Dolphins’ De’Von Achane goes on injured reserve with knee injury
MIAMI GARDENS — The knee injury that Miami Dolphins rookie running back De’Von Achane sustained in Sunday’s 31-16 win over the New York Giants has indeed landed him on injured reserve, the team said Wednesday afternoon confirming an earlier report from ESPN.
“It wasn’t a black-and-white decision where it was obvious,” Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said. “It was something that (general manager) Chris (Grier) and I knew was the best thing for the team.”
McDaniel would not comment on the severity of Achane’s injury or if he will need surgery. He said it happened late in the game, but that Achane remained in the game after the initial scare.
An IR stint will put Achane out at least four weeks. That means he will miss the Dolphins’ upcoming games against the Carolina Panthers, Philadelphia Eagles, New England Patriots and Kansas City Chiefs in Germany. It had already been reported Tuesday that Achane will miss multiple weeks.
Miami has a bye week to follow that four-game stretch, so it gives Achane the opportunity to have five weeks to recover before he’s even eligible to return.
The Dolphins (4-1) have tailbacks Raheem Mostert, Salvon Ahmed and undrafted rookie Chris Brooks to handle the workload in the backfield while Achane is out. They can also activate fellow running back Jeff Wilson Jr. once he’s ready.
Wilson has been on injured reserve the first five weeks of the season with injuries to his midsection and a finger. McDaniel said he will return to practice Wednesday.
Achane leads the NFL with his 12.1 yards per carry average. He is second in the league with his 460 yards, 50 behind San Francisco’s Christian McCaffrey with 61 fewer rushing attempts. He has scored seven total touchdowns in his rookie season after being drafted in the third round out of Texas A&M.
Achane had 151 rushing yards, including a 76-yard touchdown, on eight rushing attempts against the Giants. It appeared initially he came out of the game healthy, but McDaniel said the team was monitoring the running back’s knee injury Monday.
The Dolphins are racking up players on IR. Among others: Wilson, cornerback Jalen Ramsey, left tackle Terron Armstead, offensive lineman Robert Jones and wide receiver River Cracraft. Fellow wideout Erik Ezukanma is on the reserve/non-football-injury list.
A team can bring back a total of eight players from those reserve lists over the course of a season. A player can come back from the physically-unable-to-perform list, like cornerback Nik Needham is seeking to do, without counting against those eight.
This story will be updated.
