Dolphins Taking Committee Approach at Running Back
The Miami Dolphins added veterans Jordan Howard in free agency and Matt Breida via trade in the offseason, but in the season opener it was 2019 seventh-round pick Myles Gaskin who was the biggest factor at the position.
And now, two days later, offensive coordinator Chan Gailey says the team actually doesn't have a feature back.
"I don't know that I could ever say that we're going to have at this point 'a guy,' " Gailey said. "I think we're going to let the guys try to do what they do best. ... There's a certain number of plays in the game. You can't get to them all in there at once. We're going to try to expand all of their role, but at the same time, there's only a certain number of plays for guys to get in. I think we'll look and see what fits each player the best and try to do that with them."
In the 21-11 loss against the New England Patriots in Week 1, Gaskin led the Dolphins with 44 rushing yards and tied for the team lead with four receptions.
More significantly, Gaskin played 39 snaps, compared to 14 for Breida, nine for Howard and four for second-year back Patrick Laird.
Howard was the starter, but Gailey said his playing time was affected by the lack of success when he was in the game after he rushed for 7 yards on eight carries.
"We actually didn't know how it was going to play out in the ballgame," Gailey said. "We have players who play certain packages for us. When the package that we were using Jordan for wasn't doing as well, it ended up lessening his play time. Myles went up because we were more in the spread offense and doing things that we had him in there for. We were trying to use all the packages and be spread fairly evenly if we could, but it just didn't work out that way by the end of the game."
