MIAMI GARDENS — He’s a wide receiver whose totals for last season — nine receptions for 121 yards — represent a routine day for Tyreek Hill. So why is it that if you walk into the receivers room at the Miami Dolphins’ training facility looking for anyone who was a first-round draft pick, the only guys who can raise their hands are Jaylen Waddle, Odell Beckham Jr. and … River Cracraft?

It’s true (with an asterisk).

Waddle and Tyreek Hill have started a tradition in which they anoint themselves captains and split up the receivers into teams to see whose team has the best training camp. For reasons unclear to everyone, Hill gets the first pick.

Last year and this year, he grabbed River Cracraft. Why?

“As humbly as I can put it, I’m making plays,” Cracraft said Wednesday.

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To put it any other way would qualify as false modesty. You watch the Dolphins this summer, you can’t help but notice No. 85 making plays. Just as, if you look closely at many touchdowns last season. there’s a good chance you’ll see No. 85 making a downfield block that makes the difference between a good gain and a touchdown.

Cracraft’s is an underdog story that’s easy to embrace. He went undrafted out of Washington State and arrived in Miami slightly more than two years ago via stops in Denver, Philadelphia and San Francisco, where Mike McDaniel gained firsthand knowledge on an unpolished gem. Having stuck in Miami thanks to that underdog mentality, he’s not about to change.

“I think it's important to not think that you've arrived and that's the mentality that I like to have,” he said. “And just so we're clear, nobody has said, ‘You're making the team.’ Any of that information is not given to you.

“ … I think it's important that guys especially in my position who have in the past been a bubble guy and trying to break that mold, you know it's important to keep that chip on your shoulder and act like you need to earn a spot every single play.”

Cracraft won’t say it, but it’s difficult to picture him not making the 53-man roster. Take it from Hill, who was Kansas City’s fifth-round pick in 2016.

Tyreek Hill says River Cracraft is ’always in the right place'

“The reason why I pick ‘Riv’ is because ‘Riv’ is one of those guys that he understands the offense and he’s always in the right place,” Hill said. “Last year when we were doing this, we counted blocks. He’s that one guy who’s going to make a key block for (De’Von) Achane or (Raheem) Mostert to break one to the house every time, and that’s why I always pick ‘Riv,’ man. Because he’s smart, he knows where to be at on the field and you can always account for him.”

Waddle knows it, too, all but scratching his head over how Hill manages to grab Cracraft.

“Him and ‘Reek’ like got some crazy duo or something,” Waddle said.

Laughs aside, Cracraft, 29, was the subject of 23 transactions (signed, released, signed, released) before McDaniel brought him over from the 49ers. Although Cracraft won’t say he’s no longer that “bubble guy,” there is an inner confidence that he can play in this league — and that his coaches know it, too.

“Over the last few years, building the relationships that I have here in Miami, they've allowed me to not only maintain that confidence in myself, but they've shown the confidence back in me,” Cracraft said. “And that makes players better. And that makes them play better and that's why I think I'm having a little bit more success than I've had in the past because when that confidence is reciprocated between player and coach, that's when your team grows and that's when players grow.”

Dolphins reporter Hal Habib can be reached at hhabib@pbpost.com. Follow him on social media @gunnerhal.

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This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: This unheralded Miami Dolphins receiver has earned Tyreek Hill's respect