A Wednesday night update on Dolphin lineman Matos, who is hospitalized in stable condition
Dolphins offensive lineman Bayron Matos was injured late in the team’s first training camp practice and was taken by helicopter to a local hospital, where he remained in stable condition on Wednesday evening.
His agent, Perlesta Hollingsworth, told The Miami Herald on Wednesday night that Matos “has an above the shoulder type injury” but it wasn’t certain whether it involved his neck, spine or something else.
He said Matos has “some movement but not full movement in his right leg. It comes and goes.”
Matos will remain hospitalized Wednesday night and undergo more tests on Thursday, the agent said. He added that as he understood the situation, doctors must evaluate him further to make a long-term diagnosis.
Matos’ girlfriend and some family members are with him in the hospital. His mother plans to fly from the Domincan Republic to see him, Hollingsworth said.
Matos was injured during an inadvertent collision with a teammate. “He ran into a defensive lineman when his head was lowered and took the brunt of the impact,” Hollingsworth said.
The team ended practice while medical officials were administering to Matos, who was on the field and surrounded by teammates for more than 10 minutes before being airlifted to a hospital.
The team said the injury was not the reason practice ended after 90 minutes. First training camp practices generally tend to be shorter.
Matos, a 6-7, 334-pound offensive lineman, played in preseason as a rookie last year but has not played a snap in a regular-season game.
“I want to be one of the best tackles to play in the NFL,” he said last year.
The Dolphins thought so much of Matos when they signed him 16 months ago that they guaranteed him $247,500, an unusually high number for an undrafted rookie. At least 10 other teams showed interest.
Born in the Dominican Republic, Matos, 23, initially played baseball growing up (he could throw in the 90s as a pitcher) but moved to the United States to play college basketball for two years at New Mexico and for a year at University of South Florida. He walked on as a football player at USF and played a couple dozen snaps on defense before moving to the offensive line.
Matos moved to the United States from the Dominican Republic when he was 17, initially for “basketball, to learn English, learn the culture.”
In three years playing Division I college basketball, he averaged 3.4 points and 3.3 rebounds and 14 minutes per game in 48 games and 19 starts.
But Matos’ “host family in Tennessee said… you will be a football player. You will never touch a basketball.” So he walked on at USF and appeared in two games as a defensive end before switching to the offensive line, where he never saw game action.
“I played 11 snaps in two games, against BYU and Howard, got the feel for it, played special teams,” Matos said. “Football is a beautiful sport.”
Matos is one of more than a dozen NFL players who were selected for the NFL’s International Player Pathway Program, designed to give opportunities to foreign players. He runs well for his size — a 4.88 in the 40-yard dash.
Cornerback injured
Veteran cornerback Artie Burns, who signed with the team earlier this offseason, left the facility on crutches with what appeared to be an injury to his right leg. Burns is feared to have sustained a torn ACL.
Burns was injured when he was tangled up with another player during beck-pedal drills early in practice. He slammed his helmet in frustration.
This story was originally published July 23, 2025 at 11:12 AM.
