Dolphins Notebook: What Gaskin's Return Means, Tua Learns a Lesson, Watching Waller, and More
The Miami Dolphins are back at full strength at running back.
The team activated Myles Gaskin off the Reserve/COVID-19 list, one week after the same thing happened with Matt Breida.
The question now is what the Dolphins will do in terms of their starter at the position after the performance of rookie Salvon Ahmed in the 22-12 victory against the New England Patriots on Sunday.
Gaskin leads the team in rushing with 477 yards and has started the last six games he has played. But Ahmed, who like Gaskin attended the University of Washington, had the team's first 100-yard rushing performance since 2018 when he gained 122 yards in his return after a three-game absence because of a shoulder injury.
Regardless of who starts, it's fair to expect both Gaskin and Ahmed to get significant playing time against Las Vegas Raiders on Saturday night. It also means that newcomer DeAndre Washington might not get the chance to face the team that selected him in the fifth round of the 2016 NFL draft and with which he spent his first four seasons in the league.
MARIOTA MEMORIES
The possibility of a Tua Tagovailoa-Marcus Mariota quarterback battle Saturday was a hot topic when the Dolphins first-round pick conducted his weekly media session Wednesday.
In addition to both being Hawaiians of Samoan descent, Mariota preceded Tua at Saint Louis High in Honolulu.
Tagovailoa first met Mariota when he was in fourth grade.
“At the time, Marcus was really big in the college football realm," Tagovailoa said. "He was at Oregon. He was a big role model for a lot of us kids back home, but I think fourth grade when I first met him at a football camp. Man, just a humble guy, a hard worker. He was one of the guys who kind of took me under his wing, so to say, when we went to passing camps at our alma mater, at Saint Louis in Hawaii. And I went and threw with the high schoolers at fourth grade. Everyone was wondering, ‘Why are you throwing with us, you’re a fourth-grader.’ Marcus kind of took me under his wing, so to say. I guess from there, I just really looked up to him and he’s just really been the same person.”
The Tua-Mariota matchup looked less likely after Raiders starter Derek Carr was a full participant in practice Wednesday.
RELATED: The Dolphins-Raiders Wednesday Injury Report
TUA LESSON
Tagovailoa confirmed what we suggested in the weekly "What We Learned" column when he said his decision to scramble on his 3-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter against New England came partly as the result of learning from the mistake he made his first quarter.
In that first quarter, Tagovailoa moved up in the pocket when pressure came from the edges, but he was hit as he tried to throw a pass and was picked off in the end zone.
In the fourth quarter, Tagovailoa again moved up in the pocket, but this time just kept running until he found the end zone.
"They were different looks, but in a way similar — and the first one where I threw the interception, that was really rookie-esque, if you will, throwing that ball blindly," Tagovailoa said. "I could have just taken the sack. We had points there, whether it was a touchdown or field goal, and I threw that away and kind of gave the momentum back to the Patriots in that game. But I would say I definitely learned from that. Don’t want to force anything. If I could have made it with my legs, then that was kind of the thing. And if not, then we still would have had points. We would have been able to kick the field goal.”
PRACTICE SQUAD MOVE
Rookie tackle Jonathan Hubbard came off the practice squad COVID-19 list Wednesday.
Coupled with Gaskin also coming off the list, that leaves only one player the COVID-19 list — active roster or practice squad — and that's rookie defensive end Tyshun Render.
ROSEN UPDATE
The San Francisco 49ers made it official Wednesday when they signed former Dolphins quarterback Josh Rosen to their active roster off the Tampa Bay Buccaneers practice squad.
Rosen will serve as the backup to C.J. Beathard when the 49ers face the Arizona Cardinals — the team that took Rosen 10th overall in the 2018 draft — in the second of three games Saturday.
Rosen, who the Dolphins acquired in a trade with the Cardinals in April 2019 but waived before the start of the current regular season, hasn't appeared in a game since Week 9 of last year and hasn't thrown a pass since the Week 5 game against Washington when he was replaced by Ryan Fitzpatrick late in the fourth quarter.
WALLER WATCH
Two weeks after facing the best tight end in the NFL — Kansas City's Travis Kelce — safety Eric Rowe will now face the challenge of matching up against the other AFC Pro Bowl tight end, the Raiders' Darren Waller.
Waller will go into the game with 93 catches for 967 yards and eight touchdowns, and he's been on a tear lately. He had 13 catches for 200 yards and two touchdowns in Week 13 against the New York Jets and then had nine catches for 150 yards and a touchdown in the Raiders' 30-27 overtime loss against the Los Angeles Chargers last Thursday night.
“Waller, he is definitely a different breed," Rowe said. "He’s not really a tight end. He’s basically a receiver, a big receiver. He’s explosive, he can run. I see cornerbacks and safeties covering him and he’s beating them. It’s definitely going to be a huge challenge this week.”
ON THIS DAY IN DOLPHINS HISTORY
1973 — The Dolphins handle the Cincinnati Bengals, 34-16, at the Orange Bowl in the AFC divisional playoffs on their way to a second consecutive Super Bowl title.
1990 — Dan Marino reaches 20 touchdown passes on the season for the eighth time in his career, tying the NFL record previously set by John Unitas. Marino would finish with 13 20-touchdown seasons.
2007 — Jason Taylor plays his 129th consecutive game, breaking a Dolphins record he shared with Hall of Fame center Jim Langer.
