Jay Ajayi started the NFL season at home. As the Miami Dolphins traveled to Seattle in Week 1, Arian Foster, who actually retired from the NFL last week after years of injury, was unhappy with the decision. Foster got hurt a few weeks into the season, giving Ajayi his chance, right? Wrong. Kenyan Drake, rookie from Alabama, was named the teams starter. He left fans let down as the Dolphins run game was struggling yet again.
Fast Forward to Week 6. Miami faces off against big favorite Pittsburgh. Jay Ajayi had other plans for Miami. Ajayi entered the game never having rushed for 100 yards in a game. He surpassed that mark, by far. The second year pro out of Boise State rushed the football 204 yards including a 62 yard stroll with only minutes left to seal the Dolphins upset win. Only two other backs have rushed for more than 200 yards against the Steelers since the 1970 merger — Buffalo’s O.J. Simpson (227) in 1975 and Joe Morris of the New York Giants (202) in 1985.
Well, everyone has ONE good game, right? Ajayi still had doubters. That group has faded very much since this past week. Week 7 saw Miami host Buffalo, and Miami was carrying the momentum from the previous week. Still underdogs, Ajayi yet again had other plans. In an even more impressive game compared to the previous week, Ajayi piled up 214 yards rushing in another big Dolphins win. Ajayi became just the fourth player to rush for over 200 yards in back-to-back games. Ajayi joined O.J. Simpson, Earl Campbell and Ricky Williams as the only players to accomplish that feat.
Ajayi is seventh in the NFL in rushing yards with 535, despite not emerging until the last two games. Given that it has only been a strong 2 weeks, nobody is saying Ajayi is the next MVP of the league. Give him a handful of more games like this one, and then you might hear this. What people are sating is that Ajayi may finally be the answer Miami is looking for. With a history of injury in college, teams were hesitant to draft him last yeat, until Miami called his number. A relatively low key rookie season saw him improve his game step by step.
It is now showing in big numbers. After rushing for just 117 yards in the first five weeks of the season (when the Dolphins went 1-4), Ajayi rushed 418 yards in the past two weeks. Ajayi gave a lot of the credit for his two big weeks to the Dolphins’ offensive line, which he said has set a “physical tone” early in those games. The Dolphins are now on a bye week, so Ajayi will have some time to rest up and strategize in hopes to have another big game against the Jets, where Miami will finally be favorites to win a game.
Jay Ajayi has certainly put his name on the radar the past few weeks, and with the success he has had pounding the ball, the Dolphins as a team have won 2 in a row and could be on the verge of a midseason surge.
