For almost all of the 2023 season, Cam Smith watched the Miami Dolphins defense from the sidelines.
The second-round pick — Miami’s top selection in the 2023 NFL draft — was on the field for only 20 defensive snaps as a rookie, and he was a healthy scratch in the Dolphins’ playoff loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
“I didn’t have the season I wanted. I didn’t really get the opportunities that I wanted, but I mean that’s that,” Smith said last week, via ESPN’s Marcel Louis-Jacques. “In the end, ain’t nothing given to you in this league. Stuff happens and I’m here so I feel like I’m free.”
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Smith, 23, tried to take positives from his year on the bench, though.
“[It wasn’t] really that bad. I’m under two of the greats in the league, two of the best to ever do it, in [Xavien Howard] and Jalen [Ramsey],” Smith said. “I literally learned so much from them just sitting in a room with them just picking their brain and stuff like that. Just seeing what they see when I’m on the field. So it was just kind of really a learning experience. I just went to school for a year.”
Was it enough to mean a significant sophomore leap is on the way? The Dolphins certainly hope so.
After cutting ties with Howard, the team signed Kendall Fuller in free agency to be their new starter opposite Ramsey. But depth behind that duo will be awfully thin if Smith isn’t ready to see the field in 2024.
“Timelines are unique to each individual,” Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel said when asked about Smith last week. “What I’m really pumped about is I know in year two that the relationships that he’s holding within his position and the coaches and the way he’s attacking this offseason is that he’s not satisfied with that by any stretch nor is the organization.”
The battle for snaps at cornerback behind Ramsey and Fuller will include Kader Kohou, Nik Needham, Siran Neal, and Ethan Booner, in addition to Smith.
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