid player and the highest paid defensive player in the entire NFL. If he's there, everyone else should be too.

“Being part of the team is important, contributing is important, being out here for practice is important. The big thing that we’ve talked to the team about since April 20th, the things that we’re doing today are going to make a difference in September, October, December, January, February. Even though the season seems a long way off, September 13th, there are still a few more months before we get there. Everything we do is important.”

While all that talk is great, the only thing that really matter is the production on the field. On the first day, Suh spent a lot of time in the offensive backfield and Philbin was happy with the effort and results.

“He looked good, he looked like he got off the ball a couple of times, extremely well, which we all know, we’ve watched the tape of him, we’ve competed against him. It’s good for our offensive line to go against that on a daily basis. That’s the number one thing that obviously jumped out today.”

When Philbin was asked if Suh would continue to show up, he didn't give a clear answer, saying it was voluntary and that he would love to have everyone there. In the same breath, he admitted that things happen and they only worry about the guys that are there. We'll see if Suh does in fact continue to attend. While in the grand scheme of things it's not a huge deal, it is a good thing for him to get acclimated to the system and his teammates so they can be running at full speed when training camp opens in July.

This story was written by Matthew Cannata. Follow him on Twitter: @PhinManiacs