Miami Dolphins
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The Dolphins received bad news on De'Von Achane
The Miami Dolphins officially kicked off their offseason training program, as the team had its first day of voluntary workouts. For Miami, that marked the beginning of a new era as the team no longer featured the likes of Tyreek Hill, Tua Tagovailoa, Jaylen Waddle, and a variety of star players who were either released or traded.
Instead, it’s an opportunity for the Dolphins to become familiar with some new faces like quarterback Malik Willis. For Willis, it’s also an opportunity to begin building some chemistry with some of his new weapons, like Malik Washington, Jalen Tolbert, and Tutu Atwell. Unfortunately, for those hoping that it would be the first time Willis and Pro Bowl running back De’Von Achane took the field together, that did not occur as Achane was the team’s lone player to skip the voluntary workouts.
De’Von Achane Does Not Attend Miami Dolphins Workout
New head coach Jeff Hafley told reporters that Miami had near-perfect attendance on the first day of voluntary workouts. The team’s lone absence was star running back De’Von Achane, who has one year remaining on his rookie contract and has been looking to sign an extension. Regarding his absence, Hafley declined to say whether it was for contractual reasons.
“Those are talks for another time between Achane, Sully and those guys,”Jeff Hafley told reporters during the team’s press conference. “I’m not going to dive into those talks right now. That’s part of the business, it’s part of what every team goes through in those situations and they’ll work it out.”
Regarding Achane’s future with the Dolphins, general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan had previously said, “Yeah, it’s important to us to get a deal done with De’Von. He is a difference maker as a player. We are in talks. We’re gonna try to get that done. It’s a priority to us. He is a building block for us as we move forward.”
De’Von Achane’s Value
The idea of trading Achane makes sense on paper, as the Dolphins roster seems far away from being competitive. A real argument could be made that a premium draft pick is more valuable than a star running back on a one-year contract. However, the Dolphins seem intent on keeping Achane beyond 2026.
Jon-Eric Sullivan has spoken highly of Achane as he previously said,“I think he’s a rare player. His feet, his acceleration, his ability to play on all three downs. He’s a very good pass catcher. He reminds me of a lot of a guy that I played with in high school by the name of Warrick Dunn, who went on to have a marvelous career. Maybe it’s the 28 that he wears on his back, which Warrick wore forever. But I do — I see a lot of similarities.
Now, Warrick did it for a decade, and neither one of them are big guys, and I think if De’Von was sitting here, he’d be the one to tell you, like I think that’s gonna be the question for him. Can he be as durable as Warrick was over time? But he’s a marvelous player. We wanna move forward with him. It’s important to us to get a deal done. He’s part of the future for us.”
Dolphins fans will now hope that Miami and Achane can reach a deal soon, so he and Willis can begin building chemistry together.