MIAMI GARDENS — When Miami Dolphins cornerback Rasul Douglas was without a team essentially the entire offseason, he enjoyed spending time with his son, taking him to school and picking him up.
He actually was with him at a Six Flags theme park, fresh off getting off a ride, when the Dolphins called checking in on him again as training camp was wrapping up and the regular season was two weeks away.
As the veteran cornerback was without camp going into the year as part of a Dolphins secondary that felt patched together last minute, the investment in him late in the process has paid enormous dividends for Miami’s defense.
Douglas has steadily locked down his side of the field all season. Going into Monday night’s matchup with the Pittsburgh Steelers, opposing quarterbacks have a putrid 65.2 passer rating when targeting him, completing 52.7 percent of those passes for just 5.3 yards per target. Douglas has an interception in back-to-back games, and his five passes defensed to go with the pick last week against the New York Jets earned him AFC Defensive Player of the Week honors for the third time in his eight NFL seasons.
His coverage is a big reason why the Dolphins rank 12th against the pass and Miami has been especially strong in scoring defense, third-down defense and red-zone defense of late.
“I think so much of it was tape-driven and skillset driven. I was very confident in his football play based on watching film,” Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel recalled this week on making Douglas the choice late in the process. “Low key, I had no idea how much of an impact he could make as a Year 1 player on the team, and I see him as right in there with our nucleus of guys as a driving force in how we’re motivated each and every day we come to work.”
So new with the team when the season started, he wasn’t a starter in the opener against the Indianapolis Colts, but after Storm Duck was injured and sent to IR after that game, Douglas was called upon to accelerate his acclimation to defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver’s system.
What helped him was extra meeting time before and after practices with coaches, specifically cornerbacks coach Mathieu Araujo.
“He tries to get the most out of me, just technique and to try to do it for the whole game,” Douglas said. “I think that’s been his biggest emphasis for me.”
Araujo has been impressed that Douglas, as a seasoned veteran in a new defense, has been a willing and receptive listener to new techniques.
“I absolutely love him. He’s been phenomenal for us here,” Araujo said weeks ago. “Rasul quickly became one of my favorite guys I’ve ever coached. He is a veteran who wants to be coached like a rookie. He has zero pride in, ‘this is how I’ve done things, this is how I always do it.’ He wants to get better, and if he feels like you can help him in an area, then he is going to go all in on you helping him in that area.”
It helps how naturally football savvy Douglas is.
“The biggest thing when you evaluate the tape is you can see how football smart he was. He was very cognizant of matchups, the width of the formations, all those things,” Weaver said Friday. “I thought it was important that we added somebody who had that veteran presence who had kind of been in the battles and can help mentor some of these younger players. Because at the end of the day, as a coach, you can sit up there and talk until you’re blue in the face; it will always mean more coming from a peer, somebody who’s out there doing it with you.”
Young cornerback Ethan Bonner surely benefited from time around Douglas when he came down with his first career interception in mop-up duty at the end of Sunday’s blowout win in the Meadowlands.
“He’s just a natural,” Bonner said. “Watching him is pretty special. Just got a knack for the ball and a really good feel for the game.”
With all the success Douglas has had without camp to start the season, he still says he wouldn’t recommend it.
“I wouldn’t miss a training camp again if I could do it again,” he said, “because it kind of took me some time to get acquainted.”
Maybe Douglas goes through his first training camp with the Dolphins next summer. He’ll be a free agent again upon completing the one year on his deal worth $3 million. It could very well behoove Miami to bring him back for 2026.