Kenyan Drake’s 2019 season hasn’t gotten off on the right foot. Drake, who serves as the Dolphins’ leading rusher this season with 113 yards through the first four games, was supposed to face a big breakout campaign in 2019. Instead, Drake is one of the Miami Dolphins frustratingly close to making big plays on a weekly basis. He’s been close — a lot. But penalties and ball security have cut Drake’s opportunities down.
It’s frustrating. And based on Drake’s assessment of where this team needs to change, it seems as though he’s frustrated too. Drake was asked in the locker room why the Dolphins continue to come out flat in the second half of football games.
“Can anybody give me a definition of what ‘coming out flat’ means? Because, I mean, all I know is the plays are there to be made. Some of us aren’t making plays, not making the necessary adjustments…we have to be better, collectively. As a group, as an entire team/organization. Come together and make sure we put ourselves in the best position to play a four quarter game,” offered Drake as a rebuttal.
Maybe Drake didn’t mean much by making subtle hints to coaching adjustments — but they’re certainly there. Brian Flores, on the other hand, continued to hand out tough love to the fourth-year pro. When asked to assess the performance of each of the Dolphins’ four backs, Flores was complimentary — but also critical of Drake.
“I think (Kenyan) Drake – I think he’s been productive. He ran hard yesterday,” said Flores.
“We’ve got to do a better job of ball security. That’s two weeks in a row where we’ve lost one.”
There’s plenty of blame to go around. But Drake can’t really hold too much of an axe to grind against the coaches, especially when he can’t hold onto the football. The NFL’s trade deadline is just a few weeks away — it will be fascinating to see if any additional frustrations bubble to the surface and what exactly the ramifications of such an incident may be.
