Knee Injuries, questionable tags, bone-on-bone; Just a few of the many concerns that have followed running back Jay Ajayi since he entered the league in 2015 out of Boise State. During his senior season in Boise , Ajayi put up eye-popping numbers. He rushed for over 1,800 yards and 28 touchdowns, while adding 50 receipts for another 500+ yards and 4 more scores. These numbers seemed indicative of a future first round pick.
That certainly did not turn out to be the case, however. Ajayi endured quite a draft day freefall, landing ultimately with Miami at the 149th overall pick in the draft’s fifth round. He was taken after backup NFL types such as David Cobb, Mike Davis and T.J. Yeldon. All of this happened because of a draft-day concern that was raised about the stability of Ajayi’s knees. A rumor that because his knee was surgically repaired and said to be “bone on bone” with no cartilage, that his career could be shortened significantly.
To his credit, Ajayi maintains that his knees are not a concerns and it certainly hasn’t seemed to slow him down early in his career. In his first year starting in 2016, Ajayi rushed for over 1,200 yards and 8 touchdowns. In fact, his 1,272 rushing yards ranked him third all-time among Miami Dolphins single season rushing yardage leaders – An impressive feat indeed for a first-year starter.
Flash forward to the 2017 season and injury concerns appear to be a lingering issue for Ajayi once again. And once again, it doesn’t appear to be slowing the Jay-Train down one bit. In his first start of the season, Ajayi gashed the Los Angeles Chargers for 122 yards. According to the Miami Herald’s Armando Salguero, coach Adam Gase “doesn’t plan to scale back Jay Ajayi’s workload.” This will likely mean more managed practice reps and continued questionable tags for the foreseeable future. But if recent history is any indication, the Jay-Train will just keep chugging right along. And the Dolphins will continue to ride that train on the track to the NFL Playoffs.
