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Dolphins’ De’Von Achane wants rushing title; will odds and defenses be stacked against him?
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- Dolphins’ De’Von Achane wants rushing title; will odds and defenses be stacked against him?
MIAMI GARDENS — Miami Dolphins running back De'Von Achane revealed he has lofty aspirations for the 2026 season.
It's a goal he sets for himself every year, in fact.
"I always try to go for the rushing title, so that's just something I do," Achane said at his locker Wednesday before the Dolphins open the season in Las Vegas against the Raiders on Sunday.
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On its merit alone, the rushing crown is difficult to attain. Achane's career-best 1,350 rushing yards in 2025, which helped earn him his first Pro Bowl selection and rank third in Dolphins franchise history, were good for fifth in the NFL last season, nearly 300 behind the leader James Cook in Buffalo. The previous season, it took 2,005 yards, which is what Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley accumulated.
Achane is expected to receive volume in the run game this season. Dolphins coach Jeff Hafley has quipped in interviews ahead of the season that he'll have to carry Achane off the field some games after 40 or so rushing attempts. Obviously, he's exaggerating — we think — but the point is clear. Achane will get his chances with the ball in his hands.
Then, there's the other side of that. If we on the outside — media, fans, observers — figure Achane and the run game will be vital to the success of the Dolphins' offense, opposing defenses certainly know.
The combination of Miami's greatest playmaker, Achane, in the backfield and a receiving corps that is largely unproven for quarterback Malik Willis should entice defenses to stack the box against the Dolphins run game.
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"It just gives opportunities for our young receivers, or whoever's out there, to make plays," Achane said Wednesday about the potential of teams putting eight players in the box against him. "This is a team game. I can't just go out there and win by myself. So, when teams do stack the box, we can still try to run the ball, but if we have to adjust, it just gives opportunities for receivers to make plays.
"It takes all of us. Just like they need me to run, I need them in the pass game. It goes both ways."
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So there should be a balance found between Miami's offense dictating to the opponent what it clearly wants to do, run the ball, but the pass game will likely have to help open things up in the ground game with Willis taking what the defense gives them and establishing a downfield connection with receivers in single coverage.
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"Expectation versus reality," Willis said of guessing how the Raiders, or any opponent, will defend Miami. "I mean, people can expect whatever, but when we get out there, we'll see what they try to do to attack us and we'll try to do our best to play against it. We just play ball.
"Obviously, everybody has these mindsets and thoughts on what it's going to be and what it is – if people can see the future, everybody would play the lottery. I mean, but people can't. So we're obviously just going to try and go do the best we can do and be detailed as we can through the week of practice so we can go out there and execute our plays."
There are also ways around running the ball against stacked boxes. Offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik, who is expected to run a similar offensive system to that of ex-coach Mike McDaniel, can get Achane touches going to the outside in the wide-zone blocking scheme.
Beyond that, Willis himself is a highly capable rusher as a quarterback. He can surely find chances to keep the ball on read-option-type plays where he fakes handing the ball off to Achane, if defenses are swarming him.
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Achane, who was signed to a four-year extension worth between $64 to $68 million this offseason, can also make his impact catching the ball out of the backfield or when he lines up out wide. It doesn't all have to come in the ground game for the dynamic playmaker who had 488 receiving yards last season and 592 in 2024.
