Dolphins RB Myles Gaskin became the 2019 draft’s best value with unseen efficiency
Six games into the 2020 season, we’re safe in saying that Ryan Fitzpatrick will not lead the Miami Dolphins in rushing, as he did a year ago.
And it’s not just because he’s been benched.
Even if Fitzpatrick played all 16 games, Myles Gaskin — the 25th of 25 running backs drafted in 2019 — would probably have lapped him.
With the bye week now behind us, it’s fair to say Gaskin has been the team’s most surprising breakthrough player, stealing reps from his more accomplished, better paid teammates.
Most thought Matt Breida and Jordan Howard would be Miami’s two-headed rushing monster.
Instead, Brian Flores’ staff isn’t even using a by-committee approach.
Gaskin is the clear-cut RB1, having more than twice as many snaps (261), carries (82) and rushing yards (34) as any other Dolphins ball-carrier.
“He’s a great player, and it’s a pleasure to block for him,” Dolphins center Ted Karras said. “He hits the hole fast and makes the right read all the time, and finds the hole. Our job is to open it up and his job is to find it, and he’s doing a great job.”
The advanced stats bear that out. Entering Sunday’s games, Gaskin was the NFL’s sixth-most efficient running back (with 3.45 yards traveled per yard gained), according to NFL’s Next Gen Stats. The suggests what Gaskin lacks in breakaway speed (he ran a 4.58-second 40 at the Combine), he makes up for with assertiveness.
What’s more, Gaskin is top 30 in yards-per-rush (4.1) despite seeing eight-man fronts on 25.61 percent of his snaps, which also ranks sixth in the NFL — a rate higher than even that seen by Titans great Derrick Henry.
“I think Myles gives us a really good, productive person in there,” said Dolphins running backs coach Eric Studesville. “He’s done a nice job. Everything we’ve asked him to do. ... I think we have great trust in him and what he’s doing for us right now.”
Gaskin’s emergence shows Flores means it when he says the best Dolphins players will play, regardless of bankroll or draft pedigree.
Howard — who had a grand total of two carries in October — signed a two-year free agent contract in the spring that’s paying him $4.8 million this year. Put another way, he earns more in a month than Gaskin will earn this year ($675,000).
Even more revealing: How Gaskin compares to other backs in his draft class.
Yes, the top end was legit. The first off the board? Josh Jacobs, who entering Sunday had started 18 of a possible 21 games for the Raiders, rushed for 1,150 yards and seven touchdowns as a rookie.
The second was the Eagles’ Miles Sanders, whose a 6.1 yards-per-carry average is third-best in the NFL.
But after that? Not all that impressive.
Gaskin (the 2019 draft’s 234th pick) is outperforming Buffalo’s Devin Singletary (74th), has a better yards-per-carry average than Chicago’s David Montgomery (73rd), and unlike New England’s Damien Harris (87th), actually has the trust of his coaching staff.
And he’s way ahead of Rodney Anderson (211th) and Mike Weber (218th), who are both out of the league.
“As far as the draft process, that’s the personnel department,” Studesville said. “[General Manager] Chris [Grier] and those guys makes those decisions. My job is to coach the guys they put in the room, and we found a fantastic young man. You see that when we interviewed him at the Combine.
“You liked him – his personality, his intensity, his focus in that short time we had together,” he continued. “But being around him, I just liked how he was, how he carried himself, what his demeanor – I think we’re seeing the same exact thing every day when he walks in this building. So you love being around him.”
The key to Gaskins’ Year 2 transformation?
“He worked his tail off in the offseason and you saw a difference when he came back here,” Studesville continued. “He had clearly worked on catching the ball in the offseason when he was away from here. We saw that demonstrated when he came back. You saw he gained a little bit of weight, a little big of size, a little bit of strength.
“He’s always had vision. He’s always had great feet. He’s always had balance, at least in the time that I’ve been around him, so those things just continued and all I think he’s done is he’s added to his book of things that he can do and what he can show.”
This story was originally published October 25, 2020 at 2:34 PM.
