The Miami Dolphins dominated in their Week 3 game against the Denver Broncos. They beat the Broncos by a final score of 70-20 to improve to 3-0 on the season and scored the most points of any NFL team since 1966.
A big reason why the Dolphins were able to defeat the Broncos in convincing fashion on Sunday was the play of rookie running back De’Von Achane. He ran for a whopping 203 yards on 18 carries — which equates to 11.3 yards per rushing attempt — and two touchdowns in the victory. Also, his longest rushing attempt was for 67 yards.
An NFL insider recently dished on the Dolphins’ running back plans moving forward after Achane’s fantastic performance against the Broncos.
“The Dolphins had planned to increase rookie running back De’Von Achane’s workload Sunday, though no one imagined the extent of what Achane or Miami’s offense would accomplish on the day,” Dan Graziano wrote. “And while they don’t expect to score 70 points every week, the question now becomes what Achane’s role will be going forward. Veteran Raheem Mostert is having an excellent season, but he has an injury history and the team is mindful of overworking him. Jeff Wilson Jr. has to miss at least one more game while on the PUP list but is expected back at some point.
“My sense is that Achane will retain a prominent role as an early-down runner with the others mixed in and with Mostert heavily involved in the passing game in particular. But the Dolphins are operating with a ‘hot hand’ situation, and as one person there told me, ‘everybody’s hands are hot right now.'”
Achane was selected with the No. 84 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft after a three-season stint playing college football at Texas A&M University.
His best season of college football came during his junior season, the 2022 season. The 5-foot-9 running back ran for 1,102 yards and eight touchdowns in 10 games played with the Aggies.
Achane’s contributions as a junior didn’t translate into many wins for the 2022 iteration of the Aggies, though. They finished the season with a poor 5-7 record.
Mostert, meanwhile, has played for five teams — the San Francisco 49ers, Dolphins, Baltimore Ravens, Chicago Bears and Cleveland Browns — across his nine seasons in the NFL. He ran for 891 yards and three touchdowns in 16 games played with the Dolphins during the 2022 regular season (14 starts).
Three games into the 2023 regular season, Mostert is on track to have the best season of his pro career. He has racked up 240 rushing yards and a league-best six rushing touchdowns thus far.
Only time will tell if the Dolphins will continue to operate with a “hot hand” mentality when distributing reps between Mostert and Achane in the coming months. But what’s already abundantly clear is that the Dolphins have two great running backs on their roster.
