Miami Dolphins upcoming season is the year of the one year wonders
Normally I am hesitant to want the Miami Dolphins to take on players known as one-year wonders but exceptions must be made this season.
After a team tears down to the foundation that brought on the most undrafted free agents ever seen before, one-year wonders are naturally baked into the team with some of those players having success.
So is it the more the merrier? Or is it misery loves company? We shall see as this season hopefully plays out on time. (COVID-19)
The main player signed that started the hamster wheel spinning in my head for this story was Ereck Flowers. He is the epitome of the one-year wonder. Drafted ninth by the New York Giants in the first round of the 2015 NFL Draft, he played three seasons there as a turnstile racking up the most quarterback pressures allowed along with numerous penalties.
He went to the Jacksonville Jaguars for about a half-season still as a turnstile left tackle. However, his next stop with the Washington Redskins, things turned around when they moved him to guard. All his stats allowed dropped to the lower single digits along with penalties, he was the 32-ranked guard last season by Pro Football Focus.
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Will he continue on the same track of good results as a transformed guard? Will he fall flat? I figure the odds are around fifty percent, as they are for most other players in the same boat. A sliver of hope here is that most first-round draft picks panning out are in the thirty percentile.
Speaking of the draft That brings us to quarterback Joe Burrow. Although I’m not up on the college side of things it would seem he fits the mold here with a caveat. He didn’t just have one good year, he had a great one, maybe the best ever.
Is there anything to this rumor of moving up to the first pick for him? Probably not, it’s just more smoke to cloud the draft season. There is likely more chance that a team jumps over the Dolphins to get Tua Tagovailoa than this pipe dream panning out.
One of the one-year wonders we have seen awhile, he is now one of the longest-tenured players on the team, after the teardown. Many had grown tired of waiting on him to break out from his injury-hampered slump. That’s right DeVante Parker finally broke out, and in a big way. They say any player can get hurt at any time. He has a reserve he can coast on for a long while.
The other receiver that fills this list also, unfortunately, got hurt last season, playing about half the season. Preston Williams still managed three touchdowns and was a deep threat before a torn ACL ended his rookie season.
There are a few other undrafted free agents I’d like to close with, and I might be missing others but these are the ones that stood out to me. If you have your own standouts feel free to discuss them among yourselves below.
Much like Parker, cornerback Nik Needham was wearing on fans (myself included) his preseason looked really bad. I can’t remember a player turning things around in the short order of one season as he did. Nik finished his 12 game season on a high note, with 11 passes defended and two interceptions, also having one sack and forced fumble each, along with 54 tackles (41 solo)
Patrick Laird gets a nod from me here. He is more borderline, his stats won’t jump out at you but the running game overall is skewed from having turnaround during the season, we won’t mention that other running back, gone and forgotten. Pat did pass my eye test though and many (myself included) were clamoring to get him some playing time.
So how do all the one-year wonder players pan out when the season is back? Well, that pesky four-lettered word has to make an entrance ‘hope’. That’s right there has to be some hope, and trust in the coaches for all these players not only to get back on the tracks they were on but to also better it.