Jeff Hafley isn't easing De'Von Achane into his first season as Dolphins head coach. He's throwing him the entire offense.
That's not a throwaway line. Hafley doubled down during an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show, telling the host Achane could see games where he touches the ball more than 40 times.
Dolphins HC Jeff Hafley promised a heavy workload for De'Von Achane during an interview with “The Rich Eisen Show,” saying that the star running back could have games in which he touches the ball more than 40 times. https://t.co/TwlWKDHUfi
For context on how rare that is: the last back to crack 40 touches in a game was Derrick Henry, who had 41 touches for Tennessee in Week 2 of 2021. Over the last decade, only four running backs have hit that mark at all, per research_facts below. Achane's own career high sits at 29 touches in a single game — so Hafley isn't talking about a modest bump, he's talking about smashing his ceiling by double digits.
The workload spike makes sense given what Miami lost this offseason. Both Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle are gone, stripping the passing game of its two most explosive weapons and leaving Achane as the last proven playmaker on the roster. He's already the only returning Dolphin who topped 350 receiving yards last season, and he finished 5th in the NFL in rushing with 1,350 yards on his way to a career-high 305 touches.
Miami backed that trust up with money. The Dolphins signed Achane to a four-year, $64 million extension earlier this year, $32 million of it guaranteed — a deal that all but confirms he's the engine of whatever new coordinator Bobby Slowik is building around Malik Willis under center.
There's also a wild historical number floating around this story: James Wilder's 1984 single-season touches record of 492 has stood for over 40 years. If Achane were to average his career-high 29 touches across a full slate of games, he'd threaten to break it. That's obviously a stretch — full seasons rarely play out that cleanly — but it shows just how aggressive Hafley's plan sounds on paper.
None of this is set in stone until Miami's offense actually takes the field. But between the contract, the departures at receiver, and a head coach publicly bracing his star back for exhaustion, the runway is there for Achane to have one of the heaviest workloads in the league this season — fantasy managers and bettors alike are already adjusting their numbers.