Undrafted receiver in mix to make team
Arkansas’ Morgan impresses in offseason work.
DAVIE — The Dolphins’ offseason program concluded Thursday with a consensus on the underdog story of the spring. When the team regroups in more than a month for training camp and the fans come out, curious eyes will focus on No. 81, Drew Morgan, an undrafted receiver from Arkansas.
And he knows what you’ll be thinking.
“I’m a little bitty guy out there,” he said. “Most people compare me to the Wes Welkers or Eric Deckers, Jordy Nelsons and I just — I mean, (Danny) Amendola, ( Julian) Edelman. You name them. I’m like, I don’t want to be stereotyped like that. We’re all football players.”
The stereotype Morgan rejects is that of the white wide receiver.
In the end, that won’t have any effect on whether Morgan beats the odds and makes the Dolphins. What will matter is whether August arrives and Morgan is still getting open, still fear- DAVIE — Finally found a way to make 260-pound rush specialist Charles Harris flinch.
While being approached for an interview request coming off the practice field Thursday, the Miami Dolphins’ No. 1 draft pick stopped short. He searched the field for one of the team’s media relations staffers. He wanted to know if it was allowed to speak to a reporter without prior approval, if it was within the Dolphins’ protocols.
No big deal, right? I mean, on the long list of things that a
phins.
Jordan’s name was in the news again this week over an unexpected knee surgery that’s keeping him from practicing with the Seattle Seahawks. What else is new? Miami is still trying to get over its utter waste of the No. 3 overall pick in the 2013 draft on a player who kept getting suspended under the NFL’s substance abuse policy and never seemed to be ready to play.
It’s not supposed to work that way with an investment like that. What you’re looking for are solid first impressions from any first-rounder.
What you’re looking for is Harris, who has made it through minicamp just fine and hopes between now and training camp in late July to train with Jason Taylor, the Dolphins’ all-time sack leader and a 2017 inductee to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
“I’ll just do whatever he tells me to do,” said Harris, who approached Taylor at an offseason team function and hopes to get together in the coming weeks with DeMarcus Ware, another retired Pro Bowl pass rusher.
“Anybody who is great at what they do, I want to be great at what I do. I don’t care if it was Floyd Mayweather. I’d ask him to get into the ring. I don’t care what it is.”
Jordan never seemed to get beyond the draft-day celebration phase. Defensive tackle Jordan Phillips, Miami’s second-round pick in 2015, has been slow, too, in adopting the consistent effort and focus that are required to excel at this level.
Harris shows none of these lethargic signs.
As a matter of fact, on the