3 Miami Dolphins Position Battles to Watch in Friday's Preseason Game vs Bucs

Football is finally back! The Miami Dolphins will be taking on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Dolphins first preseason game.

There's not much at stake in the first game as players are acclimating themselves to the speed and physicality of the game. There will be a lot of mistakes from both veterans and younger players.

One good thing about the preseason is that players that are on the bubble will play their hearts out to try to take one of the remaining roster spots. If they make enough plays to convince coaches they belong on the team, they will be rewarded.

Another good thing about the preseason is the position battles. In Miami's case, there are a lot of those going on.

There are three position battles in particular that will be fun to watch in Miami's opener. Let's take a closer look at them.

Quarterback

Not only will this be the position battle to watch against Tampa Bay, this will be the position battle to watch throughout the whole preseason.

When the first depth chart was released, David Garrard was penciled in as the starter. This, however, does not mean he will be starting when the regular season begins. Matt Moore will also have a say in who gets the nod as the starter in the next month.

Ryan Tannehill has been coming along nicely, but I doubt the Dolphins will put any pressure on him being the starter as of now. There is no rush in starting him when there's no need to. I'm excited to see what Tannehill looks like against the Bucs, but I wouldn't put too much emphasis on this game having to do with whether he will start or not.

I expect to see all three quarterbacks play about the same amount of time and be given plenty of opportunities to prove themselves.

Wide Receiver

The Dolphins are not necessarily the most talented team at wide receiver, but that doesn't mean they don't have plenty of them to choose from. 

It's hard to imagine anyone unseating Davone Bess, Chad Johnson and Brian Hartline as the top three receivers, but it's a wide open battle after that. Marlon Moore, Julius Pruitt and Roberto Wallace have been looking for their chance to shine and hope this will be their year.

Clyde Gates will be looking to show off his speed and provide more than what he was able to provide last year as a rookie. Speaking of rookies, Miami has B.J. Cunningham, Rishard Matthews and Jeff Fuller also fighting for that last roster spot.

This will be one of the most exciting battles to watch as we see the first glimpse of who might be able to stick around when the regular season starts. 

Safety

This has been one of, if not the, weakest position on the Dolphins defense the last few years. Miami has been unable to find the right combination of players to complement their young cornerbacks in the secondary.

With the loss of Yeremiah Bell, the position has become even weaker. As of now, Reshad Jones and Chris Clemons have been penciled in as the starters, but Tyrone Culver and Jimmy Wilson won't go down quietly.

Neither Clemons nor Jones have shown anything to really cement themselves as the starters, which means anything can happen. With this first preseason game, we will see which of these guys takes the first step into earning a starting safety spot.