Jaelan Phillips wants to play as much as possible. Will the Dolphins let him?
It usually takes a player two years to fully return from a major injury.
That first year, a player must shake off the rust and learn to once again trust his or her body. By Year 2, he or she has found the confidence, effectively allowing them to flourish
Jaelan Phillips, however, wants to beat the odds.
“I don’t see this as a get-back year,” Phillips said Thursday afternoon. “I don’t see this as dipping my toe in the water. I’m coming guns blazing and I’m putting my best foot forward.”
Just 10 months removed from an Achilles tear, the fourth-year outside linebacker has been one of the stars of practice since coming off the physically unable to perform (PUP) list on Aug. 12. Although it’s unclear how much Phillips will play Week 1 against the Jacksonville Jaguars, it’s apparent that he’s ready to go — restrictions be damned.
“You’re going to have to ask somebody else,” Phillips said with a chuckle when asked about a potential snap count, later adding “hopefully it doesn’t come down to that. Hopefully we go out there and handle our business but regardless, I’m here to do whatever they need me to do. Obviously I’m going to be pushing to play as much as I can but I have to be smart at the end of the day. It’s a long season.”
Phillips has some experience returning from a significant injury. After a concussion prematurely ended his sophomore season at UCLA, he retired from football altogether. He later transferred to the University of Miami and revived his playing career in 2019. The Achilles recovery, however, was drastically different.
“This doesn’t really feel like that because when I retired, I was done with football,” Phillips said. “I wasn’t thinking about playing at all so that was a much bigger hurdle for me to get back into in terms of confidence, in terms of getting back into playing. With this, I feel really natural coming back.”
The former Hurricane admitted to having to clean up a few areas of his game — “hand placement, pad level, things like that,” Phillips said — but knows that will happen soon.
“I don’t feel like I’ve been away from the game a long time,” he added.
The Achilles rehabilitation process “may take nine to 12 months depending on the severity of injury and nature of the sport,” according to the Ohio State College of Medicine. Despite Phillips’ quick recovery, the Dolphins brass will continue to be cautious with their young star. Everybody — from defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver to coach Mike McDaniel to general manager Chris Grier — has been rather reticent when it comes to how much the former Hurricane will play when the season begins.
“I don’t think you want to put a number count on that kid, but we know we have to be smart in how we approach this so he can maintain and last throughout the entire season,” Weaver said on Aug. 20, later adding that “he looks like a man child out there.”
“He’s been very disciplined in not overstepping the boundaries outlined for him, that we’ve had numerous discussions on from our training staff,” McDaniel said Aug. 15. “I think that he is in a great place, and he is taking steps every day.”
“I think with him — yeah, you’ve got to put a governor on him because he wants to go 100 miles an hour, and it’s like, ‘Dude, you just came back from a serious injury faster because you’re a freak healer, but let’s be smart about this,’” Grier said Wednesday. “I just think Kyle [Johnston] and his staff do a great job of getting our guys prepared and healthy, so we’ll take the approach — because it is about long term; it’s not just about right now.”
With Bradley Chubb on the PUP list to start the season, the Dolphins need all the help they can get at outside linebacker. A major loss on the defensive line – namely Christian Wilkins, who signed with the Las Vegas Raiders – and the uncertainty in the secondary – the starting unit of Jaelan Ramsey, Jordan Poyer, Jevon Holland and Cam Smith has yet to fully practice together– also means that the Dolphins might rely on Phillips even more so than usual. The only question is: how much can he play?
“I got stronger, leaner, faster,” Phillips said. “I’m in a really good place.”
