Dolphins Cornerback Issues Not Getting Any Better

Miami Dolphins cornerback Byron Jones has been on the Reserve/PUP list all season and will remain there at least one more week

Miami Dolphins cornerback Byron Jones' much-anticipated return to practice will have to wait at least another week.

This was the week Jones was eligible to start practicing after he spent the first four weeks of the regular season on the Reserve/PUP list after undergoing Achilles surgery in the offseason.

Once Jones does start to practice, the Dolphins will have 21 days to determine his status by activating him to the 53-man roster, keeping him on PUP for the rest of the 2022 season or releasing him.

But head coach Mike McDaniel said before Wednesday that Jones isn't at that point to get back to practice yet.

"We're still going to take our time with it," McDaniel said. "It's not progressing as fast as we obviously had hoped from the spring into the summer. But there hasn't been a major setback or anything. I won't put a dude on the field unless he has complete stability. There's too many other risks that can happen around other people. So we'll keep addressing that. And that could change because again it hasn't had to do with like a major setback. So that could change anytime, day by day, week by week."

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THE DOLPHINS INJURY ISSUES AT CORNERBACK

Jones' absence by itself has been problematic for the Dolphins defense, and it's been made worse by the groin injury that hampered Xavien Howard the past two games and sidelined him in the fourth quarter of the Week 4 game against the Cincinnati Bengals.

Now Howard is listed not with a groin issue on the official injury report, but "groins." 

Additionally, yet another cornerback, Keion Crossen, is dealing with an injury to his upper leg/lower glute area for which he received treatment Monday, and he didn't practice Wednesday with what the injury report is listing as "shoulder/glute."

"X is gonna be day-to-day," McDaniel said. "He's going to do everything in his power to play against the Jets on Sunday."

With Howard and Jones, the Dolphins have one of the best starting cornerback tandems in the NFL, and their coverage ability allows the defense to be uber aggressive and put extra pressure on opposing quarterbacks.

That's not happened with any kind of consistency so far this season, and as a result the Dolphins pass defense has had its struggles.

DOLPHINS STRUGGLING AGAINST THE PASS

The Dolphins are giving up almost 300 yards per game and ranked 31st in the NFL in both passing yards allowed per game and per play.

Of course, it hasn't helped that in the past three games they faced elite quarterbacks like Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen and Joe Burrow, but those are the kind of quarterbacks they'll have to be if they want to accomplish their goals.

And that's going to be a lot more feasible with Jones and Howard both in the lineup and both operating at full capacity.

Unfortunately, that's not the reality for the Dolphins at the moment and who knows when that will be the case.