Dolphins fans don’t have much to celebrate at 0-2 — but one young playmaker’s rise is starting to echo a former fan favorite
Consolation prizes aren’t great when you’re 0-2. But Dolphins fans should be celebrating the emergence of a young playmaker thus far in 2025.
No one likes consolation prizes. But with the Miami Dolphins‘ season giving fans little to cheer for through the first two weeks of the season, it may be all that we have. When seasons start in such tough shape, it does help to assess the individuals and ask which players are potential parts of the solution — long-term and short-term.
Miami has plenty of workable pieces, which is part of what makes an 0-2 start so frustrating. There’s individual talent in plenty of areas. But one of the team’s emerging young players is the kind of talent you celebrate as a potential long-term “glue guy”.
Malik Washington looks to be a keeper.
Malik Washington is a rose amongst the thorns so far for a rotten Dolphins start to 2025
It wasn’t that long ago that the Dolphins were home to a scrappy, undersized slot receiver who won with toughness and football intelligence instead of raw speed. His name was Jarvis Landry. Landry, who the Dolphins drafted in the second round of the 2014 NFL Draft, was a target sponge who prospered as a target sponge for Miami from 2014-2017. Those Dolphins offenses didn’t have a Tyreek Hill or Jaylen Waddle to command big time targets in the passing game, allowing him to roll up big time receptions for Joe Philbin and Adam Gase’s football teams.
Washington isn’t getting looks like that. But he plays the game with the same fire in the belly and the same innate toughness that made Landry a fan favorite for Dolphins fans. Washington did have an unfortunate illegal shift penalty for moving forward at the snap on a reception that moved Miami deep into the red zone in Miami’s 33-27 loss to the Patriots, but the 74-yard punt return for a touchdown should be considered a viable peace offering for anyone holding it against him.
Washington is an ancillary part of Miami’s passing game but he appears to be someone the staff is trying to find targets for. He carried the ball three times for 23 yards in Week 2 and now has 236 all-purpose yards for the Dolphins through two games — Washington had 812 all-purpose yards as a rookie across 14 games.
I’m not saying that Malik Washington is the next Jarvis Landry. It’s not fair to make that assessment without Washington being a triple-digit target player like “Juice” was for his years in Miami. But I am saying he feels like the same kind of player — Sunday’s punt return against New England was the latest step in that direction.
Not too many pieces of the big picture puzzle for the Dolphins appear to be progressing in “the right direction” thus far this season. Washington is one. And those are the stories we can be appreciative for amid 0-2, even if Washington never ends up touching the kind of production that helped Landry post 400 receptions in four years.
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