Jaylen Waddle staying on the field is important for the Dolphins
With quarterbacks reuniting with their top college receiving threat all over the NFL landscape, the Miami Dolphins elected to draft Jaylen Waddle with the sixth-overall pick. And that is one of the reasons Pro Football Focus included him in their most meaningful rookie wide receivers list.
Waddle only got to play with Tua Tagovailoa for two seasons at Alabama. In the 2018 season, Waddle had a good year, given all the talent Alabama had at wideout. He caught 45 passes for 848 yards and seven touchdowns. Although Waddle was a freshman and Tagovailoa was a sophomore in 2018, they showed they had great chemistry on the field. In 2019 they were set to build on their chemistry from last year. However, Tagovailoa went down midway through the season with an injury.
Helping an old teammate
In Tagovailoa’s rookie year, he struggled to find consistency on the field. That led many to speculate on his status with the Dolphins. After surviving all the off-season rumors, the heat is on him.
“Few quarterbacks face the same level of pressure as Tua Tagovailoa in Miami this season,” said PFF. “Tagovailoa finished his rookie year ranked just 27th out of 32 qualifying quarterbacks in PFF grade (65.4), leading to chatter this offseason about whether Miami would be in the right to select another quarterback early in the 2021 NFL Draft.”
But aside from DeVante Parker and Mike Gesicki, he had little to no help in the passing game. The Dolphins are hoping Waddle can help get Tagovailoa back to his pre-injury college form.
What Waddle brings
More than anything else Waddle has world-class speed and agility. This deadly combo makes him a nightmare for defenders in the open field and a formidable deep threat. In his 2018 season, Waddle had an average of nearly 10 yards after the catch. At 9.8 that was good enough for tops in the country. According to PFF, “The most obvious place speed shows up is in Waddle’s ability to win vertically as a deep threat. He brought in an absurd 21 of 26 targets 20-plus yards downfield over the past three seasons at Alabama.”
Outside of the players mentioned above, Miami also brought in fellow speedster Will Fuller III. Fullers had some durability issues in his career but is looking like he’s ready for the upcoming season. Allen Hurns is on the roster as well, but he has already been ruled out for the season with a wrist injury. With all that said it’s easy to see why Waddle made this list. And with the injury to Hurns, you could argue that he should be even higher. Waddles’ importance to the development of his young quarterback goes without question. If anything were to happen to this speedy wideout the Dolphins could find themselves in the exact same predicament as last year.
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