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Dec 15, 2025; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Miami Dolphins running back De'Von Achane (28) warms up before the game against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Acrisure Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images
The Miami Dolphins trade rumors swirled around De'Von Achane this offseason.
In the end, though, they gave him a big contract extension instead of sending him elsewhere.
There's a chance that was a mistake.
This isn't about Achane himself. But in a new article Thursday by ESPN's Bill Barnwell, the analyst breaks down why this Dolphins team isn't the one to maximize Achane.
"Getting Achane for $16 million per year was reasonable enough, and I love what he can bring to the table in the right offense," Barnwell writes. "Are the 2026, 2027 and 2028 Dolphins likely to be that offense? I'm not really sure that will be the case."
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He goes on to point out that the Dolphins' run game may miss Mike McDaniel, who was great in play design for Achane, and that new QB Malik Willis will run more than past Miami quarterbacks, taking chances away from Achane on the ground.
It's not that Achane didn't warrant the payday as much as it's about the fact that the Dolphins may not be properly maximizing their assets with this move.
"Achane could have thrived elsewhere," Barnwell writes. "If the Dolphins could have landed a second-round pick for him, I would have preferred to see them move on and try to land the next Achane in the middle rounds of the draft over the years to come."
The main path toward proving Barnwell wrong on this would be if Willis quickly turns into a star and leads a dynamic, hard-to-stop backfield alongside Achane.
But if Willis struggles, or the Dolphins as a team can't seem to keep up in the AFC East, then the money to Achane won't feel like it was quite as well spent.
Miami has a lot of new faces this season, and so keeping Achane as a stabilizing force could pay dividends. The Dolphins are going to have to win football games for that to really feel like the case.
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