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Dolphins’ Jaelan Phillips ‘feeling good’ after brief injury scare; Mike White hits practice deep ball in front of hometown fans

David Furones, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
·4 min read

MIAMI GARDENS — Miami Dolphins standout edge defender Jaelan Phillips has a promising third NFL season on the horizon, but training camp started with a brief injury run-in.

Phillips appeared to tweak his lower left leg on one of the first few plays of team drills at Wednesday’s opening practice of camp.

While coach Mike McDaniel described the ailment that resulted from getting stepped on as one “we’re not worried about,” it was enough to hold Phillips out of Thursday and Friday drills before Sunday’s first practice in front of fans.

“Initially, it’s discouraging, but I talked to Mike about it. Really, the perspective you have to have is everything happens for a reason,” Phillips said. “Obviously, I couldn’t control that, and how you respond is really kind of what defines you. Took it in stride and attacked my rehab and feeling good.”

Phillips showed he indeed was feeling good Sunday, taking part in 11-on-11 drills with his patented burst. On one play, it was enough to catch speedy rookie tailback De’Von Achane for a tackle for loss as a backside defender on an outside run.

Phillips went back in for later reps in Wednesday’s first practice after initially hurting the lower leg, but he clearly wasn’t moving like himself.

“An injury that we’re not worried about but would not be healed if he continued to practice,” McDaniel said ahead of Friday’s session. “We’re just being smart with it.”

Phillips, the 2021 first-round pick out of the University of Miami, wants to add to his sack total of 15 1/2 over his first two seasons after ranking among league leaders in pressure rate.

“Turning those pressures into sacks. That’s the biggest thing,” Phillips said. “Obviously, numbers, at the end of the day, don’t really show the big picture, and I’m not chasing numbers. But ultimately, the more sacks I have, the better it is for the team.”

He’s looking forward to working in new defensive coordinator Vic Fangio’s defense that could help him get more time to reach the quarterback with different coverage principles incorporated behind him.

“The biggest thing is what the back end does,” he said. “Because, without the back end, we don’t have any chance to pass rush. Just being cohesive, playing together, marrying the coverage with the pass rush, the linebackers, everything.”

White has big play

The Dolphins, following Friday’s defense-dominated practice, opened up the offense to start Sunday’s session with deep passing plays for quarterbacks Tua Tagovailoa and Mike White on each of their first snaps of team drills. White went first, finding Jaylen Waddle streaking across the deep middle off play-action, and Tagovailoa later followed with a similar look, finding Tyreek Hill.

“One thing with those guys is, there’s no out-throwing them, so you can throw it as far as you can and they will get it,” White said. “And Waddle showed what he’s so good at in tracking the ball and making contested catches.”

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White hadn’t had many big passing plays to that point in camp, but he got one in the first practice open to fans, which brought him back to being a Broward County kid attending Dolphins training camp practices at the old Davie facility.

“It was nice,” he said. “Just being back here, I was telling the quarterbacks, hearing the fans, that was me. I was a little kid going over to the Davie campus and watching them.”

And White really felt like a kid again when he got to meet Zach Thomas, the legendary Dolphins linebacker who is soon to be inducted into the Hall of Fame and made a stop at team facilities Sunday.

“I got to meet freaking Zach Thomas,” White exclaimed. “Like, you tell 12-year-old Mike White that he got to meet Zach Thomas, he would lose his mind.

“He knew who I was. That threw me off.”

White appears to be competing with Skylar Thompson for backup quarterback duties in camp. He said it was never firmly communicated this offseason in signing with Miami after his previous stint with the New York Jets whether he had the No. 2 job behind Tagovailoa or he had to compete for it.

“We didn’t really get too much into that,” White said. “We just got to talking about the offense and their philosophy and kind of how it differed from the Jets, kind of the same base. There were a lot of different nuances that we were able to do with Jalen and Tyreek and kind of the speed that they have and adding Braxton (Berrios), Chosen (Anderson), just the whole room is so fast. So there’s stuff that they get to do here that we didn’t have the luxury of doing up there.

“I just go out there and try to complete my plays and run the offense to the best of my ability. And then come Week 1, they’ll explain it to us.” …

— The Dolphins activated offensive lineman Isaiah Wynn from the physically-unable-to-perform list Sunday before practice. They have left tackle Terron Armstead, cornerback Nik Needham and tight end Tanner Conner remaining on PUP early in camp.