Tag: Raheem Mostert

7 events that Dolphins are participating in during the 2024 Pro Bowl Games

Six Dolphins will participate in seven events for the Pro Bowl Games.

This week, as the NFL world prepares for the Super Bowl battle between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers, the 2024 Pro Bowl Games will be held on Thursday and Sunday.

The Miami Dolphins have six players – Tua Tagovailoa, Raheem Mostert, Alec Ingold, Tyreek Hill, Terron Armstead and Jalen Ramsey – set to participate.

Over those two days, they’ll all compete in various challenges against their peers, with ESPN beginning the broadcast of the Thursday events at 7 p.m. ET. Here’s a look at who will be representing the aqua and orange in each event:

4 things that went right for the Dolphins in 2023

Some things that went right for the Dolphins this past year.

The Miami Dolphins completed their second season under head coach Mike McDaniel with an 11-6 regular-season record and a wild-card loss to the Kansas City Chiefs to end their playoff hopes.

While Miami may not have accomplished everything they would’ve liked to in 2023, they still did have some impressive showings up and down both the roster and coaching staff.

As we reflect on the year that was, let’s take a quick look at four things that went right for the Dolphins during their 2023 campaign.

Dolphins RB Raheem Mostert says it’s ‘mind-boggling’ he wasn’t an All-Pro

Mostert doesn’t understand how he wasn’t an All-Pro.

Miami Dolphins running back Raheem Mostert had the best season of his career in 2023.

The 31-year-old rushed for 1,012 yards and a franchise single-season record 18 touchdowns on 4.8 yards per carry. He also added another 175 yards and three scores on 25 receptions. Mostert’s 18 trips to the end zone on the ground this season led the league, and his 21 total touchdowns was tied for the most with San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey.

Despite the incredible output, Mostert wasn’t named an All-Pro. McCaffrey was the First-team running back and the Los Angeles Rams’ Kyren Williams was Second-team.

Mostert took to his podcast, “Relentlessly Motivated with Raheem Mostert,” to share his thoughts on the decision.

McCaffrey finished the season with over 2,000 total yards of offense, so it’s not surprising to see him take home the First-team honors, but Mostert probably should’ve been given Second-team over Williams.

The Rams running back finished with 1,350 total yards and 15 total scores. It’s impressive that he did it all in 12 games, but yards per game was the only statistic that he led the league in this year.

If Mostert feels slighted for not seeing his name on either list, he has a case.

Grading the Dolphins running backs after their 2023 season

A look at how Miami’s RBs performed this year.

The Miami Dolphins finished their 2023 campaign with an 11-6 record and made the postseason for the second time in as many years under head coach Mike McDaniel. Unfortunately, it came to an end with a loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the wild-card round.

While other teams are in the midst of their playoff run, it’s time to do some reflecting on the team in South Florida.

Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be reviewing and evaluating different positions for the Dolphins in 2023. Today, we’ll look at the running backs.

Where did Dolphins offensive weapons rank statistically in 2023?

Checking out where various Dolphins offensive weapons ranked statistically.

The Miami Dolphins were officially eliminated from the postseason on Saturday in a 26-7 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium.

While Miami may not have reached their ultimate goals, a number of the players still had incredible seasons that they’ll remember forever.

As we continue to wrap up the season, let’s take a look at where different Dolphins ranked statistically among their peers for the 2023 NFL season.

Here’s how the offensive weapons stacked up:

Dolphins react to being eliminated from the playoffs

What players had to say about the loss and their elimination from the playoffs

The Miami Dolphins lost to the Kansas City Chiefs on Saturday night 26-7 which ended their 2023 season after just one playoff game.

Mike McDaniel’s team started the year off great, but a collapse against the Tennessee Titans late in the season and three straight losses to end it leaves a sour taste in everyone’s mouths around the organization and fan base.

After the game, McDaniel and a number of players, including quarterback Tua Tagovailoa addressed the loss and the season as a whole.

WIth De’von Achane, Dolphins’ motion and misdirection could be trouble for Chiefs’ defense

The Dolphins are a much better offense when running back De’von Achane is on the field, and the Chiefs are about to find that out.

If there’s one thing you know about the Miami Dolphins’ run game, it’s that it’s packed with pre-snap motion. If there’s another thing you know about the Miami Dolphins’ run game, it’s that you’re going to see a ton of misdirection to put defenses on their heels, creating more explosive opportunities.

It’s important to remember that head coach Mike McDaniel was Kyle Shanahan’s run game coordinator with the San Francisco 49ers from 2017 through 2020 before becoming San Francisco’s offensive coordinator in 2021, and then getting the Dolphins job in 2022. So, there are a lot of similar concepts, and a lot of what the Dolphins run in their ground game could be said to be Shanahan’s stuff sped up about 20% because the Dolphins have such dynamic athletes on the field.

One of those dynamic athletes this season is rookie running back De’von Achane, the Olympic-level track star and Texas A&M alum who Miami took with the 85th pick in the third round of the 2023 draft. Achane ran a 4.32-40-yard dash at his scouting combine, and all of that speed has shown up on the field. This season, Achane has gained 804 yards and scored eight rushing touchdowns on just 102 carries, which gives him an insane 7.9 yards per carry average. Achane has 13 carries of 15 or more yards on the season, meaning that he’s good for a potential house call on more than one of every 10 carries.

