Miami Dolphins cornerback Kendall Sheffield wasn’t supposed to get this far.
The cornerback was the only veteran brought in for a tryout during rookie minicamp in May. After a good workout, the Dolphins signed Sheffield, who hadn’t started a game since the 2020 season and barely played last year.
Fast forward to the team’s first joint practice of the preseason Friday, and Sheffield is sitting at the top of the Dolphins’ cornerback depth chart, leading the competition for one of the team’s starting outside cornerback spots.
While it’s a surprise from the outside, Sheffield never had any doubts.
“I always dreamed of it,” Sheffield told reporters in Chicago. “I just need the opportunity and with the opportunity, I’ll just make the best of it.”
Just signing with the Dolphins was the opportunity Sheffield was looking for, but perhaps no other team in the league would’ve allowed him to compete for a starting spot.
Miami’s cornerback room is a wide-open battle after the team largely ignored the position in free agency and moved on from last year’s starters. Plus, Kader Kohou and Artie Burns suffered season-ending knee injuries early in camp.
However, even before Burns and Kohou went down, Sheffield was positioning himself well to be a potential starter. He flashed during OTAs in June, which put him ahead of players like Cam Smith, Isaiah Johnson, and Ethan Bonner.
Sheffield might have a leg up on the competition for now, but it’s still early in the preseason, and he’s got some better competition. When Kohou and Burns went down, the Dolphins signed Jack Jones and Mike Hilton, two players with recent starting experience.
Hilton will likely start in the slot, but Jones is in direct competition with Sheffield for a starting spot opposite Storm Duck, who has also flashed during training camp thus far.
This group of players is unlikely to inspire confidence from national pundits, but unsurprisingly, Sheffield is bullish on the room’s ability.
“I mean, we are good players,” Sheffield said. “We have extreme talent in our room. And it’s all with our cornerback coach [Mathieu Araujo]. He believes in us. He teaches good technique. And we’re gonna be the best we can be.”
On paper, this looks like an incredibly lopsided battle.
In 42 games (21 starts), Jones has seven interceptions and 27 pass breakups. He’s also returned four of those seven interceptions for touchdowns, recording two pick-sixes last season and in 2022.
Last year alone, Jones had three interceptions and 16 pass breakups in 16 starts with the Raiders. Compare that to Sheffield, who had zero ball production while only playing 92 defensive snaps for the Jets, and it’s easy to see why this isn’t much of a competition at first glance.
That said, football isn’t played on paper, and Jones is known just as much for making big mistakes in coverage as he is for making plays on the ball.
Consistency goes a long way at a position like cornerback, and Sheffield has plenty of natural talent in his own right. When the Falcons selected him in the fourth round of the 2019 NFL draft, his calling card was speed.
Although he didn’t run the 40-yard dash at the NFL combine, he set the Ohio State 60-meter indoor record (6.663) while participating on the track team. Some reports from his college days have him running in the mid-4.2s when healthy.
That speed allows Sheffield to be trusted in ways some cornerbacks can’t be.
“I could take away any go balls, any deep routes,” Sheffield said. “With that speed, I could also use it getting in and out of my breaks. And just having confidence that there are any overtop routes, I got [them].”
Preseason depth charts should be taken with a grain of salt, but Sheffield’s placement is real. Regardless of how fierce the competition was, his going from a minicamp tryout to a potential starter is impressive.
The only real question is whether he can hold onto it with the team preparing for its first preseason game Sunday afternoon.
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