When the Dolphins drafted DeVante Parker back in 2015, you should’ve seen my face. 

Pure joy, surpassed perhaps only by the moment Tua Tagovailoa became a Miami Dolphin in last year’s draft.

After the 2014 NFL season, Dolphins fans began eyeing Parker, the explosive wide receiver from Louisville. By the time the draft rolled around, however, a familiar phenomenon began taking place: the player all the fans wanted started rising up draft boards. In the days leading up to the draft, Parker falling to the Dolphins at pick number fourteen was considered a pipe dream. 

But on day one, the fourteenth pick rolled around, and, viola, guess who was still available?

DeVante Parker, the man himself.

(The Bears opted for Kevin White with the seventh pick and made him the second receiver off the board before Parker, so we have them to thank for things working out).

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I was in high school at the time, watching on our old, giant TV in the basement. I remember laughing at the Giants for taking Ereck Flowers so high and then sprinting upstairs for dinner after the Parker pick, grinning from ear to ear. 

The grin, however, became strained before long.

After four seasons in Miami where it felt like every year I was making excuses to my friends why he hadn’t broken out that season, the wonder from the 2015 draft had waned.

Things got especially ugly for Parker during the 2018 campaign, Adam Gase’s last with the team. Parker had been held out of all but two games due to a quad injury leading up to the trade deadline. At this point, the theme of Parker missing games thanks to injury was becoming all too familiar. However, the surprise with this week in the 2018 season was that Parker had been a full participant in practice all week before being declared inactive for a game against the Lions.

He was essentially a healthy scratch. Not a good look for a former first-rounder.

After the game, things got worse when Parker’s agent got publicly involved. He said that instead of questioning his client’s health, “the only real question that should be asked is how does Coach Gase justify his own incompetence?”

Yeah, not great. 

That whole season Parker caught only 24 passes for 309 yards and a single touchdown. He also mustered only 47 targets, which for perspective was only about four targets a game in the contests he actually played. After that Lions game, he was also the center of trade speculation. Things were going downhill quicker than the Las Vegas Raiders’ playoff hopes in the second half of every season. 

Then something marvelous happened at the close of the 2018 season: Gase was finally fired, and Dolphins owner Stephen Ross brought in Brian Flores as head coach, finally triggering the beleaguered receiver’s breakout season. Parker was perhaps the team’s most significant bright spot during the 5-11 rebuilding campaign, racking up 1,202 yards on 72 catches with 9 touchdowns.

With a head coach who believed in him and a pleasantly surprising run of good health, Parker morphed into one of the most dominant receivers in the league during the 2019 season. 

A passive personality for most of his first few seasons with the Dolphins, Parker played the 2019 season with an edge fans hadn’t seen before. This legendary staredown after the strong-man, one-handed touchdown catch against Adam Gase’s Jets was evidence of that.

The Dolphins rewarded Parker following the breakout with a four-year, $30.5 million contract expansion after that season. Parker wasn’t quite as dominant in 2020 — due largely partly due to his health not holding up as well as in 2019 and the move away from Ryan Fitzpatrick at quarterback — but still had a good enough season to make the contract look very good for the franchise. 

With Fitzpatrick officially out of town and Tua taking the reins as the unquestioned starter under center, the question now is if Parker can recapture the magic of the 2019 season. With a much improved supporting cast of wide receivers flanking him, defensive backs shouldn’t be able to key in on Parker as much as in seasons past. Will Fuller and Jaylen Waddle, in particular, should help in that regard.

Parker’s ascension to being a top receiver in the league — and one who can be relied on to not miss games due to injury — will likely hinge on his chemistry with Tagovailoa, however. 

We know that the young quarterback has organized throwing sessions during the offseason with his receivers, so the hope is that the familiarity will pay dividends during the season. In Parker’s own words, “It just comes down to getting a lot of reps in with [Tagovailoa] and just taking it to the game. That’s what it comes down to.”

However, the upcoming 2021 season aside, it’s remarkable that Parker has remained a Dolphin through it all. Despite missing games due to injuries, Adam Gase’s incompetence, having the likes of Jay Cutler and Brock Osweiler at quarterback, a head coaching change, and tremendous amounts of roster turnover, Parker has endured. 

As Adam Beasley pointed out in an article last month, Parker is miraculously now the team’s longest-tenured player. 

And after an offseason spent trying to “get quicker, faster, and more explosive,” the hope is that Parker is ready to regain his 2019 form with Tua Tagovailoa. If he does, you can bet I’ll be writing a column on it grinning from ear to ear, just like I was when Parker heard his name called in the 2015 draft.