Miami Dolphins Top 25 players countdown: Christian Wilkins is No. 8

This is The Palm Beach Post's Top 25 countdown of Dolphins players entering the 2022 season. We'll reveal multiple players each week throughout the summer, as ranked by our reporters using a simple criterion: Who's the better player right now?

He entered the league by crashing into the NFL commissioner on the draft stage and later put an exclamation point on his third season by doing the worm, even though most worms aren’t 310 pounds.

There’s plenty more to defensive tackle Christian Wilkins, of course, or else the Dolphins wouldn’t have picked up the fifth-year option on his contract.

Although Wilkins never has been accused of not knowing how to have fun, there’s a serious side to him, too. He’s the team’s union rep to the NFL Players Association, and, at age 26, has grown into a leadership role in the locker room.

Wilkins isn’t so far removed from his rookie season that he has forgotten how tough the adjustment can be from college.

“The biggest thing was just kind of early on, a lot was overwhelming,” he said. “You come in with a lot of high expectations — first-round pick, new coach, new everything, everything is new, a lot of pressure — so you’re just trying to get your feet under you. You’re like ‘damn’ and you’re trying to figure out life. You’re trying to figure out everything else, not just ball. …

“I always try to be that for them. I can’t tell them everything before it happens, but just kind of be a mentor and a big brother as things do come up for them.”

More: Dolphins exercise Christian Wilkins' fifth-year option

Why we ranked Wilkins here

Wilkins has been an iron man on Miami’s defensive front, missing only two games since being drafted. And he’s active when he’s out there.

Wilkins made 89 tackles last season, tied with Pittsburgh’s Cameron Heyward for the most by any defensive lineman in the NFL since 2013. And since 1986, the only Dolphins defensive lineman to record more tackles was Jeff Cross in 1993.

In 2021, Wilkins had 4.5 sacks, three passes defensed, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery.

But enough about his defense. His highlight clip to end all highlight clips from 2021 was when he caught a 1-yard touchdown pass to give the Dolphins a 24-17 fourth-quarter lead over the Jets. He then flopped to the ground, did the worm and made social media go nuts. The Dolphins won 31-24.

Where we see Wilkins headed

“I’m not even scratching the surface of where I think I can be,” Wilkins said. “I try to make it a conscious effort each and every day to come in and get better at something. I have a focus of the day and I try to lock in on that and be dominant at that for that day. And eventually, as you get more reps, you focus on that more times, and you’re going to get better at those things and in those areas. That’s just my mindset every day.”

Whatever his approach, it appears to be working. When coach Mike McDaniel told the team that the player who practices the best each day gets to pick the playlist for the next workout, there was excitement. Wilkins was one of the first to earn the orange jersey, symbolizing he was deejay for a day.

“I personally think I had the best one because I had a little something for everybody,” Wilkins said of his playlist.

Hal Habib covers the Dolphins for The Post. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Miami Dolphins Top 25 players countdown: Christian Wilkins is No. 8