FOXBORO – People come to Exuma, a district of the Bahamas, to escape reality.

Footprint-free beaches lead to clear sapphire-blue water. The snorkeling is divine. There’s a mile-long sandbar, a stretch of pure white sand. People even swim with pigs here. The Exumas are an arpeggio of 365 cays and islands. It’s called a playground for the rich and famous. The capital, George Town, is described as laid-back.

When Phillip [...]

FOXBORO – People come to Exuma, a district of the Bahamas, to escape reality.

Footprint-free beaches lead to clear sapphire-blue water. The snorkeling is divine. There’s a mile-long sandbar, a stretch of pure white sand. People even swim with pigs here. The Exumas are an arpeggio of 365 cays and islands. It’s called a playground for the rich and famous. The capital, George Town, is described as laid-back.

When Phillip Dorsett visited in June, his idea of relaxation was different from your typical tourist. Relaxing for this gym rat meant running sprints up a dirt road surrounded by palm trees. It included finding a gym to lift weights, a pool for a "recovery" workout and then a garage door to workout with tennis balls to improve hand-eye coordination.

A receiver known for speed, Dorsett never slows down. That included his family vacation to George Town, where Dorsett’s grandfather, Thomas, is from.

"It was pretty important for him,” said Dorsett’s cousin, Willie Floyd, who was on the trip. “We have an uncle who still lives there and right away [Dorsett] was like, ‘hey, where can I get a run in at?’ Or ‘where’s there a gym I can lift at to get that work in?’ A couple years ago, he was running in the sand on the beach, but this time, where we stayed at, we had this trail. It was pretty long.”

The steep incline was daunting. The temperature didn’t help, but he needed to get a speed workout in so he started running while Floyd documented the runs on his phone. You can hear the ocean breeze, the pitter-patter of each step on the sandy hill and his deep breaths as he pushes harder.

“I actually love doing it,” Dorsett said. “I feel like if you do something and you enjoy it, you won’t lose the passion for it. I enjoy it. Wherever I go, if I’m on vacation, I try to find a way to do something because it’s something that relaxes me.”

Fueled by doubt, Dorsett, 25, pushed hard this offseason. An aspiring personal trainer, he uses himself as guinea pig, programming his own workout regimen. It paid off.

Training days

Dorsett became fascinated with training during his time at the University of Miami.

Over the years, he picked the brains of the experts around him — trainers, strength coaches and his family members. His sister, Brianna, is a personal trainer, bodybuilder and fitness model. She helps with nutrition. His cousin, Floyd, played college football at Florida Atlantic and is a personal trainer. He helps with weight lifting.

After studying how trainers programmed his workouts in the offseason, Dorsett puts together his own plan.

“I just take stuff for myself and try to put it together myself because that’s something I want to do when I get out of football,” Dorsett said. “I’m basically using myself as a mule and I’m trying different things. I feel like what I did this offseason definitely worked the best.”

This offseason, Dorsett’s primary goals were to improve his lateral quickness and become a well-rounded receiver. When he entered the NFL, he was characterized as a deep threat. Tired of that label, Dorsett wanted to show he could do more than just run deep down the field in a straight line.

To improve lateral quickness, Dorsett programmed ladder drills – two-to-three days a week – which improved his footwork. He also did a lot of cone work. To work on his route running, Dorsett went to Florida International University, caught passes from his former Miami quarterback Stephen Morris and worked on each route in the route tree.

“Every receiver, you don’t want to get put in a box,” Dorsett said. “You want to be able to do everything. Run all the routes, run the entire route tree. It was something I always felt that I could do.”

A self-proclaimed meathead, Dorsett lifted weights around six days a week — alternating between upper and lower body on ‘heavy days.’ The goal was to train hard, but also be smart about it. In previous years, Dorsett has gone so hard that he’s hurt himself.

“One thing people seem to not think he can do is run after the catch. He’s definitely worked on his lateral quickness and just his overall being healthy,” said Floyd. “The whole point for him is to get through the season healthy. A lot of times, when we’ve seen him before, it was ‘he’s a little banged up,’ but fans don’t know that. Nobody cares.”

Shaking the label

The label stuck with Dorsett early in his football career.

He’s fast. He always has been and was a track star in high school and college. At St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., it was the first thing his teammates noticed. Surrounded by future NFL players, like James White and Giovani Bernard, that speed got him on the field.

“First off, his speed. That’s for sure,” White said. “He just worked extremely hard. We had a lot of talent at our high school so his sophomore year he didn’t play too much, but his junior year, my senior year, he was kind of one of the main guys.”

At Miami, he was surrounded by more future NFL players like Travis Benjamin, Allen Hurns and Lamar Miller. Dorsett became the Hurricanes' deep threat. As a senior, he averaged 24.2 yards per catch. That label followed him to the NFL when the Indianapolis Colts drafted him in the first round in 2015.

The labels drove Dorsett and his family nuts. That’s one reason why working out became a passion of his.

“He kind of got labeled — ‘oh, he’s just a deep threat. That’s all he does is go deep,'” Floyd said. “For him, it was a matter of ‘no, I have the total package.’ I can do everything… he was always told he’s undersized and he’s only a speed guy, so that’s where him building strength and size really became important to him.”

“It was something I kind of always had. People are going to doubt you,” Dorsett added. “It’s something inside me that I want to be good. I want to be a good football player. When people say otherwise, obviously you can say it doesn’t bother you, but at the end of the day, it does because you really know what you’re capable of and know what you want to do. It goes down to me to continue working.”

Proving his mettle

In a place that is defined by hard work, Dorsett has stuck out among his peers in Foxboro.

His teammates noticed his improvements and it’s shown. In 15 games last year, Dorsett finished with 12 receptions for 194 receiving yards and zero touchdowns. In five games this year, he has 19 receptions for 190 yards and two touchdowns.

“This offseason coming in, they were like, there’s a lot of wide receivers in the room. He always kind of had that chip on his shoulder because a lot of people think he’s going to be the odd man out,” Floyd said. “He’s always kind of been that way for him. That just motivates him to work as hard as he always has, but I knew once it hit mini-camp and training camp, all his hard work would just show.”

Dorsett has also achieved his goal of becoming a more complete receiver. He's averaging 10 yards per catch, meaning the Patriots are using him in short-to-intermediate routes, too. His two touchdowns came inside the 10-yard line and highlighted his route running. In Week 1, he caught a Tom Brady screen pass and faked out Houston cornerback Kevin Johnson, displaying his offseason stop-and-go work.

“Phil works really hard. He’s out on the field every day trying to get better. He puts a lot of time and energy into it, so you can see it,” Brady told The Providence Journal. “I think he’s done a great job. He’s had a great year. He’s shown that he can be counted on in any situation — intermediate, short, deep. Obviously, I have a lot confidence in him.”

The results aren’t a surprise to Dorsett, either. He always knew he could do more.

“Yeah, I pretty much expected it,” Dorsett said. “It came with opportunity, too. Being healthy and going out there and showing what you can do. I always knew I could play. I know I’m going to work. I felt like it’s just all coming into one.”