Miami Dolphins key player of the week: Kenyan Drake

Miami is set to take on the Tennessee Titans on Sunday. As we get closer to kickoff, its time to look at Kenyan Drake, who could do some damage on offense.

The Dolphins have a number of questions coming into the start of the regular season, including depth at certain positions, overall skill at others and what will happen should a major injury occur but the key player this week may be Kenyan Drake.

With that being said, there are a number of players looking to make solid contributions to help the team start the season off with a win. Today, I’d like to focus on one guy who could make or break this offense.

Miami’s first player of the week is: Kenyan Drake

The easy thing to do here would be to cover Ryan Tannehill and his return to the team following a major knee injury. Many people are highly anticipating his return to see if he can bring Miami back to the playoffs and duplicate the success he had in the 2016 season.

I could also focus on a number of defensive players like Cameron Wake, Robert Quinn, Raekwon McMillan or Reshad Jones. All of those players are impact players who could help the team shore up a weak unit from 2017.

With all that being said, on Sunday my eyes will be on Kenyan Drake.

The 24-year-old our of Alabama is entering his third season with the team. Drafted in the third round of 2016, Drake was brought in to compliment then starting running back Jay Ajayi. In his first season, Drake rushed 33 times for a total of 179 yards and two scores, adding another 46 yards through the air. In his second season, Drake ran 133 times for 644 yards with 3 scores. He also had 32 receptions for 239 yards and a score.

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Jay Ajayi was traded at the deadline last season opening the door for Drake to take a more prominent role in the offense. Drake started getting a real first team workload with the matchup against Denver last season. In the last five games, Denver included, Drake rushed for 444 yards, an average fo 88.8 yards a game. While these numbers aren’t great, the team has made some major changes to help Drake continue to put up great numbers.

Last offseason, Miami added two quality offensive linemen in Josh Sitton and Daniel Kilgore. Both will be able to add something to the run game. Bolstering the run blocking will open things up for Drake who has the ability to run through the tackles and on the outside.

Ryan Tannehill’s return means that the offense should be better than it was last year. The hope is that Tannehill will return to his 2016 form, where he had one of the strongest years of his career. Tannehill playing well is extremely important for the run game since a quality quarterback always helps the run game open up. If Tannehill can put up decent numbers and stay on the field for a full season, then Drake’s opportunities to make big plays will increase.

If the running game can move the ball effectively and keep the defense off the field, then the Dolphins will have success this season. That all comes down to Drake. As we have seen, the less pressure on Tannehill the better.

Drake has been able to make plays this preseason, adding to the hype surrounding him. Yes, it’s preseason but he was still able to be one of the more consistent players on the team (Tannehill excluded).

A solid run game was key to our playoff birth in 2016 and I believe that if Drake can consistently play effectively, the team will benefit from his explosive potential.