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Dolphins safety Brandon Jones, coming off knee injury, ramping up camp participation with goal to be ready for Week 1

david furones, south florida sun-sentinel
·5 min read

MIAMI GARDENS — Miami Dolphins safety Brandon Jones was off to a promising start to his third NFL season when a knee injury cut that 2022 campaign short.

Jones was leading the team in tackles through seven games, a rarity for anyone outside a defense’s linebacker corps. The breakthrough season, though, came to a screeching halt when he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee in the Oct. 23 Sunday night win over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Nine and a half months later, Jones is gearing up for the 2023 season, slowly ramping up his practice participation two weeks into training camp as Miami hosted its first of a pair of joint practices with the Atlanta Falcons ahead of Friday’s preseason opener.

“My goal is to be ready Week 1,” Jones said after Tuesday drills, as the regular season is about a month away, beginning for the Dolphins Sept. 10 at the Los Angeles Chargers.

With that goal in mind, the Dolphins’ coaching and training staff has had him limited in team drills and wearing a red, non-contact jersey throughout camp since he returned for the start of it July 26.

“More than last week, not as much as the next week. Very individualized,” Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel described for Jones’ progress in practice. “He was probably ready for a little bit more than we gave him last week, but that’s intentional because we don’t want to put him in a precarious situation to have a setback. There were no setbacks from last week, very encouraged by it. Hoping to take another step forward this week.”

Jones estimates he went through around a dozen reps Tuesday between 7-on-7 and full team 11-on-11 work, but he said he lost count at some point.

He got his feet wet against an opponent for the first time since his injury. He and rookie cornerback Cam Smith were seen beaten deep by Falcons wide receiver Josh Ali, a former Chaminade-Madonna High standout that played collegiately at Kentucky, for a touchdown. He also seemed to forget he was in a red jersey on one downhill Atlanta run, getting in on the action with a physical thump.

The 2020 third-round pick out of Texas understands the caution in camp, but it gets him itching for more.

“It’s been real irritating to me, honestly, just because once I get going, it’s hard to just be like, ‘Okay, you got enough reps for the day,’ ” Jones said. “I’m like, ‘Man, I can finish the whole practice.’

“But there’s a science behind it. I trust those guys, and at the end of the day, they kind of got to hold me back from myself. Because, if not, I’d be out there doing every single rep. Just trying to be smart, but it is irritating.”

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McDaniel equated Jones’ eager mindset to what he has seen from star cornerback Jalen Ramsey in the 11 days since the surgery on the meniscus in his left knee. Ramsey, since surgery, was first out at practices watching on crutches and since has even ditched the crutches.

“Brandon, specifically, falls into the category of the Jalen Ramseys of the world,” McDaniel said. “Brandon will do anything and everything to expedite his return. It means so much to him.”

Being kept away for an extended period for the first time as a professional made him miss and appreciate the game — something he felt in his first practice back.

“It was a little emotional,” said Jones following the first practice of training camp. “Just being back and going through everything I’ve been through and just to get back at the point of being able to do stuff with other people and not just myself, it was really exciting.”

Even going back to last season, a month-plus into Jones’ rehab, he was already seen doing light jogging on the practice field at UCLA during the Dolphins’ West Coast trip between games against the San Francisco 49ers and L.A. Chargers.

“We got the same mindset,” Jones said of him and Ramsey. “You try to find whatever edge you can, and try to stay connected to football.”

Being limited physically coming off the knee injury, Jones honed in on the mental aspects in the offseason, especially studying the team’s new defense when Miami made the switch at defensive coordinator from Josh Boyer to Vic Fangio. The coverages go from a lot of press man under Boyer to an increase in zone coverages and decreases in blitzes from the secondary.

“It’s a 360,” Jones said Tuesday. “It’s completely different, but I think it gives the DBs and especially the safeties a lot of freedom just to play multiple different coverages, give different looks.”

Jones had a niche in Boyer’s scheme as a blitz specialist of sorts. He wants to prove he can be more versatile at safety and effective in the two-high shell and other more traditional safety roles.

“We call him ‘Blitz Boy,’ ” cornerback Xavien Howard said at the start of training camp, “but he brings a lot to the table, man. He does his thing. When he’s out there, he’s going 120 miles per hour every day.”

Well, maybe not that fast yet.

“I feel like I’m not as explosive, fast as I want to be,” Jones said. “I feel like I am still fast and explosive, but I have very high expectations for myself. Just getting my feet back under me, but I think it’ll come back pretty quick.”

Jones is competing with DeShon Elliott to start opposite Jevon Holland. He called it “no hard feelings” as he competes with his former college teammate at Texas.

“It is what it is,” he said. “We’re both super-competitive.”

Jones is unlikely to see action in Friday’s preseason opener, and McDaniel usually takes a precautious approach with players returning from injury in the preseason. The goal remains for the safety to be ready for the regular season.