Jaelan Phillips finds iguana in his toilet: ‘I feel violated’

Miami Dolphins linebacker Jaelan Phillips recently found an iguana inside of his toilet and uploaded videos of it on social media.

The 24-year-old then uploaded another story to his Instagram account about encountering the reptile.

Phillips was limited to just eight appearances and six starts with the Dolphins during the 2023 regular season, his third season in the NFL. Despite that, he totaled the fourth-most sacks of any player on the team with 6.5 and also totaled 43 combined tackles, 28 solo tackles, 15 assists on tackles, seven tackles for loss and 11 quarterback hits.

He accumulated three or more combined tackles in six of his eight games played with Miami and finished with five-plus tackles on five occasions.

After suffering an Achilles injury in the Dolphins’ win over the New York Jets on Nov. 24 of last year, Phillips missed the remainder of the regular season and also didn’t appear in Miami’s playoff loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in January.

Phillips was able to avoid injuries during the first two seasons of his NFL career, considering he suited up in 17 contests in both the 2021 and 2022 regular seasons. He started 15 games in his second NFL season after starting just five in his rookie year.

Perhaps if Phillips had been healthy for the entirety of the 2023 regular season, the Dolphins’ defensive numbers would have been more impressive. Sans Phillips for much of the campaign, Miami allowed 23.0 points per contest, which was more than some teams that missed out on the playoffs entirely.

The Dolphins’ defense also seemingly could have used his presence in their loss to the Chiefs in the playoffs. Miami allowed Kansas City to score 26 points in a game it lost by 19 points, and Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes did well against Miami’s defense, as he finished with 262 passing yards without throwing so much as a single interception.

Dolphins fans are surely wishing that Phillips will have better injury luck in the upcoming 2024 regular season and play in all 17 games. Hopefully for him, he won’t walk in on any reptiles in his toilet again.