Amid rash of WR injuries, one Dolphins vet has been an explosive playmaker

The man breaking down the huddle of Miami Dolphins receivers before Tuesday’s practice? Not DeVante Parker or Will Fuller, because they’re still nursing injuries. Not Jaylen Waddle, because he’s a rookie.

It was veteran Albert Wilson. And he did it in appropriate fashion.

“Playmakers on three,” Wilson implored the group.

Makes sense. Because as receivers who were NFL starters in past years — Parker, Fuller, and second-year receiver Preston Williams — have missed a majority of the Dolphins training camp so far, Wilson has been present for all of them.

And he has been the most explosive playmaker on the field.

“I’m just happy that I’m able to get out here to play,” Wilson said humbly after Tuesday’s practice. “It’s been a long time coming. I still feel like I’ve just got to prove myself every day, day in and day out.”

That is true.

Wilson came to this training camp unsure he had a roster spot on this team. But with the injuries and the fact he has stepped forward with explosive plays, Wilson is on his way to earning that spot now.

Interesting situation, right? But it is so because we’re a long way from when Wilson was perhaps Miami’s most dangerous offensive player early in the 2018 season, his first with the Dolphins after signing as an unrestricted free agent.

That season Wilson scored four touchdowns, including one on a 75-yard reception, and also threw a 52-yard pass to Jakeem Grant the first seven games of the year.

Wilson was well on his way to an 800-yard and eight-touchdown season when a hip injury derailed his season and almost his career. That injury cost him to miss three games in 2019 but the truth is he was never really, really right that year.

Then last season, amid the Covid-19 cloud, Wilson opted out.

So it was a mild surprise when the club told Wilson he was still in their plans for this training camp when they could have saved cap space because he’s in the last year of his contract.

(Good decision by the Dolphins’ personnel department, so far.)

Wilson now looks very much like the player he was early in the 2018 season.

“I feel pretty good. I feel explosive, I feel fast,” Wilson said. “I’m just coming out here to work again. It’s just a blessing being able to get out here.”

It seems possible, even plausible now, that the year away from the game actually helped Wilson.

“..Time heals all,” Wilson said. “Just being able to have that time off to be able to rest that hip and rest everything else, that’s pretty much it.

“Anything that is banged up, it has a limit. When you’re healthy, that limit is pushed a little further. So that’s how I feel right now, not having a limit.”

After nearly a week of delivering at least one explosive play or touchdown in each practice, Wilson had a somewhat quiet practice session Tuesday. He caught maybe one ball that had a chance to be converted for a touchdown were it in a game setting.

But think about that.

That’s the standard now.

You’re not reading about the routine passes Wilson caught this practice. You’re reading about touchdowns or big plays.

Because that’s how it has been the first week or so of these drills, with Wilson offering eye-popping moments — like the 65-yard touchdown he delivered the first day of training camp.

The plays might be surprising because Wilson has been away a year and because he wasn’t nearly as quick or explosive in 2019. But he reminds you ...

“I think we’ve stretched the field pretty good the last time I was out on the field,” he said. “We definitely got new pieces that can do it well. It’s just exciting that we all can get out here and work.”

Wilson has become a great fallback option if Parker, Fuller, and Williams continue to struggle with injuries. He’s also a great insurance policy in case Waddle, the team’s first-round draft pick, takes time to learn the professional game.

Wilson, by comparison to all those players, is right now both experienced and healthy.

The goal now is for him to become comfortable with quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and vice versa. And even that hasn’t seemed problematic.

“I think it’s pretty good,” Wilson said of the chemistry. “These last two offseasons, we got a lot of work in. When he first got here before I opted out, we spent the whole offseason together, and this past offseason as well.

“We didn’t work at the same facility, but we were close and we got a lot of work in. I feel like the chemistry just picked up where it left off from the offseason.”

It seems that way.