Dolphins starting running back Raheem Mostert spent much of the offseason hearing talk that the team was going to bring in another running back to supplant him on the depth chart. There was talk of a trade for Josh Jacobs, signing Dalvin Cook, and most recently trading for Jonathan Taylor.
Mostert ignored it all.
So when Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel was asked what he has seen from Mostert as he prepares for this season, he praised Mostert for not letting anything distract him.
“Outstanding focus,” McDaniel said of Mostert. “I couldn’t highlight a guy in a better light. He’s someone that’s directly heard a ton of noise for months and months and months. It’s almost like every day that it’s loud, you see extra focus, and that epitomizes the journey of an NFL player. We’re in a very fortunate business to be able to do the things we do on the stage we do and be compensated the way we are. However, it comes at a cost, and that’s a lot of people having opinions that directly or indirectly relate to you, and you can’t control that at all. I think the sooner that you open your eyes to that, the better. So to have a guy like Raheem, who I’ve had such a cool journey with, and to watch him work, is the exact thing that you have to do in this business at some point in time. Look, we’re all earning our day to day and not entitled to anything, and he shows exactly that with how he carries himself. I’m so proud of him as a professional. Just another reason why I have such a strong human connection with that player.”
Mostert is coming off a season in which he gained a career-high 891 rushing yards for the Dolphins last season. Now that they know he’s the No. 1 running back, the Dolphins are hoping for even more from Mostert this season.