A day of milestones for Jaylen Waddle ended in the best possible way for the former Alabama wide receiver – with a 32-26 overtime victory over the New York Jets for the Miami Dolphins on Sunday.

Miami scored 11 fourth-quarter points, including a field goal with seven seconds left in regulation, then produced an overtime touchdown to keep its playoff hopes afloat.

“It means a lot,” Waddle said. “Winning that type of game against that type of team, we needed all three phases and everybody came through when we needed them. It was exciting. It was exciting. It was a great game — one of the best games I’ve been in.”

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Waddle barely missed the 13th 100-yard receiving game of his career, with nine receptions for 99 yards. He scored his second 2-point conversion of the season in the fourth quarter.

Waddle reached two receiving milestones in the game as he surpassed 300 receptions and 4,000 receiving yards in his career.

With 305 receptions for 4,085 yards, Waddle became the 42nd player in NFL history to have 4,000 receiving yards in his first four NFL seasons. During the game, he surpassed Jarvis Landry’s record for the most receiving yards in the first four seasons of a career with the Dolphins. Landry had 400 receptions for 4,038 yards from 2014 through 2017 for Miami.

(That’s not the same thing as a player’s first four seasons with the Dolphins. Former West Alabama standout Tyreek Hill, who came to Miami after six seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs, has 4,278 receiving yards for the Dolphins since the start of the 2022 season.)

“That’s big, man,” Waddle said. “There’s a lot of great receivers that have played here. Just being anywhere in the name of those guys is always a blessing.”

Waddle became the sixth player from Alabama to reach 4,000 receiving yards in the NFL, following Don Hutson, Ozzie Newsome, Julio Jones, Amari Cooper and Calvin Ridley. Ridley surpassed 5,000 receiving yards in his career two games ago.

Waddle beat former Crimson Tide teammates Jerry Jeudy and DeVonta Smith to 4,000 receiving yards. After Sunday’s NFL games, Jeudy had 3,997 and Smith 3,731.

Waddle has 54 receptions for 700 yards and two touchdowns this season. His stats are depressed by the four games missed by quarterback Tua Tagovailoa because of a concussion. In those contests without his former Alabama teammate throwing the football for Miami, Waddle had 13 receptions for 119 yards.

Tagovailoa completed his final six passes in Sunday’s overtime, including a 10-yard touchdown pass to tight end Jonnu Smith to end the game.

Waddle described Tagovailoa’s overtime demeanor as “commanding.”

“He really made sure we didn’t kill ourselves with penalties,” Waddle said. “He wanted everybody to lock in and just hone in on the details. That was big. He came through, made big plays, was calm in the pocket. O-line had great protection, he delivered the ball.”

The victory boosted the Dolphins’ record to 6-7 with four weeks remaining in the regular season. Miami and the Indianapolis Colts are two games out in the AFC playoff standings, with the Baltimore Ravens, Los Angeles Chargers and Denver Broncos currently filling the conference’s three wild-card spots with 8-5 records.

Waddle said the Miami offense is primed for a strong stretch run.

“We’re doing good, man,” Waddle said. “We’ve got a lot more in the tank, though, I know we do. We have a whole ’nother level.”

The Dolphins play the Houston Texans at noon CST Sunday at NRG Stadium in Houston in their next game.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.