Tag: Christian Wilkins

Dolphins’ key players can bank on winning pedigrees to change culture

Dolphins’ key players can bank on winning pedigrees to change culture

The Miami Dolphins haven’t known how to win with consistency since the early 2000s. It’s been a rough ride for the team and its fans — the Dolphins have been mired in mediocrity and seen their fair share of games slip through the cracks because the team simply hasn’t had the “closers” in-house to help slam the door shut on the opposition. It could be the maulers up front who could have helped get the ground game going to chew clock. Or the quarterback who needed to ignite a two-minute drive and go down the field to claim a game winning score. But no matter how you slice it, the Dolphins haven’t known how to consistently win.

Head coach Brian Flores is hoping he can shift the narrative there. After all, Flores himself has plenty of experience winning with his pedigree with the New England Patriots. No one has won more over the last decade — and Flores spent the vast majority of it experiencing the inner workings of a winning program.

But Brian Flores as an even-keeled coach can only bring so much to the table to help secure wins. His players have to execute on the field and they, too, must be comfortable with the price of winning. And that is what makes the Dolphins’ recent roster overhaul so important. If you look at this organization’s trends in player personnel, nearly every room on the roster has players who have achieved the highest of heights as it pertains to player success. The Dolphins have added a bunch of players who have college or pro winning pedigrees — and they’re hoping that those pedigrees combined with Brian Flores’ own winning background are what is needed to forge a winning pedigree once again in South Florida.

Here are some of the most winning programs in football in both college and the pros as of late and, more importantly, how many Miami Dolphins projected starters come from those programs.

New England Patriots — 3

  • Safety Eric Rowe, Linebacker Kyle Van Noy, Center Ted Karras

Clemson Tigers — 2 

  • Defensive End Shaq Lawson, Defensive Tackle Christian Wilkins

Ohio State Buckeyes — 2

  • Linebacker Jerome Baker, Linebacker Raekwon McMillan

Alabama Crimson Tide — 1(?)

  • Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa (plus 2nd-round pick DL Raekwon Davis)

Add in RB Matt Breida coming over from the 2019 NFC Champion San Francisco 49ers, DE Emmanuel Ogbah coming over from the 2019 Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs, CB Byron Jones coming over from the Dallas Cowboys (40-24 over the last 4 seasons) and you’ve got 20% of the team’s roster anchoring Miami with strong success and experience in the cost to get there.

The final piece of the puzzle is for it all to come together and create a winning standard in South Florida.

Miami Dolphins 2020 training camp preview: Defensive line

Miami Dolphins 2020 training camp preview: Defensive line

In just over three weeks, the Miami Dolphins will open training camp for the 2020 season ahead — and with it face the prospect of building upon a promising “foundation” year. The Dolphins surprised everyone last season with a 5-4 stretch to finish the year and promptly followed suit by nailing down one of the most prolific college quarterbacks in recent history, plus a slew of new faces to add to the team.

The Dolphins will hold camp this year with fan enthusiasm as high as it has been in quite some time. But amid the restrictions of this offseason due to the ongoing health crisis, can the Dolphins rise to the challenge? We’ll be taking a look at each position group for the Dolphins ahead of the start of training camp and exploring which storylines are most pressing to monitor as Miami looks to improve in Year 2 under Brian Flores.

Here are the Dolphins’ key storylines in training camp on the defensive line.

How big of a step forward will we get from Christian Wilkins?

Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

Wilkins’ rookie season was a slow burn — it started calm but by the end of the season Wilkins was impossible to miss on the field. There was plenty of pressure and splash plays from the Dolphins’ 2019 1st-round pick, including a touchdown reception against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 16. Wilkins was made the face of Miami’s first draft under Brian Flores in large part because of his versatility and his love of the game.

By the end of his rookie season, both of those qualities were quite apparent. But now it’s time to level up. And with more talented players surrounding him on the line, Wilkins is well positioned to do exactly that. What should we expect? So long as there’s a continuously growing presence in the opposing backfield, don’t worry too much about the sack numbers. Miami will be a rush group by committee — we just want to see Wilkins become the leader he seems destined to be for the unit.

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Who will lead the Miami Dolphins in sacks in 2020?

Who will lead the Miami Dolphins in sacks in 2020?

The Miami Dolphins’ 2020 season figures to be a whole lot more fun than the 2019 year — even if the team doesn’t rack up wins at an exponentially faster rate than last year’s team did. The Dolphins battled the narrative last season that the team was “tanking” — and for a while it appeared as though perhaps general manager Chris Grier had gone too far in tearing down the roster. There’s little question of Grier’s intent these days — the Dolphins were much more aggressive in adding talent and took advantage of the team’s embarrassment of riches in the NFL Draft to add eleven new players into the fray.

