Philadelphia Eagles vs. Miami Dolphins: Who Has Fastest Player?
PHILADELPHIA - Speed kills in the NFL and that little truism explains how the Miami Dolphins have put one of the top six-game offense stretches in NFL history together so far this season.
The Dolphins will enter Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday night at 5-1 to face off with the reigning NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles, who are also 5-1.
Miami has the top offense in the NFL, averaging 498.7 yards per game and 37. 2 points per game, an over 100-yard advantage over the No. 2 Eagles, who are piling up 395.0 yards per contest.
The secret to Mike McDaniel’s success is the speed he can put on the field. The top five fastest ball carriers and six of the top seven this season are Dolphins, per the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, either receiver Tyreek Hill or running backs De'Von Achane and Raheem Mostert.
Ironically, the fastest player on the field Sunday night could be an Eagle, however, if Philadelphia decides to burn its third and final practice-squad elevation on Olympic hurdler/receiver Devon Allen.
Either way, Allen is part of the plan this week to help mimic the speed of the Miami offense in practice, something Pro Bowl cornerback Darius Slay explained after practice Thursday.
“I don’t know because it’s world-class,” Slay said when asked how you prepare for Hill and Co.
Slay then nodded toward Allen across the locker room: “We got a world-class sprinter over here as well. He’s a great look for us for the defense.”
Eagles speedy WR Devon Allen.
Ed Kracz/SI Fan Nation Eagles Today
One of the unsung aspects of any NFL team in a given week is the players on the scout team that mimic the opposition’s looks and Allen has felt a sense of urgency this week.
“Giving the defense a scout team look this week is going to be important for them to feel presence, especially on the deep routes,” Allen told SI.com’s Eagles Today. “A lot of things they do to get Tyreek open, just him going in motion, lining up in a lot of different spots and finding space so my job this week is to give (the defense) a good look.”
Although Allen is a developmental player, he’s well known in a league where there are many fast people because his speed is at an Olympic level. The Oregon product does hear the occasional trash talk from those with the cockiness to think they could take down a professional track star.
“I’m never gonna badmouth people,” he smiled, “but I do this for a living. Maybe in the offseason we can set up a superstars of sports and have some of the football guys do a 60-meter dash or a 100-meter dash.”
Allen noted that the Dolphins’ speed is legit, though.
“Those guys like Tyreek, De’Von and Mostert all ran college track and I ran against Tyreek when I was in high school," he said. "I think he was like a freshman in college and I was a senior in high school and we ran the 200 together. That was the year he ran like 20. low so Tyreek is a legit speedster.”
The top speed clocked in the NFL this season by a ball carrier has been 22.01 miles per hour by Hill.
“The fastest I’ve gone is 22.9 on a gunner rep against Miami last year and I ran 22.6 this season on a gunner rep as well in the preseason,” Allen said. “I will say the numbers get skewed for running backs. Most of the long runs are going to be 70, 80 yards because the stat trackers don’t keep track until you have the ball.
Mostert is the only ball carrier to date that has cracked 23 MPH back in 2020 with San Francisco.
“So if Tyreek runs a go route and catches the ball 40 yards downfield and then started running away he’s not going to be necessarily springing full speed,” Allen explained
As far as Allen’s top speed. How about an awe-inspiring 26 MPH.
“I don’t know,” Allen said when asked what he could get to. “I’m not sure. When I do sprints in track I run 26 miles per hour but that’s much different because I’m not in pads. I definitely have the ability to do it (run 23 MPH in pads).
“What I can do? I don’t know.”
