RB Drake works to be more reliable in 2nd season
DAVIE — The challenge for Kenyan Drake is simple — do what you’re expected to do.
The Miami Dolphins need a backup running back behind Pro Bowler Jay Ajayi. Drake — who had 33 carries for 179 yards, nine receptions for 46 yards, and a 96-yard kickoff return touchdown as a rookie — seems the ideal candidate.
But he must prove to coaches that he’s reliable.
Drake pointed to a perfect example from this week’s organized team activities.
He caught a hitch pass out of the backfield on third-and-4 during an 11-on-11 drill.
“Instead of just catching the ball and falling backwards for the first down, I tried to catch it and make a couple of people miss,” he said.
“It was touch, so who knows if I would’ve been tackled or not, but it was just the coaching point of understanding the situation. It’s third-and-4, just get the first down and live to see another down instead of possibly getting tackled for a 2-yard gain when I had the first down.”
Coach Adam Gase has said he’d like to get Drake more involved in the offense. The 2016 third-round pick out of Alabama flashed playmaking ability last season, but he also showed a tendency to set himself back, as Gase noted earlier this offseason.
“He does so many good things,” Gase said. “But he always does one thing, whether it be on or off the field, that’ll test me every once in a while. I kind of like it.”
Gase would ultimately like Drake to become more conventional, in a sense. Last season Drake took too many chances, trying to score instead of taking the yardage given to him and moving the chains.
Again, he doesn’t have to go far to point to an example.
“Let’s say I do something that wasn’t on script or something that wasn’t planned,” Drake said. “It works sometimes, like the Buffalo game, but sometimes it doesn’t work.
“So sometimes I just have to kind of put my head down and get those two or three yards when it’s not there. That can be frustrating, because also I want to make a big play every time I touch the ball. So it’s just understanding my role in the grand scheme of things and kind of let those big plays come when they come and not force them.”
The Dolphins believe in Drake’s ability to make plays. They saw it in that aforementioned game against the Bills in December, when Drake had an impressive 45-yard touchdown run in the second quarter of a 34-31 overtime victory.
Drake took the handoff and started going left but the hole was clogged. So, he made an abrupt turn, at one point having his back facing the line of scrimmage, bounced to the outside and sprinted up the right sideline for the score.
His 96-yard kickoff return touchdown against the New York Jets provided the game-winning points in the fourth quarter of a 27-23 victory in November.
Those plays are what prompted the Dolphins to give Drake a shot at punt returns this offseason, providing another option beside fellow second-year pro Jakeem Grant. It’s a new role for Drake.
“I’ve never caught punts before in a game situation,” he said.
The difficulty of the job is in the details.
“It’s just nerve-racking in the sense that you know somebody is running down, so you have to make a decision to either fair catch or run with it,” Drake said.” And it’s hard enough to do it with nobody even running down to even get to that point.
“It will be interesting to see how I progress.”