Dolphins' Christian Wilkins Ejected for Throwing Punch on 2nd Play vs. Bills

It was basically a grand opening, grand closing for Miami Dolphins rookie Christian Wilkins.

Wilkins threw a punch at Buffalo Bills offensive tackle Cody Ford on the second play from scrimmage in Sunday's game. As a result, Wilkins was ejected from the game.

ESPN's Cameron Wolfe noted Wilkins fell short of setting the record for the quickest ejection. Jeremiah Trotter and Kevin Mathis were sent to the locker room after the opening kickoff when the Philadelphia Eagles played the Atlanta Falcons in 2005.

This is another entry in an embarrassing 2019 season for the Dolphins. They entered Sunday at 0-5 and with the league's worst point differential (minus-138).

Wilkins has been one of Miami's few bright spots, racking up 18 combined tackles through his first five starts.

The former Clemson star did, however, draw criticism from his head coach earlier in the year for an unnecessary roughness penalty in the team's Week 4 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. Wilkins lifted Austin Ekeler off the turf and slammed him down.

"Look, it's 10-10, we just missed a field goal and we're right in it," Brian Flores told reporters at the time. "We don't need those. He knows that. I think everybody on the team knows that. I thought it was a bad penalty. We show plays like that on a weekly basis—this is what we're not going to do, and we do it."

Wilkins appeared to learn from his mistake until Sunday. The hit on Ekeler had been his only penalty of the season prior to punching Ford.