Say what you will about the Miami Dolphins and their rebuild — but the youthful Dolphins can provide a lot of players with something many other teams cannot: opportunity. The Dolphins roster is so littered with castoffs and underdogs that more than one in every three players on the team wasn’t even selected in the NFL Draft — at all.
A total of 18 of the Dolphins’ 53-man roster came to the NFL through other avenues, and many wouldn’t have the chance to get into the action in 2019 without the Dolphins providing them the opportunity.
Receiver Preston Williams would’ve latched on somewhere — his production last season at Colorado State was enough to command attention from NFL teams everywhere, especially once he fell through the cracks in the NFL Draft on account of some poor athletic testing and a checkered past off the field. But Williams chose the Dolphins — and now he’s making the most of his opportunity.
Williams currently sits 4th among rookie wide receivers this season with 14 catches — he’s 6th in receiving yards with 201 as well. Imagine what the numbers would look like for Williams without the drops. Williams dropped a 40-yard bomb from Josh Rosen against the Patriots that would have been a touchdown up the sideline — and then failed to hang onto a 19-yard fade from Rosen against the Dallas Cowboys the following week.
If Williams had hauled them both in, he’d be tied for the rookie lead in touchdown receptions with 3 and within striking distance of Marquise “Hollywood” Brown’s rookie best 326 receiving yards thus far on the season. The sky is the limit for Williams this season, who has illustrated good chemistry with QB Josh Rosen and will look to get back on track against a soft Washington secondary this weekend.
