For much of the 2021 offseason, the narrative around the Miami Dolphins’ running back room was that a change was needed. Miami, who struggled at times to run the football in critical game situations last season, was perceived to be a hot destination for several of the top running backs available in the 2021 NFL draft — including first-round selection Najee Harris and early second-round pick Javonte Williams. Neither, of course, materialized — which leads us to the incumbent lead back, Myles Gaskin.
Gaskin met with the South Florida media yesterday amid the team’s first organized team activities (OTAs) and spoke candidly on a number of fronts, which may elicit some conflicted emotions for some Dolphins fans who were mentally ready for a different lead back. Gaskin is still very much gunning to be the top back in this offense and his biggest point of emphasis in 2021 is staying healthy to endure the wear and tear of the pro game. How? Pilates served a big role this offseason.
“I work on knee health, ankle health, things like that (to stay healthy). Work on stability, just being more like sure – just work on those small muscles. I did a lot of Pilates when I went back home to Seattle, and I think that helped my body just working on those small muscles, working on awkward movements,” said Gaskin.
“And moving your body like I said, moving your body awkwardly – just new things I haven’t done in the past, I think that’ll take my game to the next step.”
And to be completely fair to Gaskin, he averaged just short of 100 yards from scrimmage per game played last season — he was productive on a per-game basis. So while many may have hoped for a new back in 2021, Gaskin is hoping to stiff-arm the competition and hold the featured role. But the offense he’ll be playing in is apparently going to look “much different” according to Gaskin — which should excite everyone regardless of their rooting interest in Miami’s future at the running back position.
“I feel like for the running backs that were here – myself, Pat (Laird), Salvon (Ahmed) – just kind of seeing the playbook, it has changed. It’s much different than last year’s but us being around (Eric Studesville), we kind of see his offensive mind sitting in the room with him. You see his offensive mind kind of clicking, kind of moving, so I feel like me, Pat, ‘Salv’ kind of had a good – not that we understood what it was going to be, but what it was going to look like, if that makes sense, coming in and just being able to kind of get the terms and stuff like that down now,” said Gaskin.
“Obviously it’s super early. It’s still the first one, so it was just like very basic stuff; but just kind of seeing what ‘E’s’ input has been on it along with George (Godsey) how they came to bring one offense together, I think obviously surprised with some things, excited for some things, but at the same time, I’ve been around ‘E’ for a while so I know what he likes and what he wants things to look like.”
A new look playbook means one likely tailored to QB Tua Tagovailoa. And the more success Tagovailoa has, the more success everyone on offense will have. And if that all goes according to plan, Gaskin may very well force everyone to forget there was ever an issue with the Dolphins’ backfield in the first place in 2021.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_9svagErpY