Will Lamar Miller Retain The Title Of Starting Running Back For The Miami Dolphins?

There have been multiple reports on Lamar Miller coming out of the Dolphins workout's this week. Most of what has been said centers around the fact that Lamar looks "bulked up" having come in at 225 pounds (vs his playing weight of 218 last season) or his comment that he expects to be more of an "all around back". The kind of running back that you can have in there for all three downs and late in to the game and feed the ball to over and over and over when needed.

Miller might be feeling the heat from all the buzz created by the Dolphins drafting Jay Ajayi or perhaps this is a fourth year player, entering the final year of his contract and knowing that he needs to make a statement or he will both be looking at another team and a sub par contract. In today's NFL backs are not paid well compared to other skill positions as it is so perhaps he and his agent knowing this know that he must go out there and beast mode it all season long in hopes of getting what would be considered a "decent" deal for a running back by today's standards.

It would seem unlikely that a guy coming off an almost 1,100 yard rushing season should fear for his starting position on the team. The big difference with Miller and most 1,000 plus yard rushers is his number of carries. The Dolphins, for whatever reason never seemed comfortable using Miller as a workhorse despite an offense featuring a young signal caller. As a result and despite going over the grand mark in rushing yardage, Lamar only averaged 13.5 carries per contest. The only other back to eclipse the 1,000 yard mark and have fewer carries was Jammal Charles with just under 13 carries per game and 66 fewer yards.

The number you hear for a starting back as far as carries per game is usually in the 20 carries per game range and the vast majority of the 2014 thousand yard club not only hit that average but went slightly over. Now with Miller coming in to the off-season with more muscle on his frame and perhaps more than one reason to show out will he show enough in camp to finally gain the trust of the Dolphins coaching staff to actually utilize him like a full time starting running back or is the rookie going to just prove too good to not at the very lest split up the carries even more this season?

Will the added weight help or hinder him? Miller best skill seems to be his speed and yet Lamar will often times try and take on tacklers that he should just try and avoid all together with his speed. Will this added bulk hurt his speed but help him take on those tacklers better? Miller for sure seems more determined this off-season based on his actions and words but of course the proof will come on game days.

What are your thoughts on Miller? Will he retain the title of starter? Will he still be a Dolphin in 2016? Will he so ball out that the Dolphins won't be able to keep him off the field? Will the rookie, Ajayi, so impress everyone that no matter what Miller does he will be stuck splitting carries with him or even taking a back seat to him?