MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Is Miami Dolphins wide receiver Jaylen Waddle having a good season?
He’s certainly not having a bad one — particularly given the string of injuries that have limited his effectiveness.
Waddle is at or just shy of his career averages in receiving yards per game (he’s at 65.3), yards per catch (13.1), touchdowns per game (.375), success rate (57%), and touchdowns per game (.38).
And yet, for the Dolphins to get to where they want to go — Las Vegas for Super Bowl 58 — they’ll need elite Waddle against the elite teams.
Second-Half Outlook for MiamI Dolphins’ Jaylen Waddle
Waddle has appeared in eight of the Dolphins’ nine games, missing the 70-point explosion against the Denver Broncos in Week 3.
In the five games the Dolphins have won with Waddle in the lineup, the third-year receiver has averaged 5.4 catches for 74.2 yards and has all three of his receiving touchdowns on the year. Yet, in losses to the Chiefs, Eagles, and Bills, Waddle totaled just 13 catches for 151 yards on 17 targets.
It makes sense, then, that those were the Dolphins’ three lowest-scoring games of the season. But rested and rejuvenated after a week off, Waddle’s best football of 2023 might still be ahead of him.
Jaylen Waddle is back feeling like Jaylen Waddle pic.twitter.com/nDvIgOFbDZ
— Adam Beasley (@AdamHBeasley) November 13, 2023
Waddle said that the bye week “helped a lot,” and he spent his downtime getting treatment on his various injuries. (This year, he’s had injuries to his oblique, back, and knee and missed a game with a concussion.)
“Little nicks and dinks and bruises,” Waddle said of the punishment his body has taken this year. “That comes with the season, but that bye week definitely helped me. I feel like in the long run, the second half of the season, I just feel a lot fresher.”
That’s good news for the Dolphins in general, and Tyreek Hill in particular. While Hill’s snaps per game average (44.4) is the lowest since his rookie year, he’s probably running more now than he ever has, given his heavy pre-snap motion workload.
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The Dolphins absolutely cannot afford Hill to get hurt or even wear down late in the year. So it would certainly be helpful if Waddle could pick up some of the slack, particularly during this relatively easy stretch of games in the next five weeks.
“You can feel that Tyreek is working through things to get his Ferrari the exact way he wants it,” Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said Monday. “He just needs rest. He runs farther and faster than everybody.
“For the entirety of the team, it was probably a well-placed bye week,” McDaniel added.
“I think the first 150 days are kind of — you get the summer vacation, but then training camp stacks into the start of the regular season. That’s a buildup, and we try to do right by their bodies and make sure the guys that are running a lot get the necessary rest while also keeping their iron sharp.”
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