Jason Marshall Jr. wasn\u2019t trying to flatten a Dolphins assistant coach during a tackling drill.<\/p>\n
He just happened to bring a little more force than expected.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m 200 pounds, so sometimes that happens,\u201d Marshall joked.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old doesn\u2019t mind getting his nose dirty and stepping up to make tackles,<\/p>\n
And in a crowded-but-unproven cornerback room featuring veterans such as JuJu Brents, Storm Duck and Marco Wilson, the Miami Palmetto alumnus will have to lean into his strengths to separate himself.<\/p>\n
During a team red-zone period, Marshall tossed a receiver to the side and shot downhill to make a stop just ahead of the line of scrimmage.<\/p>\n
When asked about his ability as a run stopper, the second-year defensive back described it as a point of emphasis for him and Miami\u2019s coaching staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very physical, I like to get in people\u2019s faces,\u201d Marshall Jr. said. \u201cTeams are stretching to the perimeter to test if corners can tackle, so that\u2019s very important. That\u2019s something Coach Hafley talks to us about.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the vast majority of his snaps as a rookie came while playing nickel, the former Florida Gator has been bumped outside for most of minicamp, where he says he feels most natural.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel comfortable. That\u2019s my natural state, being on the outside,\u201d said Marshall Jr., who totaled an interception and 23 tackles last season. \u201cI was put at nickel last year and kind of had to adjust my game to that.\u201d<\/p>\n
He showcased that level of comfort while making an immediate impact as a starter at Florida, when he gave up the second-lowest completion percentage of any cornerback in the country at 36.8%.<\/p>\n
Once ranked as a five-star recruit with a first-round mock draft projection, a season-ending shoulder injury in his final collegiate year hurt his draft stock and left him working to find his footing as a rookie.<\/p>\n
And now with a season of NFL experience and his first career start now under his belt, Marshall Jr. has earned the attention of new Dolphins head coach Jeff Hafley, who is excited about the young cornerback stepping into a larger role.<\/p>\n
\u201cI studied him a lot in college. He can press, get his hands on people at the line. He can play the ball well down the field, had some instincts in zone and man coverage,\u201d Hafley said. \u201cI saw him go inside and outside, which is really hard to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jason Marshall Jr. wasn\u2019t trying to flatten a Dolphins assistant coach during a tackling drill. He just happened…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-299450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}