Dolphins lose Kader Kohou for the season and Ashtyn Davis for a while
Kader Kohou, who entered training camp as the Dolphins’ most accomplished and arguably best cornerback, will miss the entire season with a knee injury, coach Mike McDaniel said Wednesday. He will be placed on injured reserve and won’t be eligible to return this season.
Meanwhile, safety Ashtyn Davis will be out for an extended period, but did not sustain a torn Achilles during his noncontact practice injury on Tuesday. He will not miss the entire season, McDaniel said.
Kohou’s injury is a crushing blow to a secondary that was arguably Miami’s weakest unit. He has a partial ACL tear that will require surgery.
“I saw him ascend to a different level, trying to take reins of his career and get his game to an even higher level,” McDaniel said. “For that and the timing of it, I was crushed until I talked to Kader and Kader made me feel a little bit better.”
Kohou sustained the injury during practice Saturday and walked out without a pronounced limp. But tests revealed a significant knee injury.
Davis, meanwhile, sustained an injury in the ankle/Achilles injury but McDaniel said “we were fortunate it wasn’t the worst” case scenario. “Noncontact, you are always prepared for the worst. It will take a couple days [to know] how long it will be. It wasn’t the thing that will keep you out the whole season.”
McDaniel said Davis’ injury is “below his knee and above his foot.”
Kohou’s loss leaves slot corner Mike Hilton and veterans Jack Jones and Kendall Sheffield as the team’s only cornerbacks with more than two years of experience. Because Hilton is a nickel cornerback, Kohou was expected to play on the boundary.
Now Miami will hold an open competition for two open starting outside cornerback jobs, with Hilton the front-runner to start in the slot.
The competition for those two outside cornerback spots includes Jones (the most accomplished of the group), Sheffield, Cam Smith, Cornell Armstrong, Ethan Bonner, Jason Marshall Jr., Storm Duck, Isaiah Johnson and undrafted rookies BJ Adams and Ethan Robinson.
Might the team add another experienced cornerback? “We feel good where we are at,” McDaniel said, adding that he would revisit the situation with general manager Chris Grier if warranted.
Former Bills starter Rasul Douglas, who rejected a Miami offer in May and again last week, remains unsigned.
As for Davis, he was projected to be the team’s No. 3 safety behind Minkah Fitzpatrick and Ifeatu Melifonwu, who is on the non-football injury list with an injury that McDaniel has suggested isn’t serious.
Also competing at safety: Elijah Campbell, Patrick McMorris, rookie John Saunders Jr., Jordan Colbert and fifth-round pick Dante Trader Jr., who is expected to be out at least another week.
The Dolphins are now without their entire starting secondary from last season. The team released Kendall Fuller, traded disgruntled Jalen Ramsey to Pittsburgh and now have lost Kohou to injury. At safety, Miami moved on from Jordan Poyer (who remains unsigned) and lost Jevon Holland in free agency to the Giants.
While the Davis news wasn’t as bad as expected, the Kohou news was worse than anyone expected.
Kohou, who will be a free agent after this season, has been one of the Dolphins’ best undrafted success stories of the century.
In 2022, as an undrafted player out of Texas A&M Commerce, Kohou was a rookie revelation, intercepting Aaron Rodgers in a Christmas game against Green Bay and permitting just an 81 passer rating in his coverage area. He seemingly regressed dramatically in 2023, yielding a 133.4 passer rating, second worst among NFL cornerbacks who were targeted at least 50 times.
But last season, he was once again very good, permitting just 191 total receiving yards on 64 targets, which is exceptional. His 76 passer rating against was 13th best among all cornerbacks targeted at least 50 times.
He had as many interceptions (two) as touchdowns allowed. And he relinquished just 8.0 yards per catch, third best among all NFL cornerbacks who were thrown at a minimum of 50 times.
Kohou has appeared in 47 games, with 38 starts.
McDaniel addressed other issues Wednesday:
▪ Though rookie Quinn Ewers has had an impressive camp, Zach Wilson remains the No. 2 quarterback.
▪ McDaniel said tight end Noah Fant’s free agent visit on Monday wasn’t related to Darren Waller’s return from retirement and said the team will decide in the next couple of days whether to pursue Fant.
“Noah Fant was someone we had a little mutual interest,” McDaniel said. “We brought him in on a visit and allowed him to measure up what he’s got going on and see if it’s a fit for the team.”
Fant, who had 48 receptions for 500 yards for Seattle last season, previously visited Cincinnati and New Orleans in recent weeks.
McDaniel said Waller, who remains on the physically unable to perform list, continues to make progress to get in football shape.
This story was originally published July 30, 2025 at 8:38 AM.
