Matt Cashore-US PRESSWIRE
The Miami Dolphins may lose Reggie Bush as he is a free-agent, and their no.2 running back Daniel Thomas has not shown that he can be trusted to stay healthy or produce. Plus, their no.3 running back Lamar Miller did not show enough in 2012 to prove he can be trusted to produce going forward. Word is that they may feel that even if they lose Bush, or want to use a different back-up other than Thomas or Miller, they have an in-house candidate who could step up and contribute.
His name is Jonas Gray.
Gray was signed as an undrafted rookie by Miami, but a knee issue kept him off the field for all of this season. That said, he does have an interesting skill-set that could produce at the NFL level. At 5’10″ 225 pounds, he can be a better “thunder” running back than Thomas, plus he has deceptive speed for a big guy so he can make big plays. In high school, and at the University of Notre Dame, this young man was a touchdown machine.
Gray hits holes aggressively, and he has good feet to make quick cuts. He is particularly effective running off of the offensive tackles so that bares watching because the Dolphins tackle positions are potentially in flux as they are likely to lose long time left tackle Jake Long (article on Long’s free-agency in HERE). Gray is a guy who can catch the ball out of the backfield (could replace Bush as their main pass-catcher out of the backfield if Bush bolts via free-agency…article on Bush’s free-agency is HERE) but he does need to improve his route running.
The biggest reason why Miller saw limited playing time this season was his struggles to pick up blitzers, even though the same can be said for Gray, so he certainly requires improvements in this area. Gray has also struggled with fumbles in the past, and he has had ACL issues already so he is hardly a slam dunk prospect; but, he does have tools, and if he can develop them, this young man can be a legit NFL running back going forward.
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