The Miami Dolphins have had to lean on other players in 2024 to get things done, and chief among them in 2024 has been TE Jonnu Smith.  Smith signed with the Dolphins this offseason on a two-year contract, and at the time, it seemed like a nice little move, but not one that would be franchise-altering.

Nine months later, he’s now in the Dolphins’ record books with the most productive season by a tight end in the franchise’s history.

Smith turned in 6 catches for 62 yards on Sunday during the Dolphins’ 29-17 win over the San Francisco 49ers.  The catches and yardage put him at new single-season franchise marks in both categories for the Dolphins.

“God is good, all the time,” Smith said in response to a question about how he felt seeing he’d broken the records. “All praises to my Lord and savior Jesus Christ.  It’s been an eventful year for me, but from the standpoint of individually, from the standpoint of coming in here, going through OTAs, training camp, and knowing the plan. Over-exceeding the expectations, and I put the work in, I do. But I hang my hat on the word of God. A man can plant, a man can water, but it’s God that gives the increase. So I can put the work in, stay after practice like I do – I work my butt off, man because I understand that I’ve been given a gift. It’s up to me to continue to cultivate that, but at the end of the day, God is either going to progress it if he chooses to, and he’s been doing that in my life. I’ve got a heart of gratitude right now.

“A heart of thankfulness for this entire organization for believing in me, in my teammates, in the entire offense, knowing that just trusting in my ability to say ‘listen, this is a guy that we’ve got to implement on a consistent basis in this offense.’ This is the first time that I’ve been able to come into my own in my career, and it’s year eight. God’s time, and it’s perfect. Not complaining about anything with my past.”

Smith gave Miami Dolphins tight end coach Jon Embree a big amount of credit for his success this season in South Florida.

“I’ve been around a lot of great coaches – and speaking of coaches, I give a lot of guys credit up here – Tua and Mike – but let me talk about Jon Embree for a minute. Embo has been such a huge part of this thing right here, man. I’ve had a lot of great coaches. You talk about Arthur Smith, and he’s doing his thing over there in Pittsburgh. Embo is just taking my game to another level, you know what I mean? Just the standard that he holds me to every day. Obviously, you look at the list of guys that he had. It’s no secret the type of coach he is. You go from (George) Kittle to Tony Gonzalez, I mean, the list goes on. Just Pro Bowles that he had. Just his belief in my has allowed me to take my game to another level. Embo is like the OG, like the (uncle) that you don’t want to let down.

“I had a play – it wasn’t a bad play – it was just, Embo knows the ability that I have. He wants to get everything I have, to help me be better as a player. So, I ran out of bounds on one play, and he was going crazy over there just because he knows, ‘listen man, you get the ball in your hands, and you can do damage.’ So him holding me to certain standards like that and just having that in the back of my mind, I’ve never really had that push in my career, and I’ve had a lot of great coaches and been able to build a lot of great relationships, but Jon Embree’s just been a huge part of all of my success, and I’ve got a lot of love and appreciation for Embo.”

Smith surpassed both Randy McMichael in 2004 and Mike Gesicki in 2021 who totaled 73 catches each.  McMichael held the record narrowly over Gesicki with 793 receiving yards.  Now, both belong to Smith.

The season has been a huge change from the norm for Smith.  Before 2024, Smith’s top season statistically was last year in Atlanta, where he spent one season.  He grabbed 50 catches for 582 yards with 3 touchdowns.  Before that, he had more than 35 catches just once in his career that dates back to 2017.

But it’s hard to imagine where Miami would be without him.  His prowess both in blocking and as a key component for the short and intermediate passing game has been clutch for a Dolphins offense that’s had to get creative in 2024 as teams have schemed to take Tyreek Hill and the Dolphins’ deep passing attack out of the equation.

We’ll see if Smith can reach 1000 yards in the team’s final two games.  Regardless, it’s been an incredible eighth season for the veteran.