Miami Dolphins: 3 running back options for Mike McDaniel’s offense

One of Mike McDaniel’s first orders of business will be addressing the running back room. Here are 3 acquisition options for the Miami Dolphins backfield.

Aside from a handful of seasons from Ricky Williams, Ronnie Brown, and Jay Ajayi, finding a reliable running back has been a problem for the Miami Dolphins for as long as many of us can remember.

From the time that Dan Marino was drafted in 1983 until he retired in 1999, just one Dolphins running back eclipsed 1,000 yards for a season (Abdul-Karim Al-Jabbar in 1996), and only one not named Larry Csonka in the 17 years of the franchises’ existence before that. And if it weren’t for Ricky Williams, then Miami would have had a similar fate in the 23 years since, too.

But with the addition of running-game guru Mike McDaniel as head coach, there is reason to believe that there is a new dawn in Miami when it comes to the offensive backfield. The Dolphins ranked in the bottom five or worse in nearly every rushing statistical category in 2021 after spending very little time upgrading the unit from the season prior. They used a slew of different bodies throughout the season, and it wasn’t until the final stretch of games that they had any semblance of a competent attack.

There will undoubtedly be some changes coming for 2022, however. It is safe to say that no one’s job is safe in the running back room, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see the new regime clean house completely and start from scratch. Lynn Bowden Jr. could end up being the only capable “running back” on the active roster when free agency and the draft come around, so the Dolphins will have to use some capital to fill the needs at the position.

Here are three options that McDaniel and company could look at this off season for bolstering the running back room: