The Miami Dolphins have seen all they need to see of veteran running back Kalen Ballage, the third-year back out of Arizona State has been released from his contract. And to replace Ballage on the roster, the Dolphins are staying out west and tapping into the PAC-12 pipeline of runners once more — they’ve claimed 2020 undrafted free agent running back Salvon Ahmed of the Washington Huskies. Ahmed, who signed after the draft with the San Francisco 49ers and was cut on Tuesday, will be the second Huskies running back on the roster; joining 2019 7th-round pick Myles Gaskin.
We have been awarded RB Salvon Ahmed off waivers from San Francisco.
— Miami Dolphins (@MiamiDolphins) August 26, 2020
The book on Ahmed is that he’s currently a better athlete than back at this point, in large part because he spent the early portions of his college career stuck behind Gaskin on the depth chart. From 2015-2018, Gaskin never logged less than 233 total touches of the football in any individual season and in total logged 1,010 touches over his four seasons with the Huskies. Ahmed overlapped with Gaskin in 2017 & 2018 and only managed to scratch out 199 total touches between those two seasons combined.
2019 was Ahmed’s time to shine and he made it count — surpassing 1,000 yards rushing on 188 carries and finding the end zone 11 times for the Huskies. But his pro forecast didn’t match his surge in production.
The Draft Network’s 2020 scouting profile on Ahmed paints a picture that should give Dolphins fans a clear expectation on Ahmed: he’s likely best as a running back by committee individual and would serve a role as a complementary piece only. Here’s the summary from TDN on Ahmed coming out of Washington.
“Salvon Ahmed is a low end NFL RB who has the redirection ability to make some big plays happen in space — but he’s currently not reliable in his ability to process and key the point of attack. Too may of his runs are derailed by his own attempts to work to daylight and he needs to develop more trust and urgency to press through gaps. Ahmed’s athleticism is passable for the pro game but he lacks the long speed and home run hitting skills he seems to think he has with his running style.” – The Draft Network
His first order of business will be finding a way to unseat Gaskin and Patrick Laird off of the RB3 position in the depth chart. Unfortunately for Ahmed, he won’t have a lot of time to do so — and he may be destined for a spot on the practice squad when the 2020 season starts.