Mark Walton embracing fresh start with hometown Dolphins after legal, injury trouble
Mark Walton tries not to linger on the things that have gone wrong for him since his junior — and final — season with the Miami Hurricanes in 2017.
The injuries that caused him to miss most of his junior seasons and, at least in part, knocked him to the third day of the 2018 NFL Draft were only the start of a trying two years for the Miami native and Booker T. Washington High School alumnus.
As a rookie with the Cincinnati Bengals, Walton only touched the ball 19 times and then the offseason came. Walton was arrested once in January, February and March. The Bengals released Walton just a few days after the third arrest.
“I just go in the now,” said Walton, who is now in training camp with the Miami Dolphins. “You can’t go back in the past and say, ‘I wish I could remove this and do that.’ I’m more of a future guy, just moving on, so I think me working hard is just showing everybody what I can really do.”
Back at home with the Dolphins, Walton is embracing his opportunity for a second chance in the NFL. About a month after the Bengals waived Walton in April, the running back earned an invitation to try out for the Dolphins and landed a contract with his hometown team. He’s now one of six running backs fighting for roster spots at training camp.
On Thursday, Walton saw some action with the Dolphins’ first-team offense toward the end of practice.
“Being back home, it means a lot to me,” Walton said. “This is my home. This is where my family’s at. Playing in my backyard is just something you want to do. Growing up, this was my favorite team, the Miami Dolphins, and just being in this locker room now is like, ‘Wow. The moment is here.’ ”
There are no guarantees for Walton to make the team, but his raw talent has never been a question. He was a top-100 national prospect in the 247Sports.com composite rankings coming out of Booker T. Washington and finished his career with the Hurricanes among the 10 leading rushers in program history.
With the Bengals, Walton struggled to carve out a role and finished his first season with just 34 yards on 14 carries with five catches for another 41 yards.
Being back in South Florida, Walton thinks, has helped his overall mental state. After each practice, a local high school team or two is usually around to talk to players and get autographs, and Walton is almost always a popular target.
“I’m a local guy, so I know familiar faces,” Walton said. “It’s just something I feel like I couldn’t do last year because I didn’t really know what the city was about in Cincinnati, but being back in my hometown, my backyard, you’re more comfortable.”
Still, Walton’s legal issues linger. The NFL has not yet decided what, if any, suspension Walton will receive for his three offseason arrests, but his defense attorney hopes to get the most recent — and most serious — charge thrown out.
Michael Gottlieb, Walton’s lawyer, filed a motion in June to have Walton’s felony weapons charge dismissed because “his due process rights were violated by egregious police misconduct” in March when officers found an illegally concealed 9 mm carbine rifle with several loaded clips and marijuana in a rented BMW registered to Walton, which he allegedly fled during a traffic stop in Miami-Dade County.
A hearing for the motion was originally scheduled for last Friday, but was extended and is now slated for next Friday.
The other two arrests both came with misdemeanor charges. In February, Walton was arrested on a charge of misdemeanor battery after he got into an argument with a couple in his Miami condo. In January, he was arrested for misdemeanor marijuana possession.
When the Dolphins signed Walton in May, Brian Flores said they were impressed by their conversations with the halfback during his minicamp tryout.
“I think people deserve a second chance,” the coach said in May. “We wanted to definitely take a look at him, see if he was a fit for us — you know, on the field, off the field.”
Walton understands what this second chance means, and he is as happy as he has been since his Hurricanes career ended.
“My confidence is at an all-time high right now,” Walton said, “so I’m just going to keep going.”
This story was originally published August 2, 2019 at 1:55 PM.