DAVIE, Fla -- With more than 70,000 Miami Dolphins fans packed in Sun Life Stadium last Sunday excitedly anticipating the start of the NFL season as the 1 p.m. kickoff time approached, a small group of young players sat inside the home team's locker room patiently waiting.
A lifelong journey to make it to the NFL was just minutes away from becoming a reality for the rookies about to make their debut. All told, 13 of them had made the final Dolphins roster and several of them were poised to make a meaningful contribution that day.
One by one, each Dolphins player filed out of the locker room and made a left towards the tunnel. Some walked stoically, focused on the mission ahead, whereas others did their best to pump themselves up. While the majority of the roster had been in this situation before, what were the young players thinking as they made their way onto the field to play the first game of the rest of their careers?
"It was a crazy experience," said first round draft pick Ja'Wuan James. "It was a great win. For my first game, I was very excited about that. The atmosphere was great."
James was selected early in large part because the team believed he was an NFL-ready offensive lineman who could come in and immediately contribute. For his first few snaps however, he had to calm his nerves to even get the basics down.
"Early, I was excited, my footwork was all over the place just running all around out there," he said. "As the game went on, I slowed down and got things right. I want to go out the next game and do that from the first snap."
Rookie wide receiver Jarvis Landry was also pumped up for his debut, but never lost sight of the fact that it's a team game with a clear mission at hand on that day.
"It was fun," Landry said. "I think all that matters is that we got the 'W'. That was the best part about my NFL debut. We made a lot of mistakes with the ball early, but we focused in. We showed we could play four quarters."
Landry was excited to see his fellow rookies come in and help contribute to the confidence-building victory over the Patriots.
"It's what they got us here to do, you know, to make plays, and to play with energy and play with passion," he said. "For me playing in my first game, I think the SEC kind of prepared me for big stages, so I was pretty comfortable."
Cornerback Walt Aikens echoed Landry's thoughts as he waited for the game to begin. While he was personally overjoyed with making it to the pro ranks, he was also enthusiastic for his teammates after so many weeks of collectively working together for such a big test right out of the gate.
"I was excited," he said. "Not so much for myself, I mean this has been a lifelong goal, but for this team. We were preparing for that game against New England the whole time I've been here. So it was just exciting for game time to finally be here and it was time to carry out everything we had practiced. It was a great feeling."
The speed of the pro game was what surprised Aikens initially, but it wasn't long before he felt comfortable just like James.
"Oh yeah, faster than preseason so it was an adjustment," he admitted. "We got out there and did what we had to do. We prepared very well as a team getting the young guys to come out there and stay calm and focused on what we needed to do. We got a lot of support from the older guys so we were pretty much ready to execute our jobs."
After last year's flameout, the infusion of youth and talent has helped reinvigorate the Dolphins, giving hope for a brighter future. As they look ahead to their next test against the Buffalo Bills, another division rival, Aikens feels the rookies are even more ready for any challenges that lie ahead.
"We've got so much more confidence now," Aikens said. "We know how it is and we know how it's going to be. We have to take it a week at a time and continue to execute."
You can follow Surya Fernandez on Twitter @SuryaHeatNBA or email him at SuryaFoxSports@gmail.com.
