Miami Dolphins pass rusher Jaelan Phillips is returning from an Achilles injury that he suffered in the 2023 season, but that hasn’t lowered his expectations for himself in 2024.
“I never really have sack goals when it comes to that,” Phillips said. “I just want to be disruptive and be productive. I know that I’m a 10-plus sack guy. I know that I can go out there and disrupt the quarterback, stop the run, do anything I need to do to for this team. So the numbers will fall when they fall, but I’m going to go out there and try my best.”
The Achilles tear cost Phillips the final six games of the regular season for the Dolphins in 2023, and he also missed the team’s playoff game against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Prior to that, he’d been a menace for the Dolphins in eight games, recording 6.5 sacks, 43 tackles, one interception and seven tackles for loss. A former first-round pick, Phillips has developed well in Miami.
As a rookie during the 2021 season, Phillips recorded 8.5 sacks in 17 games despite making just five starts. He then started 15 of the 17 games he played in during the 2022 season, recording seven sacks and a career-high 61 tackles.
Phillips expressed confidence in his Achilles ahead of the 2024 season, revealing that he’s surprised himself with how much he has been able to handle while working his way back into game shape.
“It’s really been kind of like a steady — the last about a month and a half, every time I would start to add load and do new things, I would just kind of surprise myself with how my Achilles didn’t get sore at all and it didn’t really react at all,” Phillips said. “There’s been a couple of times where I’d be watching myself, watching whatever drills I’m doing, I’ll see myself in my stance really pushing off of it, and there’s no rebound, there is no weakness. It’s just explosive, it’s feeling great. I just feel very grateful to play.”
There’s no doubt that Phillips will have a massive role for the Dolphins defensively in the 2024 season.
Fellow pass rusher Bradley Chubb is recovering from his own season-ending injury from the 2023 campaign and will start the season on the PUP list. That means the Dolphins will look more to players like Phillips and rookie Chop Robinson to fill the void on defense.
After making the playoffs in each of the last two seasons, the Dolphins are hoping to make yet another run in the 2024 campaign in Mike McDaniel’s third season at the helm.
If Phillips can play as well as he did in his eight games in the 2023 season this season, the Dolphins pass rusher should easily clear the 10-sack threshold.
