How to address the Dolphins’ sudden receiver issues and other Ryan Fitzpatrick worries
The focus is on the Miami Dolphins receivers now because one (Allen Hurns) opted out of the season on Tuesday and another (Albert Wilson) opted on Wednesday and the deadline for opting out isn’t until Thursday. So, yeah, the Dolphins passing the football in 2020 is suddenly an area of concern.
And while fans and the team’s personnel department are scouring available free agents for replacement receivers I suggest attention also turn to a different group of players — all of them already on the team:
Look to the team’s running backs.
Look to the running game.
Replace the burgeoning hole in the clouds with a rough patch of soil on the ground.
Ask the running game to step up and fill some of the void.
It might sound unorthodox, but it’s actually closer to a solution than trying to add a veteran receiver no other team wanted when training camps around the league opened. And this is how it would work:
The Dolphins can use their new set of versatile running backs Matt Breida and Jordan Howard to improve a running game so drastically from a year ago that it would take some burden off the passing game.
“A running game is definitely a quarterback’s best friend,” quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick said recently. “It makes our job a lot easier.”
Fitzpatrick’s job was quite difficult a year ago. Not only was he responsible for the team’s passing game, but he also was Miami’s leading rusher. And leading rusher is something of a misnomer because Fitzpatrick was the NFL’s 70th ranked rusher.
The Dolphins, you see, were last in the league in rushing. And the team’s 1,156 total rushing yards set the lowest mark in the franchise’s 53-year history.
If you don’t think that was a traumatic situation, you haven’t talked to Fitzpatrick. Because it definitely left an impression.
That’s why one of the first things Fitzpatrick did when this year’s Dolphins gathered for training camp with an improved stable of running backs was talk to those guys about taking his team rushing title.
Please!
“At first I thought [the quarterback being the leading rusher] wasn’t true,” Breida said Wednesday. “Actually, Fitz and I talked about that the other day. He was hoping he wasn’t going to be the leading rusher again. But that’s one of those things where a bunch of things happened during the season that you can’t control.
“I just told him, ‘Ah, man, you can still run. But you’re going to have to give me a run for my money this year.’ I know he’s been playing a long time. Fitz is a great quarterback, he’s a good guy and he’s got a great group of running backs this year. So I’m looking forward to getting out there and picking up the running game this year.”
Breida and Howard won’t brag about it but they are privately quite confident the Miami running game is secure in the hands of, well, a running back this year.
“I don’t feel like we’ll have a problem this year,” Howard said. “I feel like we’re going to do pretty well. Up front, we brought a lot of new guys in. I feel like we have a good system. We’re all going to be on the same [page], so we’re going to be jelled pretty well.”
Added Breida, “We got a great group of backs. I know we’re going to shock a lot of people this year.”
Breida, acquired from San Francisco in a trade, and Howard, signed as a free agent, are an interesting combination for the Dolphins. Howard is built like a sledgehammer at 6-foot and 224 pounds. He is not shy about contact. Breida is more sleek at 5-10 and 190 pounds and he’s built for speed.
Breida’s speed by the way is not just a gift, but rather something of a lifestyle. He’s been timed as the NFL’s fastest player during a game by Next Gen stats in each of the past two seasons. And he’s quite capable of going even faster off the field in his new ride.
“I got a Lamborghini not too long ago,” Breida said. “I like going fast, I run fast. I like doing everything fast. I always wanted one and God blessed me being able to get one.”
Breida last year had an 83-yard run for the 49ers. He had a 66-yard run in 2018. Miami’s longest run last season was 28 yards, that by a wide receiver.
So Breida is a big-play waiting to happen.
Howard, meanwhile, seems to be more about consistency and wearing down opponents. His 3,895 yards the past four seasons make him the NFL’s third-leading rusher since 2016.
“I’ve definitely felt overlooked,” Howard said. “I mean, when I was racking up a lot of those yards I was on losing teams so people didn’t really pay attention to that and I don’t really blame them but, yeah, I definitely feel like I’m overlooked.”
Two different running backs. Two different styles. But the Dolphins are hoping, needing, a singular result:
“There aren’t a whole lot of things that we can be certain of this year,” Fitzpatrick said, “but I would put a lot of money on me not being the leading rusher.”
This story was originally published August 5, 2020 at 1:46 PM.
