Dolphins running back De'Von Achane had more offensive touches than any other Miami player in 2024, racking up 281 combined carries and catches in his second year in the league.
But despite his outsized role in the offense and the production that came with it -- 907 yards rushing and 592 receiving -- the dual-threat back has even higher aspirations for Year 3 in Miami.
"This year probably -- every year I want to get better -- so as far as my numbers-wise, as far as in the rush game, I always want to try to hit 1,000 yards and then 500 yards (receiving)," Achane said this week, via team transcript. "I feel like I can do that as far as how much I'm being used and like the pass game that I was last year because I had a lot of receptions, and me watching film I felt like I left a lot of plays or I felt like I could have did more.
"Going back and watching the year and the cut ups, I feel like I left a lot of yards on the table."
Achane burst onto the scene as a rookie in 2023, collecting 800 rushing yards and 197 receiving yards with a combined 11 touchdowns despite missing six games and starting only four. Most impressive from that year was Achane's absurd 7.8 yards per rushing attempt, a number few in history have surpassed.
He took on a more substantial role in the offense last season, getting close to doubling his carries and tripling his catches with 203 and 78, respectively, with the former number more than double any of his Dolphins teammates and the latter being third-most on the squad.
While he was rewarded with 1,499 total yards and 12 TDs, one area that did suffer was his yards per carry, which fell to 4.5, leading to Achane's assertion that he left yards on the table.
After Miami's overall rushing offense flagged in 2024, finishing 21st in yards after ranking sixth the year before, the Dolphins made some changes to try and better the unit, though Achane still figures to feature prominently.
The Dolphins added a veteran presence to the locker room in Alexander Mattison, who has six seasons and 2,790 rushing yards under his belt, alongside rookie sixth-rounder Ollie Gordon II and undrafted free-agent Nate Noel. They'll join Achane and second-year back Jaylen Wright in working to turn things around in 2025.
With his goal in mind of hitting the 1,000/500-yard mark, Achane said ideally he'd like to be doing a lot of the same things this season as the last, notably taking on a workhorse load and maintaining a presence in the pass game.
But at the same time, he acknowledged that with the new faces in the locker room, things could shift as other players take on roles in the offense based on their strengths.
"No, we haven't discussed that, but I just feel like any addition to the room is good," Achane said of how touches could be distributed. "It's always good when you have a lot of backs and we're all good at different areas. Everybody is better at something than somebody else and for us to have all of us dudes that can go out there and perform, I feel like that's good to have in the room."
Meanwhile, the Dolphins lost their most senior member of the group with the departure of Raheem Mostert for the Raiders. That leaves the 23-year-old Achane as the longest-tenured RB left on the team, putting him in a leadership role that he's embracing.
"It evolves a lot. I've still got (fullback) Alec (Ingold) in there, so that's a great role model to look after. But like you said, we don't have Raheem no more, so it's kind of me and Alec now and just me being -- it's a few new guys -- I'm going to tell them the same thing everybody told me when I came in, trying to help them out," Achane said. "And I feel like just me being more vocal this year because I feel like I wasn't a big talkative person last year, but I feel like as the years keep going, you grow everybody and you get more comfortable."
Achane can get started on both his statistical and leadership goals for 2025 as preparations for the season get underway, with organized team activities next up at the end of the month.
