From undrafted rookies to overlooked free agents, Dolphins getting help out of nowhere

One of the neat aspects of sports is when players seemingly come out of nowhere to help you win games.

For the Dolphins, they’ve experienced that with a rookie undrafted cornerback, a veteran right tackle who was unemployed until September and an undrafted bubble player who overcame long odds to seize the No. 3 receiver job.

Kader Kohou, the undrafted rookie corner from Texas A&M Commerce, was asked the other day what he would have said if somebody had told him in March that he would not only make an NFL team but would be starting for a playoff contender.

“I would have been like: I agree with you,” he said. “I have been working for this for a long time. You put in a lot of work so you shouldn’t be surprised when you get fruits of your labor.”

Ten games into his rookie season, Kohou has permitted the league’s 11th-lowest passer rating against at 87.1 (minimum 40 targets in coverage).

Defensive backs coach Sam Madison has been one of his biggest cheerleaders, offering encouragement before every defensive series.

“He’ll come up to me trying to hype up me; he’s doing it 24-7,” Kohou said. “I appreciate that.”

Madison suggests that Kohou is not merely an NFL player.

“He’s an NFL starter,” Madison makes clear.

And Madison was just getting started.

“Guess what?” Madison said. “He doesn’t shy away from contact. He doesn’t shy away from any challenge. It doesn’t matter if it’s Stefon Diggs or no matter who it is, he’s going to give it his 100 percent.

“That’s what he’s been doing since he’s been here. He’s the guy that when you talk to him about something, he’s going to go out there and try to execute it. When it comes to run support, he doesn’t shy away from that. He’s going to do it. He’s thick and strong.”

Kohou had three pass breakups against Cleveland, the most by an undrafted rookie since Nik Needham had three for the Dolphins in a game in 2019. In Kohou and Needham, the Dolphins have unearthed two solid NFL corners after the draft.

Kohou, who said he felt some nerves during his debut, now feels “more sense of calmness, knowing the process of an NFL game, starting to get into a routine with stuff I do prior to the game.”

His former teammates at A&M Commerce play video games with him on his phone and ask him what NFL life is like. “They ask me for tips. They want to make it. I tell them as best I can.”

It’s 1,276 miles from Commerce, Texas, to Miami Gardens, but the distance can feel much bigger than that.

Kohou prepared for this chance by studying a handful of NFL corners — teammate Xavien Howard, the Broncos’ Patrick Surtain Jr. (son of the former Dolphins Pro Bowler and current Dolphins assistant coach), the Browns’ Denzel Ward and the Packers’ Jaire Alexander.

There haven’t been any awestruck moments, but he admits the joint practices with Tampa Bay were special because Buccaneers receiver “Julio Jones was my favorite player growing up. I didn’t tell him. I didn’t even talk to him during that practice. After the game, I shook his hand and walked away. He didn’t know who the [bleep] I was. He probably just looked at me like a little kid.”

Then there’s Brandon Shell, who came to the rescue a few weeks after right tackle Austin Jackson was sidelined by an ankle injury in Week 1.

The veteran right tackle started 10 games for the Seahawks last season before going on injured reserve with a season-ending shoulder injury.

Questions about his health largely explain why he remained unsigned into September.

“I [didn’t feel overlooked]” this past offseason, he said. “A lot of teams had questions about my injuries.”

When the Dolphins signed him to the practice squad, “I didn’t know what was going to happen. I came in with the mind-set” of getting on the 53-man roster eventually.

Though he has played five solid games as the starter at right tackle, he isn’t lobbying to continue starting — something that seems highly likely as long as he continues to play well.

“I’m here to help the team whatever they need me to do, if that’s me playing, Austin playing,” he said.

Shell hasn’t allowed a sack in 245 passing blocking chances in six games, including the past five at right tackle.

Then there’s Trent Sherfield, who beat out Cedrick Wilson Jr. (who’s on the team) and jettisoned Preston Williams, Lynn Bowden Jr., Mohammad Sanu and others for the No. 3 receiver job.

He already has set career highs in catches (22) and receiving yards (247) after catching 9 for 87 in 17 games for the 49ers last season.

He’s playing 57 percent of Miami’s offensive snaps, after logging 44, 25 and 8 percent in his three seasons with Arizona and 24 percent last year with the 49ers.

“I know what type of player I am. I know what I can bring to the table,” said Sherfield, who went undrafted out of Vanderbilt in 2018.

“The No. 1 thing is being trusted by the quarterback to be in the right spot, that they will throw it to me and it will be caught. I’m good at catching, I’m good at route running, I’m good at blocking. When you get me, you’re getting the whole package.”

There are other out-of-nowhere contributors, including special teams ace Justin Bethel making an impact on defense, and River Cracraft, whose two receptions have both gone for touchdowns.

All were afterthoughts, or in the case of Shell and Bethel, not even on the team in training camp. All came out of nowhere. All have helped take the Dolphins somewhere.