Miami Dolphins place nose tackle Raekwon Davis on injured reserve

The Miami Dolphins will start their second straight season with a key defensive player out of action. Last season, prized free agent addition cornerback Byron Jones suffered a groin injury in the opening possession of Miami’s second game of the season, a narrow loss to the Buffalo Bills — Jones would go on to miss Miami’s next two games against the Jaguars and Seahawks before getting himself back into action.

This year, there are no injuries in the secondary coming out of Week 1; but the Dolphins will now have to try to process a loss in the trenches. Second-year defensive tackle Raekwon Davis played all of five snaps against the Patriots on Sunday, getting rolled up on by a mass of bodies in the heart of the point of attack. His knee buckled severely on the play and, despite the initial concern, Davis wound up being a consistent presence on the sideline for the rest of the game; his helmet on and seemingly ready to go.

But the Dolphins proceeded there with caution and are now set to tackle at least the next three weeks without Davis on hand to help stuff up the run. The Dolphins announced this afternoon that Davis will be going on the injured reserve list.

New roster rules dictate that players can return from injured reserve after missing a minimum of three weeks of action — which leaves the Dolphins with a large strike zone to try to get Davis back into the mix this season. The full details of his knee injury are currently unknown; but the schedule offers Miami some fortunes. The Buffalo Bills are next on the schedule and QB Josh Allen threw the ball 50+ times in the Bills’ opening week contest. The week after that brings the Las Vegas Raiders, who bid farewell to perhaps the best center in football this offseason in Rodney Hudson.

Three weeks from now, however, will be a challenge. The Dolphins will face the Indianapolis Colts at that juncture — who offer some imposing players up front and a heavy-hitting running back in Jonathan Taylor. Davis is guaranteed to miss those three games. From there? We’ll have to wait and see. But if we know anything about head coach Brian Flores, don’t expect many updates on the specifics — he likes to keep that kind of information in-house.