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buddha bet With injuries at both safety positions, two Dolphins veterans will be tapped for snaps
The start of the 2024 season has been quite different for Marcus Maye. buddha bet
A eight-year veteran, the safety has always started — 77 consecutive games, to be exact — since being drafted in 2015. That is, until he signed with the Miami Dolphins in the 2024 offseason.
“Yeah,” Maye responded Monday when asked if the change in role has been a bit a weird, “but you know you just got to be ready at all times, no matter what. You’ve got to find some kind of way to impact the team, so special teams, whenever your number is called in certain packages and things like that, you just have to be prepared at all times. That’s what I was doing those first couple of weeks. So you know no matter who’s in there, no matter when or time of the game, you just got to be ready.”
But with a shin injury keeping Jordan Poyer out Sunday, Maye started against the New England Patriots, playing 100% of the defensive snaps. Then the unthinkable happened: Jevón Holland breaks his hand early in the fourth quarter, thrusting Elijah Campbell, who went undrafted in 2018 but has managed to carve out a role for himself, into a starting role.
Such is the life of the NFL. Two valuable starters are just — poof — gone. In the interim, however, the franchise must go on. That means Maye and Campbell will have to play prominent roles as long as the Poyer-Holland duo is sidelined. Luckily, both can play either safety role.
“Honestly, I’m more comfortable at safety now just because I’m playing it,” said Campbell, who’s listed as defensive back on the roster, later adding “I got to understand the position that I’m in. I’m not the one calling the shots. If I was, obviously I’d put myself in there but I’m always going to be prepared mentally, physically to go out there.”
Added Maye: “With the guys that we have in our room, who’s ever out there, they got to be ready to go at all times.”
For the record, it’s unclear how much time Holland and Poyer will actually miss. Coach Mike McDaniel didn’t offer up much, either.
“I feel good about where Poyer was at today, and I feel good about the time that we have until our next game so just positive on where Poyer is at,” McDaniel said Monday. “Not going to worry about timelines because I definitely don’t have a timeline this week. And then with Jevón, it should be about week-to-week.”
“So this week for the game, this coming Sunday, I can rule him out for that, but we’ll see how it progresses,” McDaniel later quipped about Holland.
McDaniel, however, didn’t rule out the possibility of Holland playing with a cast.
“He’s so instrumental in the various ways that we utilize him that I think if that would come to juncture, I would support that if he would support it because it’s all about guys feeling like they can do their jobs at a high level,” McDaniel said. “Each player is independent, but open to that with a player of his skillset.”
With Maye, the Dolphins won’t necessarily take that much of a step back. The former Florida Gator is the 16th-highest ranked safety in the NFL, per Pro Football Focus. For comparison, Poyer and Holland rank 79th and 45th, respectively. Across his career, Maye has recorded 29 forced fumbles, 8 interceptions and 427 combined tackles.
Campbell, on the other hand, is a bit of an unknown as the 29-year-old has only started two games — both coming against the New York Jets in 2022 and 2023 season. In those two starts, the former Northern Iowa record a combined four tackles and a pass deflection.
Regardless of what happens, as Maye previously said, everybody in that defensive back room will be ready to step up.
“You just got to have a next-man-up mentalitybuddha bet,” Maye said. “That’s what we’ve been preaching all year. Not just the starting 11, but the guys in that second wave have to be ready to go at all times.”