All Dolphins

The Dolphins Players With the Best Chance to Become First-Time Pro Bowlers

The Miami Dolphins have three players on their roster who have been selected to the Pro Bowl, but they have a few more with the ability to get that kind of recognition in 2020

Alain Poupart

The Miami Dolphins did not have a player selected to the Pro Bowl at the end of the 2019 season, a testament to the team being out of playoff contention so early.

But as was the case with the entire team, there were a few players who had Pro Bowl-caliber performances in the second half of the season and will be looking to carry those into the 2020 season.

No Dolphins player was spotlighted when SI NFL writer Conor Orr picked out 10 players with a good chance to making the Pro Bowl for the first time this season, but it got us to thinking about potential Pro Bowl breakthroughs for Miami in 2020.

Of course, Pro Bowl recognition comes with team success, so none of this will happen unless the Dolphins improve on last year's 5-11 record, but we've identified nine players with the ability to get that kind of accolade in 2020.

The Dolphins have three players on the roster with a Pro Bowl on their resume, running back Jordan Howard and the two starting cornerbacks, Xavien Howard and newcomer Byron Jones.

The first, and most obvious, candidate to join them as a Pro Bowler is wide receiver DeVante Parker, who quite frankly should have made the Pro Bowl last year.

No? Well, it was Parker and nobody else who led all AFC wide receivers in 2019 in both receiving yards and touchdown catches.

As we mentioned earlier, Parker was hurt by the fact a lot of his production came after the Dolphins got off to their miserable start.

As the Pro Bowl game goes, Parker clearly put his name on the map last year and he'll cash in this season if he puts up good numbers.

On defense, the one player who stands out is linebacker Kyle Van Noy, who had two really good seasons with New England in 2018 and 2019 but was overshadowed by that Patriots secondary and NFL Defensive Player of the Year Stephon Gilmore.

Van Noy is expected to play a key role on the Dolphins defense in 2020, and if it should considerable improvement, then Van Noy likely will have played an important part.

In the return game, Jakeem Grant already has four career returns for touchdowns, and that big-play ability makes him a Pro Bowl candidate at the start of every season.

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Here are the others to watch:

• TE Mike Gesicki — He had five touchdown catches in the final six games of 2019. That's a Pro Bowl pace.

• DTs Davon Godchaux and Christian Wilkins — We'll group the two of them together because they're both talented young players who could make a big jump in their second year in Brian Flores' defensive system. The challenge for them will be getting sack numbers.

• DE Emmanuel Ogbah — Somebody is going to have to get some sacks for the Dolphins this year, right? This is the guy to watch. He had 5.5 sacks in 10 games for the Chiefs last season before being sidelined by an injury.

• LB Jerome Baker — Sure, he's undersized for the prototypical 3-4 scheme, but Baker played almost every down on defense last year, so he's clearly a key player. Plus he's got the athletic ability to make plays all over the field.

• K Jason Sanders — This is going to be tough to pull off because Baltimore's Justin Tucker is so darn good, but Sanders did have some memorable moments last year with "Mountaineer Shot" and the seven field goals against the Jets. Plus kicker is a fickle position where you never know what can happen from one year to the next.

Oh, and for those thinking about Tua Tagovailoa, let's first consider that there's no guarantee he'll get most of the work at quarterback in 2020. Let's then also consider that no Dolphins rookie has been selected to the Pro Bowl since Jake Long in 2008.

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Alain Poupart
ALAIN POUPART

Alain Poupart is the publisher/editor of Miami Dolphins On SI and co-host of the All Dolphins Podcast. Alain has covered the Miami Dolphins on a full-time basis since 1989 for various publications and media outlets, including Dolphin Digest, The Associated Press and the Dolphins team website. In addition to being a credentialed member of the Miami Dolphins press corps, Alain has covered three Super Bowls (for NFL.com, Football News and the Montreal Gazette), the annual NFL draft, the Senior Bowl, and the NFL Scouting Combine. During his almost 40 years in journalism, which began at the now-defunct Miami News, Alain has covered practically every sport at one time or another, from tennis to golf, baseball, basketball and everything in between. The career also included time as a copy editor, including work on several books, such as "Still Perfect," an inside look at the Miami Dolphins' 1972 perfect season. A native of Montreal, Canada, whose first language is French, Alain grew up a huge hockey fan but soon developed a love for all sports, including NFL football. He has lived in South Florida since the 1980s.

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