With the Dolphins fourth and final 2018 preseason game against the Falcons on Thursday night, the reserve players will play longer than the starters. All the Dolphins starters have gotten time this preseason and this is the last chance for reserve players to assure they find a place on the final roster entering Week 1. While most people may focus on the position battles for the defensive tackle and quarterback, I’ll be watching the battle between the rookie kickers Greg Joseph and Jason Sanders.

The defense is struggling to stop the run regardless of who is playing defensive tackle, the quarterback race between Brock Osweiler, David Fales, and Bryce Petty is relevant if Ryan Tannehill gets hurt. However, the battle for the starting kicker impacts the team most in my opinion. The defense will need solid field position more than it did last year.

But with Cody Parkey now with the Bears, Sanders, and Joseph will hope to fill those shoes. Graduating out of New Mexico, Sanders has made six of his seven field goal attempts during the preseason. What makes former Florida Atlantic kicker Greg Joseph interesting is that while he’s only converted two field goals, they were from 48 and 54 yards.

The ability of these kickers to pin their opponent after a score is also important in the evaluation. Sanders and Joseph are respectively averaging 63.3 and 63.6 yards per kickoff. While those aren’t bad numbers as the number of touchbacks taken is skewed low because of the young players trying to return a kick for a touchdown. In short, the number of touchbacks and average field position is essentially a throwaway stat making more difficult to grading process for these kicking candidates.

While Sanders has the apparent early advantage, neither player can afford a misstep at this juncture to provide any doubt to the coaches.