The Miami Dolphins’ 2020 season will come with some challenges in managing expectation. The Dolphins are still a very young football team — but the team is much more talented than the one that won 5 of their final 9 football games last season — and despite some tough draws in the AFC & NFC West on the schedule, the Dolphins will be playing a 4th place schedule this season.
This is the recipe we’ve often seen contribute to a big jump in wins. Could this year’s Miami squad be that team? That will be the great challenge for the coaching staff as they try to hold their team to the highest standard while also keeping perspective on where this team is in the big picture. But for the players themselves, expectations can be a little easier to navigate. A player’s role can shift and evolve throughout the season too — but typically what is “expected” of each player can be well established early on.
Which Miami Dolphins player faces the biggest task with their role in 2020?
There are a few sensible candidates worth consideration:
OL Jesse Davis
Davis enters the season as the presumed lone returning starter on the Dolphins’ offensive line. But even he won’t have it very easy in living up to that role with all of the new competition at the position. Davis, who was given an extension last season, doesn’t have a ton of money wrapped up into his future; but the team clearly saw something in him to give him a 3-year, $15M extension last fall.
He’ll have to play well at either guard or tackle in order to convince the Dolphins that they won’t need to add on further investments to the line to help keep the pocket clean for young QB Tua Tagovailoa.
CB Xavien Howard
This has less to do about quality of play and more to do about durability. The Dolphins are paying Howard some hefty coin to be a standout in their secondary, but he’s missed nearly half of the games in his NFL career thus far. Howard played in 5 games last season on the heels of missing the final 4 games of the 2018 season and now is facing a potential league suspension after a domestic incident this past winter.
Howard will need to keep his act together and keep his health in line or else run the risk of tempting Miami to move on from the rest of his 5-year, $75M contract. If things go south in 2020, the Dolphins could trade or cut Howard for a cap penalty below $7M. If he’s healthy and focused, it shouldn’t come to that. But that’s also something of a big but based on his previous durability issues.
RB Jordan Howard
Howard is a first year Miami Dolphin who has a great opportunity in front of him. If he plays well, he has the chance of convincing the Dolphins that he’s capable of being a featured back. Just 25-years old, Howard has multiple 1,000 yard seasons to his name and could prompt the Dolphins to commit to him in a more long-term role than the 2-year contract he signed on for this offseason.