Each unit for the Miami Dolphins figures to be, at the very least, equal to what they were last year. No position group can be pointed to as getting worse, as Miami didn’t lose significant free agents and retooled several key positions with young talent.

One of those key positions is the pass rush, where the Dolphins struggled in 2019. As a whole, Miami logged just 23 sacks on the season. The team’s leader was DE Taco Charlton, who never seemed to fully buy into the Dolphins’ approach and was cut this offseason after failing to dress for a slew of games at the end of the season. Who figures to be the team’s leading sack artist this year? And how many sacks should we expect?

DL Christian Wilkins

The incumbent on the roster who could challenge for this title is Wilkins. He was a top-15 pick for a reason — and with better talent around him this year he should warrant more one on one looks. Because of the construction of the Dolphins’ roster, there will be no one dominant player eating up the opposing quarterback — the team will have a by committee approach. And if that is the case, Wilkins could well end up leading the charge since he’s aligned closest to the quarterback to begin with.

Bold prediction: 7.0 sacks

LB Kyle Van Noy

Van Noy, coming over from the Patriots, enjoyed a career best season rushing the passer in 2019. He logged 6.5 sacks, 15 hits and an additional 24 pressures — all high water marks for his pro career. The barrier to Van Noy repeating those numbers may be a byproduct of his talent. He’s a versatile player and Miami may require him to spend additional time in space underneath in pass coverage instead of rushing the passer.

But if he’s encouraged to bring the heat, he may challenge this mark.

Bold prediction: 5.5 sacks

DE Shaq Lawson

Lawson is a very different player than Van Noy, but his story as a pass rusher isn’t too dissimilar. Lawson also logged a career best season rushing the passer — he tallied 6.5 sacks, 18 hits and an additional 28 pressures last season. Unlike Van Noy, however, Lawson will not be spending time out in space; and with a potent threat inside of him and the Dolphins’ aggressiveness likely also yielding reps where he’s protected with rushers outside of him as well, Lawson appears poised for a big season.

Bold prediction: 8.5 sacks (team leader)

Dolphins’ Christian Wilkins ready for a full plate in 2020

Dolphins’ Christian Wilkins ready for a full plate in 2020

The more you can do at the NFL level, the better. You see it on a number of different fronts, including whether or not a fringe player is able to make the roster. If you can step in on special teams in addition to being a depth player at your primary position, odds are you’ll make the cut. Quarterbacks who are dual threats are much more of a headache to contain than those who simply sling the ball around the field.

Few NFL players can say they’re a viable contributor on all three phases of the team — offense, defense and special teams. But yet Miami Dolphins defensive tackle Christian Wilkins is one. And that’s a fact he takes great pride in as he hopes to do his part to turn the Dolphins’ fortunes around in 2020.

By the end of the 2019 season, Wilkins had logged a touchdown reception on offense, served as a starring defender on defense and logged 157 special teams snaps as well — a triple threat.

But even on defense alone, Wilkins can offer value in a number of different roles. Whether he’s serving as a base defensive end, a 3-technique defensive tackle or a 2-gapping interior defender, Wilkins offers competent play and can serve as a chess piece for Brian Flores’ defense. When asked yesterday during his meeting with the South Florida media via Zoom about that versatility, the second-year defensive tackle was quick to reference it as a point of pride.

“For me really, I just take a lot of pride in being able to do my job and a lot of other jobs along the defensive line. The saying in the NFL is, the more you can do the better, so I always try to add a lot to my game, and that comes from film study, working out hard, just really honing in on my craft at every position on the defensive line,” said Wilkins.

“That versatility is huge and I’m glad I’m able to do that for this team, because anything that can help this team I’m all for. We’ve got a really versatile defense. We do a lot of different fronts, a lot of different things upfront. I’m glad I’m able to do those things as a big part of our defense.”

Wilkins will indeed serve as a large presence for the Dolphins up front this season. With better players surrounding him up front, Wilkins should have more one on one reps, too — and hopefully log more splash plays in year two. But don’t sleep on Wilkins elsewhere, either. He may well show up when you least expect it for the Dolphins; such as down in the red zone while the team is on offense.

Expect a big breakout from Dolphins DL Christian Wilkins in 2020

Expect a big breakout from Dolphins DL Christian Wilkins in 2020

About halfway through the 2019 NFL season, Miami Dolphins fans were distraught in every way possible. The team was 0-7 and the Dolphins, while scrappy, really didn’t have any individual players who were commanding praise for their play on any given week. That included DL Christian Wilkins, the team’s top draft selection in the 2019 NFL Draft.

