De’Von Achane was born October 13, 2001, in Missouri City, Texas. From a young age, he was a good student with an incredible natural athletic talent. In high school, De’Von played football and ran track and field. As he competed, it became clear he had a bright future ahead of him.
De’Von was the running back for Thurgood Marshall High School. He was swift and tackling him was close to impossible. Throughout his high school career, Achane rushed for an astonishing 4,795 yards along with a total of 87 touchdowns. With these numbers, Achane was easily a four-star recruit and he was ranked 96th overall in the nation.
While his football talent was extraordinary, he also excelled in other sports as well. During the track season, he dominated and was even the 2020 Texas Gatorade Boys Track and Field Athlete of the Year. With these accomplishments in both sports, Achane soon committed to Texas A&M University on December 18th, 2019.
As a true freshman at Texas A&M, Achane wasn’t a starter. He was the backup to their RB1 at the time, Isaiah Spiller. While he wasn’t the first-string RB then, he still played in six games, in which he rushed for 364 yards on 43 carries with 4 rushing touchdowns. That’s over 8 yards per rush, as well as more than a touchdown every eleven rushes. While these are impressive stats for a running back, he also had 97 receiving yards and a touchdown reception as well.
These stats show how impressive his freshman year was, but what was even more impressive was the 2021 Orange Bowl. In January of 2021, the 87th annual Orange Bowl took place, and Texas A&M taking on North Carolina. Even though he was merely a freshman, Achane went on to rush for 140 yards with 2 rushing touchdowns leading to him being named the 2021 Orange Bowl MVP.
Achane returned his sophomore year to put up even more impressive stats. He recorded over a thousand rushing yards and with that was the SEC leader in yards per attempt. This year he also had one of the most impressive highlights of his career when he had a 96-yard kickoff return touchdown against Alabama who was ranked #1 at the time. In Achane’s junior year in 2022, Achane became Texas A&M’s starting running back and then posted a new career high in rushing yards with a total of 1,102 on the season.
After college, he entered the NFL Combine in hopes of making it into the league. His Combine results were nothing short of remarkable with a 33-inch vertical jump and a broad jump over 9 feet long. While these show how freakishly athletic Achane was, nothing proves it more than his 40-yard dash time. He finished the forty-yard dash with a time of 4.32 seconds. That is among the fastest times in the world and it was faster than any other running back in the draft.
Unfortunately for Achane, his performances at the combine were discredited by his small stature. While his incredible explosiveness and speed are desired by most NFL teams, his 5’9”, 190lb size was slightly under the runningback average in the NFL at the time. Because of this, he fell far lower in the draft than he probably deserved.
Late in the third round of the 2023 NFL draft, Achane was drafted by the Miami Dolphins. While Miami was shaping out to be an offensive powerhouse in the new season, Achane wasn’t utilized in weeks one and two. Things weren’t looking great for Achane until everything changed in week three.
In a game against the Denver Broncos, Achane went for an astonishing 203 rushing yards, 30 receiving yards, and a total of 4 touchdowns in just one game. This was one of the most impressive running back performances the NFL has seen in recent history. This earned him AFC Offensive Player of the Week as well as over 51 points in PPR Fantasy football. In this same game, the Dolphins went on the defeat the Broncos 70-20, which is tied for the most points scored by a team in a single game since 1966.
Achane didn’t stop there though. The following two games he averaged almost 25 fantasy points and now has an average of over 25 points per game this season. That is more than any other rookie or veteran runningback currently in the league.
While Achane is currently on injured reserve and has only played four games in the big league, he has proved himself to be an incredible player and he has the potential to be one of the greatest stars the NFL has ever seen.
