Miami Dolphins star wide receiver Jaylen Waddle is on the heels of a down year in the 2024 season, at least by his standards. He averaged a career-low 49.6 receiving yards per game and ended the season with less than quadruple digits in receiving yards for the first time since he was selected by the Dolphins with a top-10 pick in the 2021 NFL Draft.
In addition, Waddle dropped quite a few passes, as he tied a career-high with eight dropped passes across 15 starts in his fourth season in the NFL and as a member of the Dolphins organization.
However, he has taken up a new hobby that could pay dividends for the youngster on the field and have him primed for a bounce-back campaign in the 2025 season. Dolphins wide receivers coach Robert Prince challenged Waddle to learn how to juggle, and Waddle seems to think he’s already quite the juggler.
“I learned how to juggle in two or three days,” Waddle said. “I’m just saying, if anybody can beat that, I don’t know.”
During Miami’s organized team activities available to the media on Tuesday, Waddle could be seen juggling a trio of tennis balls. The hobby could very well bolster Waddle’s hand-eye coordination for the upcoming 2025 campaign, and hopefully he’ll total more receiving yards and drop fewer passes than he did in the 2024 season.
Waddle deserves some share of the blame for his lackluster 2024 season, but there were factors outside of Waddle’s control that seemed to negatively impact him on the field. For one, quarterback Tua Tagovailoa missed six of the Dolphins’ 17 contests with injury woes, and Waddle looked even more out of sorts in the games Tagovailoa was sidelined for.
For example, he didn’t total more than 46 receiving yards in any one of the five games he played sans Tagovailoa on the field last season. He mustered just 11 receiving yards in a loss to the Indianapolis Colts in October of last year as well.
Time will tell if Waddle’s juggling hobby will help him get back to his highly productive self in the 2025 season, but folks should be optimistic that he will redeem himself for what was a forgettable 2024 season in a Dolphins uniform.