“Where is Christian Wilkins?” was a popular, trendy topic on social media — the team was having trouble getting expected firepower out of their early pick.

But as the season forged on, Christian Wilkins slowly and steadily transformed from a rookie defender playing amid sub-optimal conditions and became exactly the kind of presence Miami envisioned when they selected him in the top-15. And by the end of the year, Christian Wilkins had registered one of the most disruptive rookie seasons Pro Football Focus has tracked since 2016.

Expect even more fireworks out of Wilkins in 2020. The Dolphins have done an excellent job surrounding Wilkins on the defensive line with better talent — the team paid handsomely for Shaq Lawson and Emmanuel Ogbah in free agency and also added Raekwon Davis with a 2nd-round selection. That was perhaps the biggest stumbling block for Wilkins in 2019 — the defense didn’t provide enough threats to allow Wilkins a starring role as a penetration defender. Some of those opportunities will naturally come and go throughout the course of the season as matchups dictate, too — but Wilkins was dealing with plenty of attention in the middle and without threats to stress opposing offensive lines, he wasn’t able to play a game changing role.

Let it serve as a great reminder that football is a team sport — and especially on defense. Miami, with a brand new stable of defensive linemen (and linebackers) ready to challenge opposing fronts, will be much better positioned to let Wilkins shine in 2020. Expect him to rise to the occasion.

Constructing the ideal pass rush group with Dolphins’ 2020 personnel

Constructing the ideal pass rush group with Dolphins’ 2020 personnel

The Miami Dolphins’ 2019 pass rush was one of the bigger points of frustration for the roster. Even when coach Brian Flores was willing to dial up pressure, the team rarely found opportunities to collapse the pocket or crash off the edge and get home to opposing quarterbacks. With that in mind, it should come as no surprise at all that the Dolphins were aggressive this offseason in upgrading their problematic rush group. And by the time the Dolphins were done with the 2020 NFL Draft, the team was able to outright cut DE Taco Charlton and trade DE Charles Harris to the Atlanta Falcons for a future 7th-round selection.

But what will the ideal rush group for this defense look like? The team is likely to implement a lot of looks with the versatility of their personnel — linebacker Kyle Van Noy is a viable threat off the ball or on the edge and newly acquired defensive ends Shaq Lawson and Emmanuel Ogbah offer plenty of power.

When the chips are down on 3rd and long, what should Dolphins fans expect to see in the team’s pass rush in 2020? If the team were to implement a 4-man front on passing downs, it is likely we’ll see this personnel often for the Dolphins.

RUSH LB – Kyle Van Noy
DE – Shaq Lawson
DT – Christian Wilkins
DT – Raekwon Davis
DE – Emmanuel Ogbah

With Van Noy crashing off the edge, Lawson aligned in the B-gap, Wilkins shaded on the center and two long, powerful, twitchy bodies in Davis and Ogbah working off the backside, the Dolphins will have the bodies needed to collapse the pocket around opposing quarterbacks — a skill they sorely lacked in 2020. Davis’ addition as a 2020 2nd-round selection came as a bit of a surprise, but he has the penetration ability and upside that fellow defensive tackle Davon Godchaux does not. The interior due of Wilkins and Davis should allow for frequent one on one matchups across the board — and from there Miami will hope their upgraded personnel can score the wins they couldn’t in 2019.

Watch Dolphins DL Christian Wilkins’ hardwood highlights

Ever wonder what Dolphins 2019 rookie Christian Wilkins’ hardwood highlights looked like? Well, now you know.

What, you thought Miami Dolphins tight end Mike Gesicki was the only one on the team who could throw down on the hardwood?! The Dolphins gave some love to Gesicki a few weeks back for a spectacular highlight of dunks and blocks from Gesicki’s high school days — and now they’ve given a little flashback love to another young upstart of Miami’s 2020 offseason roster, defensive tackle Christian Wilkins.

Gesicki’s highlight was more explosive, but the scouting report on Wilkins is still impressive none the less. Good handles, effective low post maneuvers — but who are we trying to kid? For as smooth as Wilkins looks ducking in to the basket, we much prefer his highlights on the gridiron.

The energetic Wilkins enjoyed a strong finish to his rookie season, avoiding the rookie wall that claims so many youngsters in the NFL. If anything, Wilkins actually broke through the rookie wall mid-season — helping to reinforce why the Dolphins chose to draft him with their first pick in the 2019 NFL Draft.

With a year of NFL service under his belt, Wilkins can now look to continue building up his repertoire to slice into opposing backfields — hopefully with a little more contact than what his hardwood highlights offered up along the way.

