MIAMI GARDENS — Take a deep dive into Miami Dolphins rookie linebacker Jacob Rodriguez’s first career interception, the way Rodriguez himself dove to secure the football before it hit the ground.

Late in the first half in last Sunday’s loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, quarterback Patrick Mahomes had his team around midfield. Rodriguez was showing blitz from Mahomes’ right before the snap, threatening to shoot through the B-gap, between the guard and tackle.

As the ball was snapped, he backed off from that look and, suddenly, after wide receiver Xavier Worthy motioned toward the middle, he ran straight back up the seam with the player who set an NFL scouting combine record for the fastest 40-yard dash.

Mahomes, though, wasn’t looking his way. He had wide receiver Rashee Rice open on the other side coming over the deep middle on a post pattern. The future Hall of Fame quarterback had to step left as linebacker Jordyn Brooks sent him that way running a stunt with defensive tackle Zach Sieler, who rushed Mahomes’ timing.

The pass to Rice was behind him. It ricocheted off him as he went to the ground. Safety Dante Trader Jr. tipped it up higher. And before you know it, Rodriguez, 22 yards downfield and on the opposite side from where he started, somehow made it to the spot to launch his body and catch the football before it fell incomplete.

“He’s a dog, man,” Trader said Monday as he couldn’t believe the play made. “When I watched it on tape, I’m like, where did he come from? Because, knew the system, I’m in a deep half, the speed was to the field. How did he get over here when the ball tipped over off my shoulder?

“That’s exactly how instinctual he is. So, it allows him to come make that play. And then, obviously, he’s got some return skills, too.”

That’s the other part of the play. Rodriguez immediately realized he had only been contacted by teammates in cornerback JuJu Brents and safety Michael Taaffe while he was on the ground. He quickly got up and looked to add field position and putting together an 18-yard return after shaking tight end Travis Kelce from a tackle.

“You know what was cool about it? He just got up and started running,” coach Jeff Hafley highlighted after the game. “You saw his strength. You saw his athleticism.”

Added Trader: “He could have really cribbed it, but just one block away.”

Rodriguez, of course, chalked it up to just doing his job, while crediting his teammates.

“If we ever get tips and overthrows as a defense, we have to be able to capitalize on that,” he said after the game. “And so being able to cover the field, but it was mainly guys doing their job and guys being in the right spot.”

Rodriguez’s play has him, not just in the Defensive Rookie of the Year conversation, but betting odds and prediction markets now label him the favorite after Week 3, leapfrogging New York Jets edge rusher David Bailey this week.

Rodriguez is second among rookies in tackles, with 28 through three games, trailing Tennessee’s Anthony Hill Jr. by six. Keep in mind Rodriguez is doing that playing alongside last year’s NFL leader in tackles, Brooks. He’s going to gobble up some of those tackles the way a basketball player may sacrifice rebounds to a great rebounding teammate. Now, Rodriguez has an interception to go with it, and you know he’s eventually going to get his fist on a football to punch it out for a forced fumble in due time.

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The rookie out of Texas Tech is known to be Texas through and through, but as the Dolphins (0-3) travel to face the Minnesota Vikings (3-0) this Sunday, it’s actually a return to his place of birth. Rodriguez was born in Hastings, Minnesota, moving to Wichita Falls, Texas when he was 10.

As he carries the pivotal responsibility of wearing the green dot on his helmet as the player designated to relay defensive calls from Hafley to his teammates, Miami’s defense did a fine job against the potent Kansas City offense to hold Mahomes and Co. to 17 points until the Chiefs added another touchdown with three minutes remaining.

“It’s never as good as it was, never as bad as it was until you watch the tape, but I’m pleased with that,” Rodriguez said. “I’m pleased with the intensity. I’m pleased with the physicality of his defense and of this team. I believe in everybody, front office, coaches, players, I believe in everybody.”

But, in a true sign of leadership as a young player, he wasn’t satisfied.

“Now we have to get better at the football part of it,” he continued. “We have to get better at the Xs and Os, and that’s with us. That’s doing our job. We had way too many explosives (Sunday) as a defense. I thought we came out and played the run well. Obviously, really good players offensively for them, but we have to do our job and we didn’t do a good enough job.”

His coach, though, is plenty pleased with where he stands at this point.

“You talk about certain players, for Game 3 of a rookie playing in the NFL against a Hall of Fame quarterback and some really good players,” Hafley said, “just the way he communicated and the way he just kept going and the way he tackled — obviously, just like the rest of us, there is stuff to clean up — but there’s progress there with him, too.”