Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Ball hawks
With DeVante Parker hurt, other receivers must be sharp.
DAVIE — Dolphins offensive coordinator Clyde Christensen is a 20-year NFL veteran who knows how pressure ratchets up at this time of year, and he knows how wide receivers must perform.
Christensen wants to know whether the Dolphins wide receivers — fourth-quarter standouts in their past two victories — are up to the task.
“We’ve been a little bit up and down,” he said of the wide receivers as a whole. “But they’ve shown up when they’ve needed to in the stretch and done a good job. And it’s been different guys in different ways.”
DeVante Parker, Jarvis Landry and Kenny Stills all have at least one fourth-quarter touchdown during the six-game winning streak: Stills had a 66-yarder in the 28-25 victory over Buffalo, Landry had a 10-yarder against Los Angeles and Parker had a 9-yard game-winner in the same game.
However, one of their key contributors, Parker, is expected to miss the game Sunday at Baltimore with a back injury. Parker, who hasn’t practiced all week, ran with trainers Friday and left the practice field with an ice pack on his back.
The oft-injured second-year player is working hard not to let his teammates
down, coach Adam Gase said.
Without Parker, the wide receivers somehow must be even better now, just as they finally seem to be living up to their potential.
For the most part that job falls on Landry (63 receptions, 733 yards, two touchdowns) and Stills (26 receptions, 480 yards, five touchdowns). They’re the veterans.
But rookie Leonte Carroo, who had a 15-yard fourth-quarter touchdown last week against San Francisco, and newly promoted Rashawn Scott will likely also have roles, and there might be an outside chance of rookie Jakeem Grant playing a few plays from scrimmage.
Gase, perhaps trying to downplay the loss of Parker, who has been coming on strongly recently with his 16 receptions for 246 yards and one touchdown in the past three games, said the Dolphins won’t need to do anything differently.
“I don’t see there being too much, because we are pretty flexible as far as what we can do,” Gase said. “A lot of times, the things that we do are based off of what the defense does as far as our game planning goes. We’re able to move pieces around pretty easy.”
Still, without Parker, who could go up and get just about anything quarterback Ryan Tannehill threw in the air, the wide receivers are missing a big piece of their crew.
Regardless, the unit figures to play a big role against Baltimore, because the Ravens are the NFL’s No. 1 run defense. That means it’s more likely the Dolphins will need to pass to have success.
That could complicate things for the Dolphins wide receivers. because the Ravens are the NFL’s sixthranked pass defense.
But that’s all part of the growth process.
Wide receivers coach Shawn Jefferson and assistant wide receivers coach Ben Johnson “can do a great job in the classroom,” Gase said, “but really, at the end of the day, it’s about getting reps, especially for a young player.”
“They’ve done a great job as far as moving those guys around more in practice,” Gase added, referring to Carroo, Scott and Grant.
The Dolphins have the NFL’s 28th-ranked passing offense at 216.4 yards per game.
But during this six-game winning streak, the wide receivers have emerged to make timely, sometimes game-winning fourth-quarter receptions and touchdowns.
Christensen wants to know if they can continue doing it.
Christensen’s credentials earn him respect. He was wide receivers coach in Indianapolis with Hall of Famer Marvin Harrison and probable Hall of Famer Reggie Wayne. He was offensive coordinator in Tampa Bay with Keyshawn Johnson. Christensen made playoff appearances with all three players. Each earned at least one Pro Bowl selection under his tutelage.
Christensen said that in December “stuff gets really, really sharp mentally, sharp timing-wise, sharp with precision, and that’s what the good teams will do now.”
“So let’s see if we do it,” he said of his wide receivers. “We’ve challenged them. We need to do that. We have to be a little sharper. The margins are going to get tighter. Stakes are going to get a little higher and we’ve got to be able to do it under pressure.”