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Two Dolphins named to top 50 NFL rookies of 2019

The Miami Dolphins’ rookie class of 2019 had two members make the cut for the top 50 rookies of the season.

USA TODAY’s Draft Wire has released their ranking of the top 50 rookies of the 2019 NFL season — and Dolphins fans should be pleased to know that there was some respect put on the Miami Dolphins’ class of 2019. No Dolphins cracked the upper echelon of the rankings, but there are two Dolphins representatives on the top-50 list.

1st-round defensive tackle Christian Wilkins and undrafted free agent wide receiver Preston Williams where Miami’s recognized talent.

In a perfect world, perhaps undrafted free agent cornerback Nik Needham sneaks into the top 50, but there should — generally speaking — be no complaints for Miami’s representation here. The Dolphins’ rookie class was lean in 2019 after a mediocre 7-9 finish left the Dolphins stranded in the middle of the 1st-round as they undertook a late winter regime change.

With just two selections in the top-75 of the 2019 NFL Draft, Miami was always going to have their hands full getting a big haul in 2019. But the team appears to have struck gold with both Williams and Needham, with both undrafted free agents starting and finishing their seasons in very different ways.

Williams was a standout star from the beginning of camp and was on pace to challenge for between 900 and 1,000 receiving yards before an injury against the Jets in Miami’s 8th game cost him the rest of his season. Needham? He continuously improved throughout the course of the year, ultimately climaxing with some strong play at cornerback as the team tried to withstand weekly losses to the secondary.

And then there’s Wilkins, the face of Miami’s 2019 draft class. He started slow, but ultimately found the disruptive qualities that made him a tour de force at Clemson.

And with two included in the top-50 rookies of 2019 and one questionable snub, there’s little doubt the Dolphins’ 2019 rookie class will have plenty to say about the turnaround in 2020, too.

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Dolphins shut out of Pro Football Writers’ All-Rookie team

The Miami Dolphins failed to get any representation on the Pro Football Writers’ All-Rookie team in 2019.

The Miami Dolphins’ rookie class was hardly a traditional group. The Dolphins only made two selections in the top-100 (Christian Wilkins and Michael Deiter) and saw a vast number of undrafted free agents step into the fray and gather snaps.

But snaps and opportunities don’t necessarily equate to accolades, as the Miami Dolphins found out this week when the Pro Football Writers of America (PFWA) released their annual rookie honors and All-Rookie Team. There wasn’t a single Dolphins player on the list.

The most obvious potential snub for the Dolphins was Wilkins — who finished the season with 56 total tackles, 2.0 sacks, 3 tackles for loss, 2 passes defensed and one receiving touchdown. In a crowded defensive line class, it’s understandable for Wilkins to be left off the top four and be left off the list, but yet one of the players who made the list in favor of Wilkins was made it a curious decision.

New York Giants defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence, Wilkins’ college teammate, posted 38 tackles, 2.5 sacks, 3 tackles for loss and 1 pass defensed and yet made the list over Wilkins — despite playing nearly equal snaps and having less production. Why? It’s easy to presume that playing in a New York market helped Lawrence’s case, but it is still none the less confusing to see Wilkins bumped out of the All-Rookie team based on visibility.

Miami’s other viable candidate would have been wide receiver Preston Williams, who went down at mid-season while pushing for a potential 1,000 yard receiving season with the Dolphins. He, of course, got preempted by tow talented and productive receivers — it is hard for the Dolphins to be too upset but his absence.

With triple the picks in the top-100 in 2020, it should stand within reason for Miami fans to hope, or rather expect, to see some Dolphins on next year’s PFWA All-Rookie team.

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Here’s all seven Fat Guy Touchdowns scored in the 2019 season

More than ever in NFL history, the big guys are making it into the end zone! Here are all seven Fat Guy Touchdowns in the 2019 NFL season.

Most times, when an offensive lineman reports as eligible, opposing defenses don’t take it seriously. The 2019 NFL season is when that should change, or more defensive coordinators will be caught unaware. Because there has been a rash of Fat Guy Touchdowns scored this season — there had been six through the first 16 weeks of the season, and against the Buccaneers in Week 17, Falcons offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter dialed up this bit of magic — a 35-yard touchdown pass from Matt Ryan to offensive tackle Ty Sambrailo.

We stand in awe.

And yes, it is fair to say that the Bucs blew this coverage in all sorts of ways.

Would you like to see every Fat Guy Touchdown scored this season? Touchdown Wire has you covered there. Because, as John Madden said in The Replacements, “I love to see a fat guy score. Because first you get a fat guy spike, then you get the fat guy dance.”

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