Hunter Long has mastered the Rubik’s Cube to the point he can solve the 3-D combination puzzle in less than a minute.

Unfortunately, adulthood and the NFL was a more perplexing puzzle, one that took the Miami Dolphins tight end an entire season to figure out.

“Year one on and off the field is a huge growing phase for anyone to make that leap. I learned a lot about myself and what I can do,” the 2021 third-round pick said, referring to his rookie season, a year where he seldom played and caught just one pass for 8 yards.

Many fans don’t realize this, but Long began his NFL career as a starter.

The rookie tight end was on the field with the starting unit for the season opener and played 18 offensive snaps in Miami’s 17-16 win over the New England Patriots.

It was package-based work, but the reviews must not have been favorable because from that point Long disappeared.

The former Boston College standout seemingly got lost playing behind Mike Gesicki, Durham Smythe and Adam Shaheen, three veteran tight ends who had more familiarity with Miami’s offense.

Because Long wasn’t a core special teams contributor he was inactive for eight of the next 10 games. He eventually got playing time later in the season when injuries impacted Miami’s tight end unit, but Long admits the challenges of what comes with being an NFL rookie, and adulting in the real world, overwhelmed him.

“Living in general and trying to handle the off-field stuff [was difficult],” Long said at the conclusion of Tuesday’s one-hour OTA practice session, which sets up next week’s mandatory minicamp.

“In college you don’t realize how much of that stuff is taken care of for you. You get thrown out here and got to [figuring it out] for yourself,” Long said. “I grew a lot off the field and that has helped me on the field by being able to block out stuff.”

Whether or not he’s past his growing pains and ready to contribute the Miami’s offense hasn’t been determined yet.

There’s still work to be done, and there are tight ends clearly ahead of him on the depth chart.

But Long is doing his part by learning Miami’s new play-action based offense, which will feature tight ends plenty, by seemingly bulking up.

His shoulder are broader, and that wasn’t accidental.

“I most definitely bulked up. I haven’t gained much weight, but I gained some muscle and lost some fat,” Long said. “I’m just trying to do what I can do. I’m trying to attack this offseason and keep attacking it.”

What motivated the physical metamorphosis?

“Everyone watches their own tape, and it’s on tape,” Long said, seemingly addressing his shortcomings as a blocker. “There are changes I felt I needed and I attacked it.”

So far Long hasn’t made any splash plays in the two OTA practice sessions the media has watched this spring, but at least his head isn’t swimming in new information.

And he’s gained some familiarity to his surroundings, and the team, unlike last season.

Gesicki, Smythe and the tight ends always took Long under their wing, even though they realized he was potentially drafted as their replacement, considering they were both impending free agents last offseason.

Nothing has changed this year as Gesicki is playing on the franchise tag, which is one-year deal worth $10.9 million, and Smythe re-signed a one-year deal worth $2.75 million.

Long could be the heir to the tight end throne if he can blossom, becoming the versatile, multi-faceted player he was at Boston College, which motivated the Dolphins to select him 81st overall in 2021. But that could take some time, potentially more than his rookie season.

There is a sentiment in the NFL that outside of quarterback, tight end is the most difficult position to learn as a young player.

The reasoning behind it is that there’s three different facets of the job a player must master, and no other unit has that much put on their plate.

Tight ends must run routes, on and off the line of scrimmage. Then, most also are responsible for run blocking and pass blocking, like offensive linemen.

That’s why it’s been two decades since the Dolphins had a tight end who made a significant impact in his rookie season.

That player was Randy McMichael, a former Georgia standout the Dolphins selected in the fourth round of the 2002 NFL draft. McMichael caught 39 passes for 485 yards and scored four touchdowns as a rookie.

He went on to play 11 seasons, starting 150 games, and 80 of them came from the five seasons he spent with the Dolphins.

Charles Clay caught 16 passes for 233 yards and scored three touchdowns in his rookie season with the Dolphins back in back in 2011. His career took off in his third season, when he caught a career-high 69 receptions and turned them into 759 yards and six touchdowns back in 2013.

That 2011 sixth-round pick had a productive nine-year NFL career, and first four of which was spent with the Dolphins.

Gesicki and Smythe, who were both early picks in the 2018 NFL draft, each got off to slow starts.

Gesicki caught 22 passes for 202 yards in the 400 offensive snaps he handled as a rookie, but even he’ll acknowledge that his rookie season was a disappointment.

But Gesicki has blossomed into a playmaker the past two seasons, and Smythe, who caught six passes for 50 yards in the 176 offensive snaps he played his rookie season, has served as a functional in-line tight end, complementing Gesicki.

The hope was that Long can manage both roles — in-line blocker and pass catching threat — but to prove that, he’ll need to earn this coaching staff’s respect and carve out a role for himself.

“My world hasn’t changed. I’m going to come out and do what I can do,” Long said when asked about the upcoming season. “How much I play, and when is up to them.”

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