Dolphins’ Jaelan Phillips, Austin Jackson and Chubb update status after knee injuries
Dolphins right tackle Austin Jackson and outside linebacker Jaelan Phillips, who ended the season on injured reserve with knee injuries, said Monday that they will be ready to play by the start of next season.
And outside linebacker Bradley Chubb said he will be back to himself after missing this season with three different knee injuries sustained in Week 17 of the 2023 season.
Speaking for the first time since being placed on injured reserve in November, Jackson revealed on Monday that he was diagnosed with a meniscus tear. The injury was surgically repaired.
Asked if he will be ready for next season’s opener, he said that’s “very realistic. I’ll be full go, 100 percent, better than I was this year by the next opener. I’m progressing really well and I should be fully cleared in a month or so.”
Jackson, whose skilled run blocking was particularly missed, said the knee started bothering him after the Nov. 3 game against Buffalo.
“After the Buffalo game, my knee just swelled up really bad, really bad,” he said. “I finished the game, so that was confusing. We got some imaging down and saw there were a couple of bad tears in there. We decided all together to get it fixed now [and that] was best for me and my future on and off the field.”
He said the rehab “has been pretty lengthy. A lot of meniscus tears lead to degenerative knees if not taken care of properly. I definitely want to take care of it properly going forward. That’s the best for me and my career.”
As for Phillips, his season ended with a torn ACL sustained in the Week 4 Monday night loss to Tennessee.
“Typical recovery for an ACL recovery is nine months… I’ll be back by training camp, ready to go,” he said.
Phillips’ injury happened when he collided with safety Jordan Poyer; he later returned to the game briefly, because doctors said he couldn’t do any more damage.
“Basically, it happened when the contact happened, and then after that, came out for a play or two, just feeling it around,” he said. “With an ACL, you’re still able to run in a straight line, so I was on the sideline doing some acceleration, and I felt that I was good. When they checked out my knee, they thought possibly it might be an MCL, something like that.
“We were just like brace it up, tape it up. I went in at halftime, did that, and then when I came out after halftime, tried to do a couple of series. Every time that I would plant at a 45-degree, it just started buckling on me. So at that point, I just kind of knew, I just wouldn’t be able to play. At that point, the damage was already done.
“I didn’t do any extra damage to it or anything like that. Ended up being a partial ACL tear. They were going to have to operate on it anyways. It’s feeling really good now, though.
“It’s honestly been really seamless. The surgery, I think I’m 12 weeks out now, it’s been building that strength back in the quad. Everything is going swimmingly, and I feel really good right now.”
Asked to compare his ACL rehab to his recovery from a torn Achilles’ sustained against the Jets 14 months ago, Phillips said:
“It’s honestly completely different. With the Achilles, it took me a long time to even be able to walk normally, almost four months for me to walk without a limp. With this ACL, I was walking two weeks off the surgery. I think, when it comes back into play, I think once you start running and things like that,with the Achilles, it was a little bit of a quicker turnaround.
“Once I started running, I was pretty much getting back into practice pretty soon after that. With this, it’s shorter to walk and be functional, but then a little bit longer to get back into football activity and cutting. In terms of mentality, physicality, at the end of the day, it’s all the same — rehabbing, getting the strength back.”
He said his mindset is strong: “It was brutal, but just like last year, the mindset was an instant switch of knowing that I’m going to be stronger at the end of this. At the end of the day, nothing is going to break me down. I’m a fighter. I’ve fought my whole career. I know, with ACLs, it’s a pretty typical injury, honestly. It was really straightforward, in terms of the injury that I got, the operation I got. I have no doubt that I’ll be back full-go.”
Meanwhile, Chubb said he took no issue with the team’s decision not to activate him this season. He ended up missing the entire season.
“It’s something I agreed with,” he said. “It’s a tough decision. When you come back from an injury like that, you want to be 100 percent confident in everything you’re doing. I had confidence, I was good moving around. But I wasn’t all the way there. I didn’t want to put myself in harm’s risk.
“I didn’t want to put my teammates in harm’s risk because of me half stepping or not being all the way there. Plus the environments we played in, Cleveland, this time of year is on slick grass, slick turf. And everyone talks about MetLife” where players are often injured in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Does he expect to be the high-impact Chubb next season? “One hundred percent,” he said.
This story was originally published January 6, 2025 at 3:10 PM.
