Miami Dolphins message to Christian Wilkins for third season: You can do a lot more

Christian Wilkins can take up space. There’s no doubt about that.

Aside from the fact he’s 315 pounds and athletic enough to perform a split or dunk a basketball, he is sometimes assigned to basically gobble up blockers or occupy space at the line of scrimmage. A play in which Wilkins doesn’t make the tackle might be a good play if he engaged a blocker or two and set the stage for a teammate to make the play.

But, let’s be frank, the Miami Dolphins need more than that.

Everyone wants more than that.

So Miami’s 2019 first-round draft pick — solid as he has been his first two seasons — has been told he can do more in the looming 2021 season.

“I think he can definitely do a lot more,” defensive line coach Austin Clark recently told reporters, echoing thoughts he’d already expressed to Wilkins.

So Year 3 for Christian Wilkins has to be about, well, doing more.

Wilkins has delivered some big moments his first two seasons.

He had two sacks as a rookie. He had a big interception against the Los Angeles Rams last season, two batted passes and a sack against the New York Jets, and recovered a fumble against the San Francisco 49ers.

And that was good.

But the huge leap Dolphins coaches expect from players in their second year simply could not be measured by obvious statistics with Wilkins. Because those statistics didn’t explode off the stat sheet

The improvement Wilkins made was more nuanced.

“Yeah, well, definitely that is a big thing that is talked about,” Wilkins said about the second-year leap. “I feel for me personally I tried to hone my overall craft. The biggest thing first was getting in the proper shape to be a pro. I felt that helped me a lot and I worked from there.

“I worked on my technique and tried to improve as a teammate and a leader, and I feel like I made a lot of strides in a lot of different areas.”

Wilkins paid close attention to his conditioning. And he believes he greatly improved that.

“I’m my biggest critic and so it’s working on everything, but definitely I feel like I can play at any time, as many snaps as I needed, run to the ball, those things I pride myself on,” Wilkins said. “That’s where it starts for me.”

Wilkins had his conditioning severely tested last November because he was placed on the reserve COVID-19 list for two weeks.

And the Dolphins believe that took a toll.

“I think he did do a good job throughout the season of getting better and better,” Clark said. “He had the COVID thing and missed some games. I do think that hurt him because he was starting to come on right then. But I’m really fired up about him.

“Obviously, going into Year 3, I think his best ball is ahead of him. I couldn’t be more excited for him this year.”

And Wilkins obviously wants to make a greater impact.

“Wherever I am I try to make an impact on the team as much as possible,” Wilkins said.

“Like I said earlier, I’m my biggest critic so I’m going to be hard on myself, so even if I finished with every stat, every category, every award, it still wouldn’t have been enough. I just look forward to this year and try to improve this year and try to be the best player I can be.”

How is Wilkins proposing to get there?

“Really, the day-in and day-out improvement,” Wilkins said. “Get one percent better and the rest will take care of itself. I want to take care of the small things and the big things will come.

“Everyday just locking in on the little details, just trying to find ways to fine-tune my body, try to fine-tune my spirit, my game, all that. Like I said, the little things so those will lead to the big things.”

It should be noted that a player’s impact can be felt in multiple ways. Yes, statistics and big plays matter a lot. But there are other ways to impact the team.

And Wilkins is looking at those as well.

“Well, the biggest thing for me is I try to be a good teammate,” he said. “I pride myself on that first and foremost. So whatever I’m asked to do, whether it’s hold guys up or make a play, whatever I’m asked to do. I like to play within the scheme and do the best I can within my role and be a good teammate. That’s the No. 1 important thing to me.”

Wilkins calls it bringing energy and bringing juice.

“That really matters on those days where it’s the 12th practice of camp and everybody’s dead and tired and you got a little bit more of a spark,” Wilkins said. “And you’re like, ‘All right, I’ll be the spark today.’ Like I’ll get those guys going. I’ll try to make a play or bring a little energy.

“It’s hard when the mood can be down, you just be yourself day in and day out.”

The players who brought the most juice to the Dolphins last year were Ryan Fitzpatrick and Xavien Howard. They did it differently.

Fitzpatrick did it by exuding so much confidence it was contagious to players around him. Howard did it by delivering big play after big play and that lifted the entire team.

Wilkins can pick up on some of that this coming season. All he has to do is what coaches want him from:

Do more.