Raekwon McMillan and the next (very young) generation of Miami Dolphins leaders
An inevitable consequence of the Miami Dolphins’ Great Roster Purge of 2019 is that by sweeping out most their veterans, they swept out most of the leaders.
Adam Gase picked six team captains 12 months ago. Just three of them — Daniel Kilgore, Walt Aikens and Bobby McCain — remain on the team. (Kilgore, McCain and second-year linebacker Jerome Baker are this year’s captains.)
The Dolphins jettisoned their last two NFL Players Association team reps — Kenny Stills and John Denney — just days before the start of the regular season. Their replacement, rookie Christian Wilkins, at 23 is the youngest team rep in the league.
Then there’s linebacker Raekwon McMillan, who in only his third NFL season has reached a level of institutional prominence usually reserved for players far older. McMillan has recently been voted onto the board of the Dolphins Cancer Challenge, the largest event fundraiser in the NFL.
Now in its 10th year, the DCC has raised nearly $33 million for the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. No off-field initiative is prioritized higher within the organization.
“I just felt like I was very passionate about what was going on,” McMillan said. “I had attended an event my first year here with the Dolphins. I really loved the event. I loved the camaraderie around it.”
McMillan added: “I want to be a leader in every way possible, whether it’s in the DCC or on the team. Anything I can get my hands on, I want to be able to touch it.”
McMillan — and any other Dolphin that’s been here for more than a couple of weeks — will have that chance. Miami’s roster is the youngest in the NFL (25.17 years). McMillan doesn’t even turn 24 until next month. And yet, he’s already in a position of prestige.
“We love his energy,” said Jackie Travisano, who in addition to chairing the DCC’s board is the executive vice president for business and finance and chief operating officer of the University of Miami. “He’s a leader on and off the field.
“For a young player wanting to be involved in the community the way he has, we’re delighted to have him.”
McMillan was a DCC participant in 2019, but this year he was asked to take a leading role in the annual bike ride and fun run. As a board member, he helps drive direction and strategy, encourages fundraising and uses his high-profile platform to promote the event.
He also will recruit his teammates — most of whom weren’t even on the team for the last DCC — to participate; he recently had DCC T-shirts printed up for the entire locker room.
As for on the field, McMillan’s making strides too — even if his role isn’t yet as big as before.
The former second-round pick missed his entire rookie season with a torn ACL and in Year 2, wasn’t quite ready to be the defense’s leading man.
Gase and Matt Burke asked McMillan to wear the radio-headset helmet and make the play calls, but it didn’t exactly click. McMillan struggled at times with the big workload, particularly in coverage. A major reason: his reconstructed knee wasn’t back at full strength until Week 6 of last season.
Gase and Burke are now gone, replaced by Brian Flores and Patrick Graham. And one of their first decisions was to make Baker, and not McMillan, the focal point of their defense. So it’s Baker, in Year 2, with the headset. And McMillan started the season as a role player.
But something strange has happened in the month since:
Baker has admittedly floundered, and McMillan — in a clearly defined, run-stopping role — has flourished.
As of Monday morning, McMillan was the league’s top-rated linebacker, according to Pro Football Focus. He had eight tackles, including one for loss, in the Dolphins’ most recent game. And his usage has spiked, from 21 defensive snaps in Week 3 to 43 in Week 4.
“At the beginning of the season, they didn’t know what I could do because I was out with the injury,” McMillan said. “I just had to work my way back from the injury and get my body right and I’m out there playing now.”
McMillan not only got healthy. He got fit. He dropped some four percent body fat, thanks to a nutrition plan he learned from ex-teammate Kiko Alonso. He’s cut out the off-day sandwiches, and instead sticks to Whole Foods.
“On the field, I can only keep getting better,” McMillan said. “Over the last four weeks, I feel like I’ve had forward progress as a player. Getting better every week. Now it’s time to take that big jump and one of the guys I’m supposed to be.”
Added Dolphins linebackers coach Rob Leonard: “People want to talk about the plays and the big tackle here but to me, Raekwon wow’s me by how he handles himself in the meeting room. He’s talkative in a good way. He understands what’s going on. He asks good questions.”
In other words, he’s been a leader.
So to riff on an old question, are leaders born or made? How about inspired?
In McMillan’s case, it’s the latter. He grew up idolizing LeBron James, first from afar, and then when McMillan enrolled at Ohio State 2014, up close.
“Anything he puts his hands on, it becomes great,” McMillan said. “I want to be that type of person.”
And with apologies to Charles Barkley, McMillan does indeed view athletes as role models. He tries to be one on a macro and micro level. He knows his two pre-teen brothers look up to him, and he’s determined to make them proud.
They live up in Ohio, so it’s tough to see them much during the season.
So McMillan makes up for that in a small way by crashing youth football practices on his off-day.
“I like to go out on Tuesdays and find random little league teams,” he said. “If I see them on the road somewhere, I stop by.”
During one of those surprise visits, he got to know the East Miramar Dolphins, who practice just a few miles away from Hard Rock Stadium. He was so enamored by the group, he hosted 20 of them at a recent Dolphins game.
“Just trying to get involved, show them that I was once them,” he said. “Outside practicing when people were driving by, focusing on my game. Eventually I ended up with the Miami Dolphins.”
Not just with the Dolphins. But a leader of them.