The Miami Dolphins 2020 NFL Draft class brought a fresh wave of talent to a roster that desperately needed it — hauling in nearly a dozen players from the prospect pool to help the Dolphins boost the team in year two of their rebuild under the direction of Chris Grier and Brian Flores. And with the Dolphins’ season on the doorstep of coming to a close, that rookie class has stepped into a front row, center role for Miami’s ongoing playoff push.
Sitting at 8-5, the Dolphins need at least two wins over their final three games to claim a playoff spot and the team controls their own destiny with three to play; three wins guarantees them a spot in the postseason. And while there may be concern that Miami’s prominent rookie class hasn’t been here before, there’s little question that the young talent on the team is a primary driver of success. That bodes very well for the future but isn’t necessarily a precursor from success to close the season, either.
Consider the role rookies played in Miami’s 33-27 loss against the Kansas City Chiefs. Miami didn’t secure the win but the team played one of their more admirable performances of the season in fighting back to nearly complete a comeback against the defending champions. Rookies played nearly half of the offensive snaps for Miami on the day.
Rookies accounted for 45.6 percent of the Dolphins offensive snaps in yesterday's game.
Tagovailoa, Hunt and Kindley played 83 each.
Austin Jackson played 75, Lynn Bowden Jr. played 59 and Malcolm Perry played 33.
— Travis Wingfield (@WingfieldNFL) December 14, 2020
That is an incredible workload for rookies on an 8-5 football team. Granted, injuries forced more play from Bowden Jr. and Malcolm Perry, but regardless Miami clearly has positioned themselves with their rookie class to get meaningful contributions late.
That doesn’t even account for the players on the defensive side of the ball, either. Nose tackle Raekwon Davis is playing tremendous football on the nose and dominates his one on ones each week. Safety Brandon Jones has been an effective sub-package defender in a role that has waxed and waned based on weekly matchups.
It isn’t just that Miami is playing a bunch of rookies. It’s how they got to be playing. Miami has been selectively conservative with their rookie class on a number of fronts. They were slow to insert Tua Tagovailoa into the lineup and then were quick to protect him from a bad day against the Denver Broncos. The rookie quarterback has rewarded the team with his two best performances of the season in the immediate aftermath of that move.
The Dolphins have three starters working together on the offensive line from the rookie class — but only after slowly weaning each of the three at their own pace to ensure they could handle the entirety of the position and execute the full playbook.
The Dolphins have two college quarterbacks playing wide receiver as rookies between Lynn Bowden Jr. and Malcolm Perry. Both have taken some time to acclimate to their new role, but both have also shown promise in what the team has put on their plate.
Drafting a lot of young talent is one thing. But properly handling and developing them is something else entirely. Thus far, it seems as though Miami has found the right balance between the two. And as a result, this team’s future is so extremely bright — not that it should outshine the team’s opportunity to close out 2020 as a winner.