MIAMI GARDENS — As the Miami Dolphins are bound for a second straight game without veteran safety Minkah Fitzpatrick due to his calf injury, they may be giving rookie Dante Trader Jr. another shot in the versatile nickel role he played last Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals.

Trader, primarily a safety, was used in meaningful defensive snaps for as much as he has since he started the Dolphins’ Nov. 9 win against the Buffalo Bills.

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The nickel position is one Fitzpatrick has been thrust into this season with how much Miami’s defense has had to shuffle to fill the void Kader Kohou was expected to handle before he tore an ACL in training camp.

“I feel like it’s always great to have the opportunity to play a different position, especially a position that Minkah was able to play, which is a very versatile chess piece in our defense,” Trader said earlier this week. “Having the ability and the respect from the coaches to be able to go out there and do it, that’s the joy itself.

“It was a challenge throughout the week, but I feel like I handled it.”

Maybe in Trader, a 5-foot-11, 202-pound fifth-round pick out of Maryland, the Dolphins could see some of the same traits in him that they value in Fitzpatrick, both when the franchise drafted him in the first round back in 2018 and then traded for him with the Pittsburgh Steelers ahead of this season.

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“I like how he covers grass,” Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said Friday. “He’s a fast, convicted track tackling player that, when he sees his keys, he’s covering a lot of distance in a short amount of time. He plays a lot faster than whatever his 40 would be timed up. Those instincts and conviction allow him to move around the field and hold disguise but be a firm tackler at the point of attack.”

As a smaller defensive back, the Dolphins feel he won’t back down from a tackle against a bigger player.

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“He’s got a screw loose,” McDaniel said. “We all recognize on the team that he will go and take on any size of player. I think, in his mind, he thinks he’s 330 pounds, but that competitive nature that he brings is a physical uptick for the group when he’s making plays.”

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With throwing a rookie into a new role, of course, comes the ups and downs. It’s not all going to be perfect immediately.

“That kid has all the talent, has all the tools both mentally and physically,” defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver said. “You’re just going to live through some youthful mistakes, but each and every mistake he makes he learns from, and you know he’s not going to make the same mistake twice. Really, really excited about the future of that kid.”

But Trader has avoided allowing any kind of rookie wall, with college football players used to playing a 12-game regular season, affect him deep into the season.

“You definitely hit it, for sure,” Trader said. “There’s days, there’s moments, but if you love ball, by the time you get out of the meeting room and step on that field, you’re blessed.

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“There’s a lot of people coming for your job, and everybody wants to be where you are, so rookie wall, don’t put credit to that in your mind. That’s just going to infest it, so you’d rather be ready to run through that thing.”

Some of his ability to push through the wall has been his background as a dual-sport athlete, also playing lacrosse. It would have him finishing football season and diving right into lacrosse throughout his years.

“I would say that I gained the resiliency from playing two sports, just having to battle that for basically a whole full year playing a sport with no break,” Trader said. “So navigating this rookie year of 20-plus weeks and coming straight from college, I kind of was geared to be able to handle it mentally and physically.”

Trader has navigated his rookie season with Fitzpatrick leading the safeties and veteran free agent signings Ifeatu Melifonwu and Ashtyn Davis also among available players at the position.

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Trader has consistently received playing time defensively, aside from the Oct. 19 loss to the Cleveland Browns when he didn’t play a defensive snap. That came a week after starting against the Chargers and missing the tackle against wide receiver Ladd McConkey in the open field that set up the winning field goal, although the missed time defensively also had to do with a shoulder injury he played through that week.

As Trader played some nickel Sunday, fellow rookie fifth-round pick, cornerback Jason Marshall Jr., who had played in the nickel to start the season, was interestingly used some at safety late in the game.

Trader will be one of the young players the Dolphins will be evaluating these final two games to determine who the franchise can rely on in the future.