What Dolphins’ injury report indicates. And Achane, Armstead, Holland discuss their status
The Dolphins will get rookie running back De’Von Achane and guard Robert Hunt back from injuries on Sunday, and left tackle Terron Armstead said he will play as well.
But safety Jevon Holland is questionable for Sunday because of injuries to both knees.
The Dolphins listed nobody as out for Sunday’s game at Washington (1 p.m., Fox). Six were listed as questionable: Holland, guard Lester Cotton (illness), guard Robert Jones (knee), left tackle Kendall Lamm (back), running back Chris Brooks (knee; he’s still on injured reserve) and Armstead.
But Armstead was adamant that he will play.
“I’m good. I’m good. I’m out there Sunday for sure,” he said Friday. “I’ll be out there flying around, ready to get that bad taste of a subpar performance [against the Jets].”
Why did he call his Jets game subpar?
“Not up to my standard, for sure. Not close. Regardless of what’s going on that’s never the case.”
Hunt will play after missing three games with a hamstring injury.
As for Holland, he said he’s optimistic about playing Sunday but far from sure.
“I’m trying to get back,” he said.
The injuries to both knees happened on a tackle late in the Jets game when Holland “lost my footing and ended up falling into a frog position and overstretched the inside of my knees.”
The Dolphins have erred on the side of caution with injuries, holding out some players an extra week to make sure they don’t injure themselves worse. That could be a factor with the decision on Holland.
“My whole time here, they’ve been like that,” Holland said. “[There’s] overall consideration of the player and his career and how important is it really to rush back with the potential to re-injure and be out longer [as opposed] to [sitting out another week] and really heal. They’ve done a great job my whole career like that.”
If Holland can’t play, Brandon Jones likely would start opposite his former Texas teammate, DeShon Elliott.
“Brandon is a very smart player,” Elliott said. “The love we have for each other goes a long way. As we play together more,that will be better for us and hopefully that gives our coaches confidence [in playing] all three of us together maybe, in some packages.”
ACHANE BACK
Achane is back after missing five of the past six games with a knee injury. After spending four games on injured reserve with a sprained knee, he injured the same knee after three snaps against the Raiders and sat out against the Jets.
He said he left the Raiders game because “I wasn’t confident I could go back out there and keep playing.... It wasn’t much pain. It wasn’t anything too bad... It was me getting my confidence back up and knowing I could go out there and give 100 percent.. and perform at a high level. I wanted to get it to 100 percent.”
He said the knee feels back to normal and he’s relieved the injury wasn’t serious and that it doesn’t leave him at risk of a more serious injury, according to the team. An MRI last month showed no structural damage.
“That’s always the main thing when you get an MRI, basically worrying what it’s going to say,” he said. “The fact I didn’t need surgery was a good thing.”
He said he had never had a knee injury before this season.
WINNING TEAMS
Even without even playing on Sunday, the Dolphins earned a win against a ‘winning’ team. Denver is now 6-5; that means Miami is now 1-3 against teams that currently have winning records and 7-0 against teams that now have losing record.
Armstead had a substantive answer recently when asked what happens to the Dolphins’ mental sharpness when they have offensive breakdowns against very good teams.
“That’s a good question,” he said. “I feel like we have the right intent. We play hard, we fly around the field. In order to win those big games against those better teams, the penalties, the costly penalties, the big plays that need to be made at certain times have to happen. We feel extremely confident that we can and will, even though the narrative is that we haven’t, which we haven’t. The facts are the facts and we can’t argue that.
“The outside world has every right to create those narratives. But for us internally in this building, we have all the confidence in the world. No one is second guessing can we actually [win big] or do we have enough?”
The Dolphins will have chances to beat ‘winning’ teams on Dec. 24 at home against Dallas and Dec. 31 at Baltimore.
This story was originally published December 1, 2023 at 3:27 PM.
