MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. -- You can feel justified if you’re looking to draft Miami Dolphins running back De’Von Achane in fantasy this season; his touches are about as safe as they’ve ever been.
Over the past two seasons, Achane recorded the eighth-most touches in the NFL with 586, and his 145 receptions leads all NFL running backs in that span. The fourth-year running back handled that workload with wide receivers Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle on the roster, and Achane figures to be an even larger focal point of Miami’s offense now that both players are gone.
But the Dolphins feel like they have two capable backs behind Achane in Ollie Gordon II and Jaylen Wright, and on an offense that plans to run the ball frequently, all three players could make an impact this season.
Wright enters his third NFL season after the Dolphins traded a future third-round pick to select him in the fourth round in 2024. He played sparingly in his first two seasons but stood out on two occasions in place of an injured Achane, rushing for 86 yards against the New England Patriots in 2024 and 104 yards and a touchdown against the New York Jets last season.
The speedy back, who ran a 4.38 second 40-yard dash at the NFL combine, said he has learned the value of patience -- both on and off the field -- as he waits for a bigger role within the offense.
“Last year, my biggest thing was when I got in the game, it was, ‘I gotta do this. I gotta make a play,’ this, that and the third, and that’s not good,” Wright said. “Take what they’re giving you. Take the little runs. The big runs will come. That’s how I had to mature my mind about the game. Like I said, control what I can control.
“I’ll be ready when the opportunity is coming and those big runs come. You know it’s gonna happen and I’m gonna go all the way to the house with it.”
Wright finished last season with the same number of carries as Gordon, albeit in seven fewer games, with Gordon being used more frequently in short-yardage and goal-to-go situations.
Under first-year coach Jeff Hafley and offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik, the Dolphins don’t want to pigeonhole Gordon as a short-yardage runner; they believe he is versatile enough to play all three downs if need be.
“I want Ollie to compete to be an every-down back, and I think he’s capable of doing it,” Hafley said. “When Ollie has flashed and he knows what he’s doing and he hits it, he has great speed, he has great size, and he can catch the ball out of the backfield, too. He gives us the ability with a bigger back to be good on third down and protection downs because he is a bigger person. But I want him to compete to be an every-down back.”
The Dolphins took Gordon in the sixth round of the 2025 draft, one year after he won the Doak Walker Award as college football’s top running back.
He said his first full professional offseason has felt markedly smoother than his rookie offseason, when he was still acclimating to the league after training to impress NFL front offices.
“So basically this year to last year, I felt like it was way easier,” he said. “Last year I felt like it was a bunch just thrown at me, and I’m like, ‘Oh, I got to learn this. We got to train, got to do that,’ but I feel like this year it’s more like, ‘OK, I can ease into it.’
“I know my study habits. I know how to take care of my body also now, so I feel like just those things make it easier.”
Miami invested in its offensive line this offseason, drafting Kadyn Proctor and DJ Campbell, and signing Jamaree Salyer. In his introductory news conference in January, Hafley vowed for his team to be physical up front and run the ball as a byproduct of that physicality.
Achane’s role is solidified. Technically, there’s a position battle to back him up. But two weeks into training camp, Miami’s backs are focused more on finding ways to help the team succeed than they are on the pecking order behind Achane.
“We all just work together,” Gordon said. “So, I don’t really look at it as going in as ‘OK, running back two, running back two this.’ Just whatever for the team, I’m here for.”
