The Miami Dolphins give Kalen Ballage, per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, and it’s about damn time.
I mean no respect for Ballage. I do not know the man. I’m sure he’s a wonderful man, but yeah, he was a poor runner of football in his time in aqua and orange. Let’s do a recipe, shall we?
Ballage was selected by your Miami Dolphins in the fourth round of the 2018 NFL Draft. At the time, he was a development project behind the legendary Frank Gore and a young up-and-comer in Kenyan Drake. Expectations were low, and so, when Ballage managed to “succeed” in his very limited snaps during the 2018 season, fans and media staff at the same time began to expect great things from him. But boy, were we ever wrong.
How were we so terribly hoodwinked? It all comes from a week 15 game against the Minnesota Vikings, a game in which Ballage looked like the next arrival of Ricky Williams … for one game. One of the first games of the second half took Ballage inside Ryan Tannehill, as Miami’s offensive line opened a wide enough space for the rookie runner to turn the jets on and blow for a 75- yard touchdown. In a season in which Ballage carried the ball only 36 times and accumulated just 191 total rushing yards, that run was enough to increase his yards per carry mark in such a way that on paper he looked like one of the most efficient ball carriers. in the league. But let’s take a closer look at his 2018 rushing statistics both with and without the 75-yard score.
With: 36 carries, 191 yards, 5.31 yards per carry
Without: 35 carries, 116 yards, 3.31 yards per carry
Well, I know it’s subtle, but if you look closely, you’ll see that Ballage was mediocre just outside of his one explosive run in 2018. In 2019, there were no long runs to save his statline. In fact, Ballage was downright terrible in 2019. The sophomore starter, who took over for the estranged Kenyan Drake after he was traded to Arizona, averaged a meager 1.8 yards per carry this past season. 1.8! That’s the NFL’s lowest one-yard yardage per carry mark in 70 years!
And hey, do you think this absolute goof started against the New England Patriots after a Ryan Fitzpatrick pass?
Let me say again: I have nothing against Ballage myself. He played for a talent-stripped team with turnstiles for an offensive line. That said, when Myles Gaskin (a 7th-round pick), and a running back nicknamed “The Intern” (Patrick Laird), are far more than your yards per carry mark, is something wrong. Here’s hoping Ballage can rekindle his NFL career elsewhere. We all know it did not happen to him in Miami.
With Ballage on the list, the Dolphins now have starters Matt Breida and Jordan Howard leading the way for the running game, with Gaskin, Laird, and the newly acquired Salvon Ahmed battling for backup spots.
