The legend of Nick O’Leary is off to a strong start with his hometown Miami Dolphins

It was a simple play on a second-and-goal. Dolphins quarterback Brock Osweiler, making an impromptu start against the Chicago Bears because Ryan Tannehill was injured, dropped back five steps from under center and threw to the right flat, where Nick O’Leary was waiting.

O’Leary caught the pass a step ahead of his defender and extended his arms to get the ball past the pylon.

Touchdown Miami. Touchdown O’Leary.

“It was fun,” O’Leary said, “just to score a touchdown for the hometown team.”

The tight end, who is from Palm Beach County and the grandson of golf great Jack Nicklaus, was making his first start for the Dolphins only nine days after joining Miami’s 53-man roster

The Dolphins are hoping it’s just the beginning of O’Leary’s success as they continue to groom rookie tight ends Mike Gesicki and Durham Smythe. O’Leary is hoping it jump-starts his career after being cut by the Buffalo Bills before the start of the season.

“The legend of Nick O’Leary,” offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains said with a laugh.

The legend is indeed a curious one.

O’Leary was a standout tight end for the Florida State Seminoles, a two-time finalist for college football’s tight end of the year whose 114 career catches broke the school record for most by a tight end. The Bills drafted him in the sixth round in 2015, and he stayed in Buffalo for his first three seasons.

After 35 games, including a dozen starts and 473 receiving yards, the Bills released O’Leary on Sept. 1.

O’Leary remained unemployed for 19 days, waiting for a phone call.

Then, Miami called. He joined the practice squad on Sept. 20. Two weeks later, he was promoted to the active roster. Two games later, he was starting over Gesicki and Smythe, the rookies who have been with the team for almost six months. He caught four passes for 49 yards in the 31-28 overtime win against the Bears.

“I didn’t know that it would be that quick,” O’Leary said. “I was just going to do what they asked me to do and help the guys out.”

O’Leary might not have expected to contribute this much this early, but his teammates did.

Coach Adam Gase on Friday said he couldn’t remember when he had so many players asking when the team was going to call up someone from the practice squad as he did with O’Leary.

“That tells you something like, ‘All right, they think this guy’s got something to him,’ ” Gase said. “Then we kind of started working him in on our some of our stuff because he was trying to learn our offense. He picked it up pretty quick.”

Loggains added: “He’s a scrappy player. He’s competitive, and I think the guys see how hard he plays. He’s always mixing it up in the pile. He plays with edge and he’s made some plays for us, so guys are naturally drawn to that kind of competitive spirit. I can’t speak on why it didn’t work out in the past on other teams, but I think the coaching staff here has done a good job using his skill set to put him in a position to be successful.”

Loggains added: “Sometimes this league is about finding the opportunity, and when you do get the opportunity, making the most of it. It comes in a lot of different ways and he’s done that to this point and made the most of his opportunity here.”

O’Leary’s addition has also provided Miami’s tight-end room with arguably the best depth it has had all season. In addition to O’Leary, Gesicki, and Smythe, fourth-year tight end A.J. Derby now appears to be healthy after missing the last three games with a foot injury.

“With our experience and helping out the rookies,” O’Leary said, “I think we’ll be doing pretty good.”

This story was originally published October 19, 2018 at 11:09 AM.