The Wright Stuff

The Wright Stuff

On Wednesday, when I published my last piece about the ten things to look out for during training camp, someone messaged me on Twitter to ask about the running back situation. Didn’t I think depth was an issue, given the worst-case scenario of an injury to star rusher De’Von Achane?

My reply was simple: I thought we were in pretty good shape with the two young guys, Ollie Gordon and Jaylen Wright, especially given what I’d been told about their offseason work – strong; the shape they were in – excellent; and their commitment to developing as professional athletes – high.

Wright, especially, is a player who’s long intrigued me. My number two-ranked running back in the 2024 Draft, he flashed dynamic long speed at Tennessee – averaging 6.7 yards per carry in the SEC over his final two seasons – and a home-run hitter’s mentality on lightly used wheels. A strong, balanced runner who was a state champion in the 55 meters in high school, ran a 10.85-second 100m, and was clocked at 23.6 mph on GPS in practice for the Vols, he also led the conference in missed tackles in 2023.

There was a rawness to his game that made him so fascinating: like a mouldable ball of clay in a sprinter’s body, with elusiveness and an ability to pass protect a little bit, my comparison for him was actually Raheem Mostert. The more I dug into him, the more I liked him, and I was struck by this quote from his running backs coach, Jerry Mack, during the draft process:

“You wish all your guys would make sure they’re students of the game, and Jaylen has done a really good job in the offseason and in-season studying the game. He’s kind of got a throwback feel to him. He can tell you about guys like Walter Payton or T.D. (Terrell Davis). It’s just a mindset of, ‘Hey, look, I want to study the greats. I want to study past greats. I want to study current greats. I want to study just the game of football to see what those guys saw.'”

Yet, speaking to people who’ve seen him regularly at practice in Miami during his first two seasons, I got the sense of something approaching melancholia from him. He’s not been the bright light who, at Tennessee, created a cheetah logo for his NIL account to represent his mentality: that of being able to “think fast, faster than the opponent, be faster in all aspects, not just athletically.” Joe Schad of the Palm Beach Post reported yesterday that Wright could often be seen “moping around the locker room over the past two seasons,” and he’s talked of worrying excessively about certain situations as far back as the Combine, where he struggled to deal with the stresses of the event. Sure, being a bright light in Knoxville and coming to the NFL as an explosive runner in a league built on explosive plays, only to average 21.5 yards a game over your first two seasons, is enough to make anyone question their life choices.

But this seemed different.

Self-doubt crept in, not helped by the fact that he went from the very obvious high of his first career 100-yard game against the Jets last December on 24 carries, to touching the ball just once for two yards a week later against the Steelers, a defense that would have seemed to suit his style of play. In the early summer, he appeared on a Knoxville radio station where he talked about having to “just keep one foot in front of the other each day,” which made you wonder whether this was part of a process he was undertaking or a holdover from a lack of belief that two years on the sidelines as a healthy scratch, and minimal contributor on the fringes of the roster, had instilled in him.
But, as one Dolphins insider told me a fortnight ago, there’s been a definite mindset change in Wright. Whether that’s a change in coaching or a lifestyle change is up for debate. But what he said at the podium yesterday, post-practice, seemed to underline where the real emphasis had been placed.

“Last year, my biggest thing, and exactly what you said, it was when I got in the game, it was, ‘I got to do this. I got to make a play, this, that,'” Wright said. “And that’s not good. Take what they’re giving you. Take the little runs. The big runs are going to come. That’s how I had to mature my mind about the game. Like I said, control what I can control. So I’ll be ready when them opportunities come, them big runs come. It’s going to happen. I’m going to go all the way to the house with it.”

Mature.

We ask so much of our players in any sport. We demand success no matter what, and bemoan the fact that, because Player A is being paid far more money than most of us could ever dream of, their job is simply to go out and perform week in, week out like automatons, without caring what’s happening in their personal lives or in their minds when performance drops even 1%. And then we use our social media platforms or message boards or radio station phone-ins to slam them, whilst 24/7 sports news coverage endlessly debates every inch of their film. I once spent three months with a professional sports team for a BBC documentary and the head coach of that team told me that fans know probably between 5 and 10% of what’s really going on with players at any one time, less so during a dip in form.

We never question ourselves for the way we feel when we’re not at 100% because we’ve had an argument with a spouse or partner, or we’re worried about a parent or a child, or the dog’s sick. Our privilege comes not from being rich and athletic, but from not caring what excuses rich and athletic people might have for letting us down.

Wright is a comparative baby at just 23 years old. In fact, four members of Miami’s 2026 draft class are older than he is. Little wonder, then, that perhaps the mental maturity of his game – and, indeed, his life – has taken a while to come to the boil. When asked yesterday where he thinks he’s grown most since entering the league, he was unequivocal in his answer.

“Mentally. I feel like I’ve grown the most mentally, not as far as, like, physically. Physically, I feel like I had it, but it’s just mental. The mental part was really hard for me. Just knowing how the game goes. Just knowing the league. It’s a lot of stuff you can’t control in this league. It’s just a mental thing, just being too hard on myself and not having the confidence that I used to have. I just let it all go, let all the worry go, and now I’m just playing football. It’s just great. I pray a lot. I’ve gotten into the Bible a lot. When I do that, it just calms me down. Calms me down, makes me not worry.”

In Ollie Gordon and Jaylen Wright, Miami has two stylistically different players, yet two nice complements to the slashing, dashing superiority of De’Von Achane. It’s something new head coach Jeff Hafley appreciates in the former Tennessee standout.

“Fast, explosive,” said Jeff Hafley. “When he hits it and gets vertical, he can really go. I think he’s a good scheme fit. I love the way he practices. I love the way he finishes. And he’s compact. He’s strong. He’s a harder guy to tackle. And excited to see him in live settings.”

Don’t worry about the running back room or those in it.

For the first time in a long time, Jaylen Wright isn’t.