Miami Dolphins rookie watch: Jay Ajayi

The Miami Dolphins are hours away from their 2nd pre-season game of the year and a lot of people will be watching line play. One of the players who will benefit from good line play is Jay Ajayi. In today’s rookie watch, what should we see from the 5th round draft pick? Blocking for one.

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It wasn’t but a couple of weeks ago that Mike Tannenbaum said that if Ajayi couldn’t block, he wouldn’t play. The context of those comments are left up to the imagination but one thing is certain, Ajayi needs to get better with his pass protection.

It’s no easy task for a rookie runner not accustomed to staying in and picking up NFL blitzes. NFL coaches love to scheme and blind blitz and an NFL runner can often times find it difficult to find exactly where the blitz will come from. Tonight, Ajayi will get a shot to show his coaches that he is improving in that department.

Let’s be honest though, we as fans are not interested in his blocking. We want to see him run. Ajayi has been plagued by hesitance the last couple of weeks in camp. He isn’t hitting the holes as fast as he did in college but that is more a result of over thinking the play and trying to make a statement. The truth is he needs to settle down and just have some fun. Ajayi can be electrifying and if not for his knee injury last year he would have been drafted much higher.

Ajayi isn’t going to take any positions away this year. His playing time will still be as a member of the platoon team. He will spell Damien Williams and Lamar Miller and may see action in the passing game where he is good at becoming a wide-receiver. In other words, 2015 will be situational for Ajayi and that is just fine.

Few running backs hit the NFL and explode. Miller didn’t and it wasn’t until his third season that he finally settled into the NFL speed of the game. There is no reason to believe that Ajayi is going to be any different. Again, he doesn’t need to be. Learning is the job for Ajayi.

Tonight, Ajayi should see plenty of opportunities to carry the ball and while his offensive line may not provide him wide open lanes he needs to hit the holes that are with decisive decision making and curtail the behind the line dance he demonstrated at times last week. He has a lot of potential and even more talent and perhaps we will get to see more of it tonight.