The Miami Dolphins’ ground game hasn’t really gotten rolling at all this season, but it at least showed some signs of life with the team providing more looks to RB Mark Walton over the course of the last several weeks. But for the next four weeks, Miami’s rushing attack is back to square one — because Walton has been suspended four games for his offseason conduct while still a member of the Cincinnati Bengals.

So who steps up? Miami’s backfield will most prominently feature former fourth-round pick Kalen Ballage, but rookie backs Patrick Laird and Myles Gaskin both still reside on Miami’s 53-man roster and in the spirit of evaluation, the Dolphins may well look to get their younger backs the ball now that they’ve settled into the playbook.

The first crack will go to Ballage, who is interestingly enough brimming with confidence despite a lack of production thus far this season. Ballage has 35 carries for 70 yards (2.0 yards per carry) for the entire season — yet he believes he doesn’t have to prove himself.

“I don’t have nothing to prove,” said Ballage to reporters on Wednesday according to Hal Habib of the Palm Beach Post.

With all due respect to Ballage, yes he does. Sans a 75-yard touchdown run late last year against Minnesota, Ballage has totaled 70 NFL carries in his young career and scratched out 186 yards on them — an average of 2.66 yards per carry. Add in some egregious drops in the passing game earlier this season and Ballage’s standing as a future fixture with this team is hardly secure. He’ll have a big first test — and he absolutely has to prove he, too, can be consistent and at least churn out the tough yardage.

But look for Laird to make some noise. The undrafted rookie out of Cal stood out this preseason with his impact out of the backfield. He scored three touchdowns in Miami’s four preseason contests and averaged 4.6 yards per carry on 25 carries. If Miami got anything close to that from Laird, it’d be the best production it has seen out of a back all year. Laird is an impressive athlete — he doesn’t tout a ton of long speed but at his Pro Day this past spring he ran the 3-cone drill in 6.84s, a time that would have been the quickest among running backs at the 2019 NFL Combine, had he gotten an invite.

That short-area quickness is an advantage Laird holds over Ballage, and may make the difference in Miami finding some productivity in its running game without Walton.