Kelly: Undrafted rookies historically will get their chance with Dolphins | Opinion

Here’s a secret pleasure I’ve had for years.

One of the most enjoyable parts of covering the Miami Dolphins is seeing the scared, deer in a headlights look on the faces of Miami’s rookies as they participate in their first camps, and then eventually seeing the light bulb come on for some of these youngster trying to live out their life’s dream.

To get why it’s a pleasure you have to understand the journey they began this week at rookie camp.

The coaches have thrown an entire playbook at them in the span of a weekend. They have weeks before the information — which at one point had the thickness of a 10-pound Encyclopedia, but is mainly all digital now - must be memorized and executed at the snap of a football.

For months their heads are spinning, their brains are on overload.

“Draft day didn’t go as I wanted it to, but I ended up in the right spot, and God blessed me,” said former UCLA pass rusher Grayson Murphy, who played in 51 games, starting 28, and made 115 tackles, 34.5 for losses, and posted 21.5 sacks in his college career.

Murphy likely won’t get the opportunities that Chop Robinson and Mohamed Kamara, the two draftees, have to make an immediate impact, but with Bradley Chubb and Jaelan Phillips likely sitting out OTAs, and maybe beginning training camp on the PUP list because of their injuries, it’s possible he will get a steady diet of snaps early to prove himself.

Those opportunities could equate to a roster spot if he holds his own and impresses.

“I just have to go out there and be myself, come out and compete every day and give the guys the best me,” Murphy said.

That means he needs to show up every day, much like Robert Jones, Kion Smith, Julian Hill, Chris Brooks, Tanner Conner, Brandon Pili, Nik Needham, Kader Kohou and Ethan Bonner did when they were undrafted rookies.

Plenty of NFL standouts, even Hall of Famers, began their career as undrafted players. But it’s an arduous road.

I love when Dolphins equipment manager Joe Cimino blows the whistle ending a practice period, and the rookies resemble sheep waiting to be herded to the next field during rookie camp.

There’s a rhythm and flow to football practices, and newcomers participating in this week’s rookie orientation don’t know it yet, and it will take them weeks to figure things out.

Even better, it will take them months to figure out the NFL game. Maybe by November they will have their footing, and that’s if they haven’t hit the rookie wall, which is a real thing.

But there’s usually a moment when you begin to see why some of these youngsters born in the new millennium should have been drafted. There are instances when you actually see the light bulb come on early.

Maybe it’s the time an undrafted rookie cornerback from Stanford (Bonner) hangs with Pro Bowl receiver Tyreek Hill stride for stride on a deep pattern, and breaks up a training camp pass from Tua Tagovailoa.

That happened, and it earned Hill’s respect, and prompted the All Pro receiver to name drop Bonner as one of the fastest players on the team last year.

Or how about when undrafted rookie tailback (Brooks) inspired his offensive teammates to dogpile him at the conclusion of a 95-yards touchdown run that closed out a training camp practice last August.

Sometimes it’s more about the totality of work instead of one play, like when Hill, an undrafted rookie from Campbell, leapfrogs Elijah Higgins, the tight end Miami selected in the sixth round of the 2023 Draft, on the depth chart, and never gives the spot back.

Hill’s daily performance as an afterthought paving the way for a player once thought of as a camp body to make the 53-man roster, leading to Higgins’ release. Hill wound up becoming Miami’s No. 2 tight end, and played 343 offensive snaps as a rookie.

While those three weren’t draftees, they each contributed to last year’s team more than cornerback Cam Smith, the team’s second-round pick, and a few other members of Miami’s 2023 draft class.

But this is nothing new considering there’s annually a Needham, or a Kohou, two former undrafted rookies who not only carved out roster spots, but earned contributing role. That’s been the norm in Miami since receiver Davone Bess did it in 2008.

Not everyone has staying power — see Preston Williams’ hot start and cold career in Miami for example — but Dolphins have annually found gems in the undrafted talent, and those players have supplemented Miami’s rookie class.

“Betting on yourself, and having confidence in yourself. Coming out everyday and competing. That’s all you can do. That’s what I live by,” said Storm Duck, a Louisville product who the Dolphins gave a $20,000 signing bonus to, and guaranteed $150,000 of his rookie deal to sign. “Anything is possible, no matter what’s thrown at you, or who believes in you, and who doesn’t believe in you. You can still make it happen.”