Running back De’Von Achane made an immediate impact for the Dolphins during his rookie season, but the team thinks there’s still a lot more he can bring to the offense.
Head coach Mike McDaniel said at a Tuesday press conference that this is an “important offseason” for Achane because he was not consumed with preparing for the draft. That means he did not have to make a quick transition to learning a playbook and practicing as a professional, which McDaniel thinks will be beneficial to Achane because he will be able to get a deeper grasp of the offense in his second season.
“Year Two, you kind of let everything settle, understand much more of the whys of everything that you do and for him, the more he can understand within the offense, the more ways he can get the ball,” McDaniel said, via a transcript from the team. “He had outstanding ball production, some of which I know he feels specifically that there’s more out there from the opportunities he had last year and then being able to find different ways to get people the ball whether that’s different types of pass routes, whether that’s different types of run schemes that you can get comfortable with, all those things. More ways to be at the point of attack to play within this offense, that’s what this offseason really provides for him. Seeing some strength gains and you can tell by his body he’s put some work into it and then him just understanding everything about our offense so he can be as big a part of it as possible. That’s his goal.”
Achane missed time with a knee injury during the regular season and had 103 carries for 800 yards and eight touchdowns in 11 games. He also scored three times as a receiver and improving on that kind of output would make the Dolphins an even more dangerous team this time around.