The top 20 Miami Dolphins players of the 2019 season

With the regular season over, it’s time to look at the top 20 players on the Miami Dolphins over the course of the 2019 season.

As the 2020s are set to open up, the Miami Dolphins are embarking on the second year of their rebuild with a lot of work to do and a lot of hope for the future.

The 2019 season didn’t go as expected. Many thought that the roster constructed by Brian Flores and Chris Grier would put the Dolphins at the very bottom of the league. This idea became more cemented after the early season blowouts to the Baltimore Ravens and the New England Patriots. Yet, once we got those losses out of our system, the Dolphins began to play competitive football, which, for me, is significantly more important than the wins (at least over this past season).

It was far from perfect, but this season produced more success than I think anyone could have expected. From upset wins (I guess they all were, right?) to big man touchdown celebrations, this season was more fun that it should have been and the team is still in position to build a quality roster going into the new decade.

With all of that being said, it’s time to now look back one more time to discuss the top players of this last year. This is, of course, based on stats and personal opinion.

Honorable Mention: Matt Haack

During a season where a lot went wrong for the offensive unit, Miami relied on Matt Haack to give the defense solid field position to work with in order to keep the team in games. While many of the games were already out of hand very early, Haack did an admirable job keeping opponents offenses close to their end zone. Oh, and his touchdown pass was amazing.

break

Number 20: Xavien Howard

Howard is one of the better talents on this team. His biggest issue (before his arrest) is his health. He played decently well when he was on the field, but barely saw it this season and was placed on IR with a number of games left in the season. It is yet to be determined what will happen with Howard’s recent run in with the law, but it’s safe to assume a solid punishment will be issued in some manner. Howard will need to keep himself out of trouble and on the field in order to live up to his potential and the big contract he signed this last offseason. If he can do both, Howard can be a cornerstone piece for this team in 2020.

Number 19: Isaiah Ford

Isaiah Ford is on this list for the last few weeks of the season. Those weeks didn’t produce any scores, but did produce some solid games, including a 6 reception, 92 yard performance against the Jets. Ford didn’t do a lot outside of the last four weeks of the season, but his performance could provide a tiny glimmer of hope going into next year. If Isaiah Ford, who can make plays at times, is our number 5 receiver, I’m good with that.

Number 18: Jakeem Grant

Jakeem Grant’s receiving numbers are not the reason he is on the list. It’s his returning abilities. Grant is a quick receiver who can turn a kick return, punt return or quick slant into 6. He only finished the year with 164 yards with a whopping 0 touchdowns, but he had a 25.1 return average on kickoffs, including a touchdown. He’s another one on this roster that seems to get hit by the injury bug often but if he can stay healthy, his return ability could be top notch in the league.

Number 17: Allen Hurns

His numbers, similarly to Grant’s, weren’t great, but he did enough to warrant a low spot on this list. He made a number of good catches throughout the year and while many didn’t go for scores, he did manage to pick up 18 first downs in 2019. He ended the year with 32 catches for 416 yards and 2 scores.

Number 16: Jomal Wiltz

Wiltz did an admirable job throughout the year on defense, considering the struggles the whole unit had at times. His numbers aren’t eye popping (58 tackles and 1 pick), but his play was a little better than the stat line suggests. He allowed a 63% completion rate to opposing quarterbacks which isn’t either bad or good. Given his youth and inexperience, that’s a number I’m good with for this year.