Mike McDaniel raves about ‘driven’ Miami Dolphins rookie Erik Ezukanma

The Miami Dolphins are pretty deep into their training camp, and some players have been impressing the coaching staff.

One of the players that has caught the attention of head coach Mike McDaniel is rookie wide receiver Erik Ezukanma.

“I’ve been very happy with him the whole time,” McDaniel said. “He’s made more plays now that he knows what he’s doing. It doesn’t surprise me. It will continue to get better and better. There are a lot of things he still needs to work on. He’s a driven dude.

“His best football is in front of him. He’s a big strong dude that can make plays on the ball. His college tape, one thing we loved about him is he was very hard to tackle.”

The Dolphins selected Ezukanma with the No. 125 pick in the 2022 NFL Draft. He played four years for Texas Tech University, where he showed promise as a wide receiver. Throughout his collegiate career, the Texas native caught 138 passes for 2,165 yards and 15 touchdowns.

Miami drafting another wide receiver might have surprised some fans during the draft. After all, the organization had to part ways with a number of its picks when it acquired star wideout Tyreek Hill from the Kansas City Chiefs.

In addition, the Dolphins already had second-year player Jaylen Waddle and Cedrick Wilson Jr. on the roster prior to the draft.

It might have seemed counterintuitive to add another receiver to the roster. However, Ezukanma is apparently showing in training camp that Miami’s decision to draft him was a good choice.

Like McDaniel alluded to, the 22-year-old has excellent size for the position, providing quarterback Tua Tagovailoa with another big-bodied wideout to pass the ball to. Tagovailoa even spoke highly of Ezukanma recently.

Offense has been a problem for the Dolphins in recent years. Hopefully, Miami can improve on that end of the field in order to give itself a better chance of making it to the playoffs this season.