Wide receiver Erik Ezukanma fights his way back into mix for Dolphins after neck injury
The questions about his future were natural for Erik Ezukanma when an old neck injury resurfaced last season and forced him to miss nearly the entire 2023-24 NFL season. Neck injuries, especially ones that repeat, bring with them questions about long-term health — health beyond football — and Ezukanma said his ability to keep playing football at all “was definitely a question” when the Miami Dolphins placed him on the non-football injury list last year because of his re-aggravated neck injury.
By the end of the season, Ezukanma got the good news he was looking for, though, and now he’s ready to try to pick up where he left off after an intriguing start to his second season last year.
“I needed some things to handle with the overall injury, but, overall, I knew it wasn’t going to be my last time playing,” the 24-year-old wide receiver said. “Everybody goes through their adversities and all those things, but I feel like I’m here now and I’m ready to go.”
The makeup of the Dolphins’ roster, however, is vastly different than it was a year ago, when Ezukanma appeared to have a real shot at a regular spot in the receivers rotation, and maybe even an outside chance to be the No. 3 option behind star wide receivers Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle. Miami picked wide receivers in the sixth and seventh rounds of the 2024 NFL Draft last month, and then signed two-time All-Pro wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. as a free agent May 8.
The No. 3 spot now appears to be Beckham’s to lose, and the additions of rookie wide receivers Malik Washington and Tahj Washington will make for a crowded competition behind the Dolphins’ three high-profile wideouts.
Ezukanma, who has two seasons left on the rookie contract he signed after Miami took him in the fourth round of the 2022 NFL Draft, is not discouraged by all the change, even with only 25 yards from scrimmage in his still-young career.
“I feel like I’m a baller, honestly,” Ezukanma said. “Training camp comes, that’s when you make the team.”
The best evidence that coach Mike McDaniel values Ezukanma is the way most of those yards came last year: Without a consistent way to get Ezukanma the ball as a receiver, McDaniel turned the 6-foot-2, 206-pound athlete into a gadget player, giving him five carries in the first two games of the year — he turned them into 22 yards — before the neck injury ended his season.
Ezukanma spent the early part of last year watching film of 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel, whom McDaniel helped turn into a first-team All-Pro in 2021 as San Francisco’s offensive coordinator, and the possibility that he could give the Dolphins some of what Samuel gives the 49ers will let him differentiate himself.
“I’m an all-around player, so versatile — being in the backfield, getting tosses, going downfield, deep shots, over the middle,” Ezukanma said. “Wherever you need me, I can do that.”
With most of the veteran receivers missing from organized team activities this week in Miami Gardens, opportunities are plentiful for Ezukanma and he got to work with Tua Tagovailoa on Monday before the quarterback missed practice on Tuesday for a previous commitment at former Alabama coach Nick Saban’s charity golf tournament.
The wait just to get back on the field was long enough for Ezukanma. He was eager to get back in action this month and start the journey back to where he thinks he still can get.
“It’s awesome,” Ezukanma said. “I’m just ready to get the pads and really show what I can do.”