Beyond the straight-line speed, Achane is also a real problem for defenses aligned in McDaniel’s motion and misdirection concepts. This was really true in Miami’s 21-14 loss to the Buffalo Bills in the 2023 regular-season finale. Achane had 10 carries for 56 yards and a touchdown in the game, and all three of his explosive plays came from a similar — and highly original — run scheme.

Each of these runs also featured pre-snap motion (of course), but the real tricky part was having Tua Tagovailoa taking the snap in the Pistol formation, and Achane right behind him. Advocates of the Pistol in the run game will tell you that putting smaller backs right behind the quarterback (Achane is 5-foot-8 and 188 pounds) makes it hard for a defense to get a clean run fit right off the snap, because the back is hard to see.

Now, we get into the misdirection fakes on each of those three plays. As seen below, Tagovailoa faked a handoff to his left to… well, nobody. The idea here was to get the same player on all three plays — Bills linebacker Tyrel Dodson — and it worked on runs of 11, 16, and 25 yards.

Kansas City Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo will have to deal with all this stuff when Kansas City and Miami face off Saturday in the wild-card round of the playoffs. The Dolphins and Chiefs played each other in Week 9 over in Germany. Achane didn’t play in that game — he had a knee injury that put him on short-term injured reserve — but Spags is well aware that he’s scheming it up against a different offense now. He was asked Wednesday whether there’s an advantage to facing a team for the second time in a season.

“There may be some truth to that because we all say in this league it’s hard to beat a team twice, right? I think it helps the players in that they know the person that they line up directly against, but to both sides, there’s no advantage there either way. I’m sure they’ll change some things. We’ll have a couple of new wrinkles. It’ll be a whole different game, and it’ll be in a different country [laughter]. It’ll be a different game.”

It’ll also be below zero from a wind chill perspective in Kansas City for the game, which could have both teams leaning more on the run game.

In this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” the guys get into all the parts of Miami’s run game that could have them advancing to the divisional round. You can watch this week’s “Xs and Os,” previewing every game in the wild-card slate, right here:

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You can also listen and subscribe to the “Xs and Os” podcast on Spotify…

…and on Apple Podcasts.

Dolphins 2023 regular season awards: From MVP to most improved

Handing out some hardware for the Dolphins regular season performances

Now that the 2023 NFL regular season has concluded, and the playoffs are just days away it’s a good time to reflect on this year’s class of Miami Dolphins. What better way to go through a regular season yearbook than handing out superlatives?

In a regular season that saw numerous team records fall and several breakout performances both by veterans and young players, this team is arguably its most talented in decades. Regardless of all the injuries and adversity, the 2023 rollercoaster of a campaign is still going, as there is a Saturday night playoff matchup at Arrowhead Stadium against the Kansas City Chiefs in the wild-card round of the postseason.

Before getting to that matchup, we can look back on some of the outstanding individual performances from Dolphins this season.

4 reasons the Dolphins will win against the Bills on Sunday

Four reasons why the Dolphins will beat the Bills in Week 18

The 11-5 Miami Dolphins face off against the 10-6 Buffalo Bills in the most anticipated matchup of Week 18 with this game determining who wins the AFC East and secures the No. 2 seed in the AFC playoffs.

The Dolphins are coming off a terrible loss to the Baltimore Ravens, losing 56-19. They also lost star linebacker Bradley Chubb for the season to an ACL tear. Miami comes into this game with a plethora of players on the injury report from both the offense and defense.

Buffalo enters this game on a four-game winning streak following their bye week. They’ve been climbing the standings after going 6-6 in their first 12 games. However, they haven’t been overly impressive in their previous two wins.

The Bills are 2.5-point favorites over the Dolphins. This is an interesting point spread, considering the Dolphins are playing at home and have more wins. Many experts have turned on the Dolphins in response to the multitude of big game losses on their record.

While the Dolphins are dealing with key injuries on both sides of the ball, they still have enough talent to go out and earn a victory over their longtime division rivals. No doubt the 48-20 loss in Week 4 has forced Mike McDaniel to draft up a new game plan for taking on Buffalo.

Here are four reasons why the Dolphins will achieve victory on Sunday night.

Dolphins RB Raheem Mostert, WR Jaylen Waddle not expected to play vs. Bills

Miami expected to be without two offensive weapons on Sunday.

The Miami Dolphins will be hosting the Buffalo Bills on Sunday for a Week 18 battle that will decide the winner of the AFC East as well as who will be the No. 2 seed in the conference.

While the Dolphins have played well at home this year, this game will be a bigger challenge, as they’re expected to be without running back Raheem Mostert and wide receiver Jaylen Waddle, according to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero.

Mostert has led the league in rushing (18) and total (21) touchdowns this season. Those marks are franchise single-season records in both of those statistics. The former Purdue back also hit 1,000 yards for the first time in his nine-year career.

Without Mostert, Miami will have to rely on rookie De’Von Achane as well as Jeff Wilson Jr. and undrafted rookie Chris Brooks at the position.

Waddle has been dealing with a few injuries this season, as he’ll finish the year with only 14 games played if he doesn’t go on Sunday. He’s recorded 72 receptions for 1,014 yards and four scores in 2023.

The Dolphins’ wide receiving corps will consist of Tyreek Hill, Cedrick Wilson Jr., Braxton Berrios, River Cracraft, Robbie Chosen and Chase Claypool for the game.