Full Miami Dolphins Midseason Awards

Here's some food for thought: If the season ended now, the Miami Dolphins would be just one game short of the playoffs. 

That's astonishing, considering the early-season meltdown the Dolphins endured that led to them becoming the first team to fire their coach this season. 

Relieving Joe Philbin of his headset, clipboard and red challenge flag and handing those props to Dan Campbell appears to be the best move the Dolphins could have made. It was a perfect storm that led the team to dismiss its mild-mannered head coach in favor of a rabble-rousing, fiery leader of men. 

That being said, along the way, the Dolphins have had several players step up and help along the way toward keeping the team in the hunt, while some others helped Miami put one foot in the grave early in the season. 

First-Half MVP: Jarvis Landry

Marc Serota/Associated Press

Originally, I had defensive end Cameron Wake in this spot, but that seemed cruel given the recent announcement from the Dolphins that they had placed him on season-ending injured reserve.

So why not go with the most electrifying offensive player in Miami? Wide receiver Jarvis Landry earned a reputation as a rookie for catching a lot of short passes, and he has taken that reputation into his second year as well. This time, however, he's also making plays after the catch and even doing damage on handoffs and reverses.

On the season, Landry has 543 yards from scrimmage and three touchdowns. He has caught a team-high 42 passes for 466 yards and two touchdowns, in addition to taking eight handoffs for 77 yards and another score. 

Landry may not be the towering, physically imposing presence that every team wants at wide receiver, but he has plenty of quickness and speed to help him find a niche as a slot receiver in the Dolphins offense. He has become one of quarterback Ryan Tannehill's most reliable weapons in the passing game. 

Most Improved Player: Rishard Matthews

Steven Senne/Associated Press

Talk about a guy whom everyone had written off. Wide receiver Rishard Matthews took a raw deal, cooked it up and is serving out a heaping helping of humble pie to all of his doubters. 

Matthews leads the Dolphins with 500 receiving yards and four touchdowns on 33 receptions, despite supposedly being "buried" on the depth chart beneath Jarvis Landry, DeVante Parker and Kenny Stills. Parker's injury and Stills' underachieving performances have led to Matthews' resurgence in the Dolphins offense.

According to Adam Beasley of the Miami Herald, over the years Matthews has been the subject of trade rumors and has even asked the team to release or trade him as recently as May. 

Matthews took it all in stride and is having, by far, the best season of his career. Now, if only the Dolphins offense was successful as a whole. 

Biggest Disappointment: DeVante Parker

Steven Senne/Associated Press

Up until recently, rookie wide receivers haven't been productive in the NFL. In fact, through 2010, only 24 wide receivers have had 60 or more receptions as a rookie. In the five years since then, 11 players have achieved that feat. 

The Dolphins drafted Louisville wide receiver DeVante Parker with the 14th overall pick, hoping that he would be the latest receiver in that trend. Through the first half of the season, however, he's been hampered by a foot injury that he suffered in 2014 and aggravated in the offseason workout program. 

That injury might explain why he has just four receptions for 49 yards through seven games this season. Parker was supposed to be the deep threat and red-zone threat that the Dolphins have been missing for years; so far, he's registered as little more than a blip on the radar.

Don't write off Parker as a bust just yet, but he is falling well short of the hopes and expectations the Dolphins had when they drafted him so high in the first round. 

Rookie of the Year: Matt Darr

Lynne Sladky/Associated Press

The Dolphins' best rookie is not one of their high-round draft picks. In fact, it's not any of their draft picks. 

The Dolphins signed undrafted free-agent punter Matt Darr in the immediate aftermath of the draft, pitting him in a battle with veteran punter Brandon Fields. After seeing the two compete this summer, the Dolphins elected to go with Darr as their punter.

So far, it looks like they made the right choice.

Darr leads all punters in yards-per-punt average through Week 8, and his net average of 42.4 yards per punt is 10th-best in the NFL. 

When the offense is underperforming, it's nice to have a weapon like Darr to help flip the field and put the opposing offense's back against the wall. 

Most Important Win of the Season: vs. Tennessee Titans, Week 6

Mark Zaleski/Associated Press

Coming out of the bye week and after making a change at head coach, the Dolphins needed a win more than a camel needs water in the Sahara Desert.

A trip to Tennessee proved to be a dip in the proverbial ocean, as the Dan Campbell-led Dolphins rolled the Titans 38-10.

It was a galvanizing win for the Dolphins in that it put them back on track to get back to .500 and helped validate the decision to fire former head coach Joe Philbin and name Campbell the interim head coach. It also happened to be one of the losses that resulted in Ken Whisenhunt's firing as Titans head coach.

The Dolphins defensive line, which had been the subject of much scrutiny for the first four games of the season, helped the team notch six sacks on the day. The running game, which had been almost completely forgotten in the first four games (and throughout much of Philbin's tenure) suddenly had new legs and tallied 180 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 32 total carries.

The dominant trench play helped answer some of the questions about the Dolphins' lack of toughness in the first four games of the season. 

All in all, it was exactly the kind of win the Dolphins needed at exactly the right time. 

Worst Injury: Cameron Wake

Winslow Townson/Associated Press

There's never a good time for a key player to get injured, but almost every team suffers some kind of major injury over the course of the season. The Dolphins experienced their biggest loss of the year when defensive end Cameron Wake went down with a torn Achilles and was placed on season-ending injured reserve.

We've yet to see how the Dolphins will respond to the loss of Wake, but they will probably call on Derrick Shelby to be Wake's primary replacement. However, no one can truly replace the first-step burst off the line of scrimmage that Wake has made his trademark in creating havoc in the opposing backfield for the past 6.5 seasons. 

"I have a lot of confidence in Shelby," head coach Dan Campbell said. "Shelby is one of those guys who is fundamentally sound, and he's an explosive athlete. He's not the speed-rusher that Cam is, but he's going to go in there and do a nice job for us."

Wake's seven sacks are more than half of the team's 13-sack total through Week 8, but while Shelby may not generate that kind of heat on opposing quarterbacks, he can still get pressure with his strength and is also a little better at setting the edge against the run. 

If it's Shelby who will step in for Wake, the Dolphins could certainly do a lot worse. That being said, it would be foolish to think that they won't suffer some kind of drop-off. 

Most Underrated Player: Lamar Miller

Marc Serota/Associated Press

For years, the Dolphins coaching staff has held down running back Lamar Miller. The constant abandonment of the run left Miller sitting on his hands and waiting for opportunities that were few and far between. 

Under interim coach Dan Campbell, that appears to be a thing of the past. The Dolphins offensive line has been playing aggressively, opening holes in the running game, and Miller has carried the ball 42 times for 303 yards and three touchdowns from Weeks 6 through 8. On the season, he is one of only three running backs in the top 20 in rushing yards who also have fewer than 80 carries. 

In that sense, the Dolphins are the ones who have been guilty of underrating Miller's ability. That's surprising, seeing as he was one of only two running backs (along with Kansas City Chiefs running back Jamaal Charles) who finished the 2014 season with more than 1,000 rushing yards on fewer than 220 carries. 

He is still riding a nearly two-year stretch in which he has not carried the ball more than 19 times in a game, but that streak appears to be doomed with Campbell at the helm. So, too, does Miller's status as an underrated player.

Unless otherwise noted, all quotes obtained via team news release.