Dolphins RB De’Von Achane dealing with knee injury, status to be determined for Week 6, Mike McDaniel says

The Miami Dolphins emerged victorious from their Week 5 game against the New York Giants, but they may not have made it out of the game unscathed. Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel told reporters on Monday that rookie running back De’Von Achane is being evaluated for a knee injury suffered during the game. 

McDaniel said Achane’s status for this coming Sunday’s game against the Carolina Panthers is “to be determined,” and noted that it is “trivial” to forecast any timeline for his return because the team is still gathering information about the injury. 

Achane sat out the Dolphins’ Week 1 game after suffering a training camp injury and played only sparingly in Week 2, but over the past three weeks has absolutely exploded onto the scene. 

Despite having only 38 rushing attempts, Achane is second in the league in rushing yards (460) behind only Christian McCaffrey, who has carried the ball 61 more times than the rookie. He has totaled 203, 101 and 151 rushing yards over Miami’s last three contests while scoring at least one and as many as four total touchdowns in those games. He just keeps breaking off big plays, having gained at least 55 yards on one of his touches in each of those contests as well. His 12.1 yards-per-carry average is astronomical and leads the league by such a large amount that it is barely worth mentioning the player in second place.

In the event that Achane has to miss time, Miami is fortunate that it has strong depth at running back. Raheem Mostert is off to a very good start of his own, Jeff Wilson Jr. is expected to have his practice window opened this week after beginning the season on injured reserve and Salvon Ahmed remains a quality depth back as well. 

With McDaniel calling the plays, Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle stretching the field and Tua Tagovailoa at the controls, the team should be able to weather a short-term absence. If he’s out for an extended period, that would obviously change the team’s ceiling quite a bit, and it would be extremely unfortunate for football fans who have seen the electric speedster get off to one of the best starts to a career in league history.