Ogbah, Van Ginkel are the next men up with injury to Dolphins edge rusher Phillips

While Emmanuel Ogbah’s snaps have been limited in recent weeks, the veteran linebacker knew he had to remain “focused and ready,” for the possibility that he would once again be asked to play a key role in the Dolphins defense.

With Jaelan Phillips’ Achilles injury, that time for Ogbah and others to step up and fill the void is now.

“We’re definitely, for sure, going to miss him,” Ogbah said about Phillips’ injury, believed to be one that will end the promising third-year linebacker’s season. “He’s definitely a big part of our defense. He’s a grinder, he’s a hard worker. It’s definitely frustrating that this happened, but injuries are part of the game and you have to have a next man up mentality.”

After Phillips went down, Ogbah had a sack and a forced fumble of Jets quarterback Tim Boyle.

Ogbah, who had seen just 16 snaps on defense the previous four games, had 1.5 sacks and two tackles on the day. The eight-year veteran now has four sacks in limited action, playing in just 21 percent of the team’s defensive snaps prior to Friday’s 34-13 win against the New York Jets.

Ogbah had played at least 56 percent of the team’s snaps on the defense each of the previous three years, a span that includes 26 starts.

“It’s just staying focused and staying ready,” said Ogbah, who has 23 sacks during his tenure with Miami. “That’s how I’ve been the whole season — staying focused and staying ready to help out the way I can with all of my teammates. If I can give advice from the sideline with what I’m seeing, that’s what I’ll do.”

Ogbah’s role is sure to expand in the wake of Phillips’ injury as will fellow linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel.

“Next man up,” Van Ginkel said. “I’m going to do my best to help this team and I’ll do whatever it takes.”

Van Ginkel started three games when Phillips was out earlier this season with an oblique injury, recording a sack in each of those three contests and four overall. Since Phillips’ return, Van Ginkel was still a part of the Dolphins linebacker rotation along with Bradley Chubb.

Ogbah had back-to-back nine sack-seasons in 2020 and 2021 for Miami.

“It feels good [knowing we have Emmanuel and Andrew],” said defensive tackle Raekwon Davis. “They know that they gotta step up and they gotta represent him and do their job.”

After the game Phillips, seen in the locker room on crutches with a walking boot on his right foot, was encouraging his downtrodden teammates.

“It just feels like we lost today because Jaelan is a great player and when someone goes down it hurts you,” Van Ginkel said.” We’re going to take it week by week and go from there.”

“It’s unfortunate, but it’s our job to have his back,” said linebacker Jerome Baker. “Not just on the field, but off the field as well and that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”

Earlier in the drive, 11 plays before his injury, Phillips brought down Boyle to mark his fifth straight game with a sack.

With Phillips and All-Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey back from injury, Miami had been playing its best defense of the season. Since Ramsey’s return in Week 8 against the Patriots, the defense had 14 sacks and seven turnovers in four games.

But now it’s a unit that will once again be without a key piece and for the foreseeable future.

“You never want to see a key ingredient go down like that, but at the end of the day, we gotta bond together and understand the season’s going to keep going,” said Chubb. “It’s unfortunate for JP that it might not, but for us we gotta make sure that we stick together and make sure we’re flowing and doing everything we can to not have a drop off in production.”

This story was originally published November 24, 2023 at 11:11 PM.