Albert Wilson injury is the Miami Dolphins’ most significant of 2018

As he was leaving Hard Rock Stadium Sunday, Miami Dolphins wide receiver Albert Wilson ran across head coach Adam Gase and mostly wanted to talk about how he almost scored on the play he was injured.

“I was one step away from taking it to the house,” Wilson told Gase.

So the guy has a hip injury that will force him to miss Thursday’s game against the Houston Texans and almost certainly will cost him the remainder of this season, but getting in the end zone was the thing most prominent on his mind.

That’s a baller’s mindset right there.

And that’s one reason that out of the numerous and mounting significant injuries the Dolphins have managed this season, losing Wilson is the most painful. No, not painful as in physically painful, but rather painful as in hurting the team’s ability to continue at the same level of success.

Wilson is seeing a specialist on Tuesday morning. The team expects the worst.

Losing Wilson hurts the Dolphins on a production level. On a swagger level. And on the simple matter of sheer talent because, frankly, he might have been their best player so far this season.

“Any time any of our guys get hurt it stings, especially when guys have a grasp of what we’re doing and they fit and they know what we want and they’re executing it the right way,” Gase said Monday. “And that group was playing well together. Those four guys were really playing well off each other. It’s just unselfish football going on. Nobody cared who was getting the football. It was all about how are we getting in the end zone?”

Wilson has visited the end zone four times for the Dolphins in seven games so he shares the team lead with Kenny Stills in scoring. He also threw a 52-yard touchdown to Jakeem Grant.

So in seven games, Wilson was largely responsible for five touchdowns.

That will be hard to replace. But that’s not the only reason losing Wilson is bad.

Wilson, you see, did so much that it will be difficult if not impossible finding any one person to do everything he did.

He factored as a running option in the backfield. He was not only effective Jet Sweep type plays but was an effective decoy on the fake. He obviously was a threat to throw. He was probably the team’s best option in bubble screens.

We’re not done.

Wilson was perhaps the only Dolphins receiver who could consistently turn a short throw into a big play. His speed was a threat both when he had the football and didn’t because the other team had to respect whatever he did.

He was the team’s second-leading receiver. And, of course, he was producing points.

So how does one guy replace all that?

That’s the exercise Dolphins coaches had to do starting late Sunday evening. My guess is they’ll be continuing that work through the end of the season because replacing someone that does all those things is not about putting Jakeem Grant in Wilson’s spot -- no disrespect to Grant.

It’s about putting Grant, maybe Kenyan Drake, Kenny Stills when he returns, and perhaps DeVante Parker in roles that Wilson filled all by himself.

The idea of Wilson taking short passes and turning them into scores is something we haven’t seen from other Dolphins receivers.

Stills is a downfield threat but only when he’s striding behind the defense. Parker doesn’t have the apparent quickness to stop four yards from the line of scrimmage, catch the pass and then start up again, running across the field.

Amendola has that kind of agilify but not the speed.

This is going to be an Albert Wilson by committee type of assignment, folks.

And suddenly you see why not having Wilson is more depressing than not having, say, Josh Sitton or Ryan Tannehill, or William Hayes.

Tannehill has been replaced by Brock Osweiler and although the Dolphins no longer have the athleticism or threat to run at quarterback, Osweiler seems to be doing some things better than Tannehill.

Losing Sitton hurt because he not only was experienced and helped left tackle Laremy Tunsil. And Ted Larsen isn’t the player Sitton was. But we’re talking about guards here.

The don’t win or lose games. Wilson practically won the Oakland game by himself. And then almost did it again against Chicago.

“Are you going to be able to replace Albert Wilson tomorrow? Probably not,” Gase noted. “You’re going to have to try to spread the ball out to where certain guys replace an aspect of the game.”

And that brings me to Wilson’s demeanor. He was only 5-foot-9 and 186 pounds but his outlook on the game was that no one could cover him, no one was better than him, no one could keep him from performing.

The man brought a confidence and heart to the Dolphins lineup that will be impossible to replace immediately.

This one really hurts.

This story was originally published October 22, 2018 at 11:30 PM.