He’s known as ‘The Intern’ among the Dolphins. His next title could be starting running back

Patrick Laird’s nickname came innocently enough.

It stems from a late night at the Miami Dolphins’ practice facility during training camp when the undrafted rookie running back ended up eating dinner with a group of interns from the team’s operations staff. After about 10 minutes of listening to the group discuss what colleges they go to and what their interests are, a member of the group asked Laird a question.

“So, what do you do here?”

“The rookies every once in a while have to get up and tell stories in front of the team,” Laird said. “I told that story. Everyone laughed, and they’ve pretty much called me ‘The Intern’ ever since.”

They might be calling Laird by a new title very soon: Starting running back.

Laird had another quietly impressive game in the Dolphins’ 37-31 win over the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday. He scored Miami’s go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter — the first of his NFL career — and caught the ensuing two-point conversion.

He also caught four passes out of the backfield for 43 yards.

Depending on the severity of Kalen Ballage’s leg injury — he was carted to the locker room in the second quarter — Laird has the potential to be the next player to cycle into the Dolphins’ starting running back spot. This after he came into the season competing with fellow rookie Myles Gaskin for the No. 4 spot behind Kenyan Drake (now with the Arizona Cardinals), Ballage and Mark Walton (cut following his arrest for aggravated battery of a pregnant person — his fourth run-in with the law this calendar year).

Should Ballage have to miss extended time, it would leave the Dolphins with Laird, Gaskin, fullback Chandler Cox and recently promoted De’Lance Turner as running back options on the active roster.

“I’ve been sticking to my process, sticking to my routine since Week 1 so that if the opportunity presented itself, I’d be ready to go on offense,” Laird said. “I’ve been playing on special teams for a while. I love that role. I’ll continue to do that. But if they need me on offense, I’ll do that.”

And it wouldn’t be a first for Laird to go from being a lightly-used player to an active contributor.

The 24-year-old began his college career as a walk-on at Cal, where he said he was probably seventh on the depth chart as a freshman.

He ended his time with the Golden Bears as a two-time captain, rushing for 2,153 yards and 14 touchdowns on 425 carries while adding 608 receiving yards and five touchdowns on 99 catches in 41 career games. His 51 catches out of the backfield as a senior stand as the school’s single-season record by a running back.

“I know what it’s like to be deep on the depth chart,” Laird said.

And he knows what it’s like to step up when the opportunity arises.

Take his fourth-quarter touchdown on Sunday.

With the Dolphins facing a first and goal from the 4, trailing by two, Laird took a handoff from Ryan Fitzpatrick and followed a lead block up the middle by Cox. He sprinted, got jammed right outside the goal line and, with an assist from guard Michael Dieter, pushed his way into the end zone for his first career touchdown.

“Felt awesome,” Laird said.

It capped a nine-play, 96-yard drive and was the fifth consecutive drive that the Dolphins scored a touchdown.

And it gave the Dolphins a rare lead that they would hold onto for the final 11:06 of regulation, one that extended to XX points after he caught the two-point conversion attempt that followed.

“Fitz has his reads on that,” Laird said, “but all week in practice we expected a matchup where I could get inside the linebacker or the safety — whoever was covering me. That’s how it worked out. Fitz made a great throw. It ended up working out.”

As for his touchdown ball? He had it stuffed away in a backpack at his locker. He hadn’t thought about where he was going to put it just yet. There were more important plans on his mind.

Sunday was his girlfriend Bryce’s birthday.

“We’re going to celebrate,” Laird said.

The Dolphins as a whole have reason to celebrate, too. Sunday’s win was their third in the past five games after starting the year with seven consecutive losses.

“We’ve stuck together,” Laird said. “We’ve stuck to the things that coach [Brian] Flores preaches and we believe we can win every game. Some people on the outside might not think that, but we really believe that and we believed that when we came into this game today and we executed. If you believe but don’t execute, the belief doesn’t mean anything. We believed and then we executed today.”

On the season, Laird now has 145 yards from scrimmage on 28 touches (36 rushing yards on 16 carries; 109 receiving yards on 12 catches). Almost all of the offensive production — 94 of the receiving yards and 32 of the rushing yards — have come in the past three weeks.

“I think he was a guy that is slowly showing us that we can really rely on him in doing the different things that he does well,” Fitzpatrick said. “He caught a couple screens today and had some nice run after catches. I was proud of the way that Patrick played today.”

Not bad for The Intern.