No regrets on taking safe route in pandemic
Dolphins wide receivers Albert Wilson and Allen Hurns are back after opting out of 2020 due to COVID concerns. Neither is guaranteed of a spot this season.
It was something of a surreal experience, being fully healthy players and under contract — and in good standing — yet never being around their team, instead watching all the Dolphins games on television.
After opting out of the 2020 season due to concerns about the potential impact of COVID-19 on their families, wide receivers Albert Wilson and Allen Hurns are back, fighting for roster spots at perhaps the team’s most competitive position.
“It was interesting watching it from a different perspective,”
Hurns said of viewing Dolphins games on TV last year. “There was never a time I second-guessed” the decision to opt out.
Both have had good moments in Dolphins mandatory minicamp this week, including a touchdown reception by Hurns on Wednesday and a nifty catch-and-run by Wilson, who appears fully healthy after dealing with assorted health issues in 2019,
when he was working his way back from a significant 2018 hip injury and struggling with a September hamstring pull.
“They’re both in good shape,” Dolphins coach Brian Flores said. “There’s always a little rust from
any player after having some time off, but I think they look really good.”
Even though the 2020 season unfolded without any games being
canceled, Wilson, 28, and Hurns, 29, said they don’t regret their decision to opt out.
Hurns decided against playing because of the birth of his son Chase on Oct. 21; he didn’t want to leave his family at risk if he contracted COVID-19.
“Spending time with my baby boy meant everything to me; that’s the reason I opted out,” Hurns said. “First couple months are tough with no sleep. But with me not playing, I was able to help. Creating that bond [with Chase] meant everything to me. It flew by.”
Wilson said he opted out “because of the uncertainty of what was going on and not having the facts of what was going on in the world. It was scary off what we had going on in our household [with young children]. I don’t think I ever thought I made a bad decision even as successful as the NFL was going. I stand by my decision.”
Both players have been vaccinated.
“Things are a lot safer,” Wilson said.
Hurns said watching Dolphins games on TV last season was like watching the Miami Hurricanes, his alma mater, with emotional highs and lows.
“It was a great season; I was riding with them no matter what,” Hurns said.
Wilson said, “I became more of a student of the game” viewing Dolphins games on TV.
Both of their contracts tolled, as if last season didn’t exist, meaning Wilson is signed through 2021 and Hurns through 2022.
Wilson is due to make $2.1 million in base salary this season — of which $1 million is guaranteed — with a $5.2 million cap hit. If he doesn’t make the team, the Dolphins would have $3.9 million in cap
savings with $1.3 million in dead money.
Hurns is due to make $1.9 million in base salary in 2021 — of which $1.3 million is guaranteed — with a $2.9 million cap hit. If he’s released before the start of the season, the Dolphins would save $2.5 million against the cap, with $433,000 in dead money.
Neither is guaranteed a job, with 12 receivers competing for what could be six roster spots.
Were they worried how their decision to opt out
would impact their NFL futures?
“Not at all,” Hurns said. Wilson said future financial consequences didn’t worry him, either. But he admitted he wasn’t up to par physically in 2019, less than a year removed from the hip injury.
And after ranking among the league leaders in yards after catch in 2018, he fell to 95th in that category in 2019.
“I wasn’t comfortable doing things that [2019] year [but] I feel great right now — my whole body, including the hip,” Wilson said Wednesday, crediting Tua Tagovailoa for arranging offseason throwing sessions that he regularly attended.
“I feel like there’s nothing I can’t do out there. It’s exciting going into the season feeling fully healthy and knowing you can do whatever you want out there.”
Wilson finished the
2019 season playing well, closing with 43 catches for 351 yards and five drops in 65 targets. When lining up in the slot, he had 35 catches on 48 targets for 296 yards and a touchdown.
Now there are several other slot options on the roster, headlined by firstround pick Jaylen Waddle, who’s naturally expected to play a lot, and Lynn Bowden Jr., acquired from Las Vegas before last season.
Wilson said of Waddle: “I’m excited to see the kid go to work. I see myself in him. Seeing someone who can work the slot as well as me, it will be a lot of fun.”
Hurns also has looked sharp. He had some good moments when we last saw him in a Dolphins uniform, closing 2019 with 32 catches for 416 yards (a solid 13.0 average) and two touchdowns. But he also dropped five of 61 targets and was 158th in the league in YAC.
Miami also used Hurns some in the slot, and he caught 18 of 28 targets there for 259 yards and a touchdown.
While he sat out last season, “I never stopped working out,” Hurns said. “There was going to be some rust coming back, with route concepts and things like that. I felt like a rookie [at first this spring].”
But “being here every day and being around the guys, I got familiar quick. Being back with the guys, competing, that’s what it’s all about.”