2023 Miami Dolphins Orange Jersey Award Recap

The Miami Dolphins have finished training camp and preseason for 2023 and now direct their attention to the regular season opener in Los Angeles against the Chargers on September 10th.

While the Dolphins are looking forward, we are going to take a peek in the opposite direction to dissect Miami’s prestigious orange jersey award to see if we can notice any patterns and predict what these ostentatious threads could mean for the 2023 NFL season.

The first thing that jumps out to me is the fact that out of a possible 27 practices, Miami only awarded a player the orange jersey 20 times. Seven times, no orange jersey was handed out. Head coach Mike McDaniel claimed that he didn’t like to dish out the orange jersey during joint practices so as to not put a target on one of his players’ backs.

The orange jersey was awarded to an offensive player nine times, while a defensive player won the award eleven times. This should bode well for newly signed defensive coordinator Vic Fangio’s ability to turn Miami’s defenders into feared competition for their opponents this upcoming season.

A few players won the award on multiple occasions, though no player won the award three times this offseason. Jaylen Waddle won the award twice, as did Jevon Holland. Miami’s fullback Alec Ingold was a multi-time winner, as was Dolphins’ hold-in defensive tackle Christian Wilkins. Maybe Wilkins can use his multiple orange jersey awards as a negotiation tactic in order to ink a long-term deal with the Fins...

Interestingly enough, only one offensive lineman received the orange jersey award in 2023, and that player may not even end up being a starter on the squad. Struggling left guard Liam Eichenberg wore orange on the final day of mini-camp.

All in all, it was a fun offseason for the Miami Dolphins, but I think we can all agree that just like Hank Williams Jr. would say, we are ready for some (real) football!