Thursday Dolphins Notebook: Full Injury Report, Tua's Take on Tyreek, and More

The Dolphins continue to dominate the Pro Bowl fan voting; Vic Fangio discusses the Monday night collapse

With the Miami Dolphins conducting a walk-through Thursday after a day off, their injury report again was based on an estimation of what might have happened for a regular practice.

That said, the only three changes from the first injury report for the Week 15 game matchup against the New York Jets to the second report were positive, with T Terron Armstead, CB Xavien Howard and RB Raheem Mostert all going from DNP (Did Not Participate) to limited participants.

Unfortunately, five others were listed as DNP for a second consecutive day, starting with WR Tyreek Hill (ankle), with the others being G Robert Hunt (hamstring), C Liam Eichenberg (calf), RB De'Von Achane (toe) and S DeShon Elliott (concussion/ribs).

The Dolphins will conduct their only regular practice of the week Friday before releasing the final injury report along with game status designations.

NEW YORK'S INJURY REPORT

The Jets, meanwhile, had four changes, also all positive.

DL Solomon Thomas went from not practicing Wednesday to being a full participant; DL John Franklin-Myers and QB Aaron Rogers went from DNP to limited; and OL Mekhi Becton went from limited to full.

The only two players who did not practice for a second consecutive day were WR Jason Brownlee (ankle) and OL Carter Warren (hip).

PRACTICE SQUAD MOVE

The Dolphins made official Thursday the signing of veteran Melvin Ingram to the practice squad and released rookie center Alama Uluave to make room.

Uluave had been on the practice squad since the start of the regular season after joining the Dolphins as an undrafted free agent out of San Diego State.

The Dolphins preferred having veteran Matt Skura to the practice squad to bring some experience to deal with their injury issues at center.

PRO BOWL VOTING UPDATE

In case you missed it, the second round of Pro Bowl voting results was announced and it was status quo for the Dolphins, which certainly means good news in this regard.

QB Tua Tagovailoa once again leads all NFL players in total votes and he's one of nine Dolphins leading the AFC voting at their position.

The other eight are RB Raheem Mostert, FB Alec Ingold, WR Tyreek Hill, T Terron Armstead, CB Jalen Ramsey, KR Braxton Berrios, LS Blake Ferguson and ST Duke Riley.

The Dolphins again had the second-highest total of votes for a team, behind only the San Francisco 49ers.

As a reminder, fan voting counts for one-third of the selection process, along with voting from coaches and players.

DISSECTING THE DEFENSIVE COLLAPSE

On the day the coordinators conducted their weekly media session, Vic Fangio was asked about what went wrong in the final stages of the Monday night loss against the Tennessee Titans when the Dolphins allowed touchdown drives of 75 and 64 yards to turn a seemingly insurmountable 27-13 lead into a crushing 28-27 loss.

Fangio wouldn't go into detail as to what caused the breakdown, though he did push back on the idea of miscommunication in the secondary.

“Yeah, I don’t think communication was the issue," Fangio said. "I needed to call it better and we needed to play it better. We’re teammates in this operation, players and coaches, and we all just needed to be a little bit better.”

As Fangio pointed out, this was the first time this season the defense failed to hold a lead at the end after the defense closed out victories against the Chargers in Week 1, the Patriots in Week 8 and the Raiders in Week 11.

It might be why, along with having done this for a while, Fangio said he could move on from the loss, disappointing as it was.

“I’m pretty good at moving on to the next one," he said. "But I’m just disappointed in the way that it ended. We had been pretty good all year in two-minute situations, if you remember. We were out there with games on the line, and we just didn’t get it done this time.”

HARRISON'S GREAT LINE AND THE POUNCEY CONNECTION

Newly signed center Jonotthan Harrison played collegiately at the University of Florida and he was asked Thursday about the presence of former Gators on the Dolphins roster.

“I don’t even fully know," he said. "I just got here. I’m still trying to learn where the bathroom is right now. (laughter)"

Harrison played at Florida shortly after twins Maurkice and former Dolphins first-round pick Mike Pouncey had left to enter the NFL as first-round picks in 2010 and 2011, respectively.

“They were my mentors," Harrison said. "They were my big brothers in college. I was just trying to resemble how they play, so that’s kind of all I know. A little nasty, twitchy. I definitely looked up to them in college. I still looked up to them in the NFL. They had phenomenal careers. Obviously, my career isn’t the same caliber as theirs, but hey, I’m here.”

TUA'S MVP TAKE

Toward the end of his weekly media session, Tua Tagovailoa was asked for his vote on who the Dolphins MVP should be and his response was exactly what everybody should have expected.

“I would say Tyreek," Tua answered. "But I could care less for myself to be any of that right now. I know a lot of the guys could care less. I’m sure they’d be happy if one of our guys had it, but we just want to win games, and we want to win a Super Bowl here.”

First, there's no way any kind of team player would ever answer "me" and Tua is just not that kind of guy. And points to him for downplaying the importance of individual accolades in favor of team goals.

Tua did have an interesting comment regarding Hill in terms of what happens if he's unable to play against the New York Jets on Sunday.

“Yeah, if ‘Reek isn’t available, I think Jaylen (Waddle) understands his role with stepping up," Tua said. "I think everyone else understands their role as well. It’s tough not having someone like Tyreek out there when sort of the entirety of the offseason was built around him and also Jaylen, and now you take away one of those pieces and guys can double Jaylen and leave other guys one-on-one. It gives other guys opportunities that can really do something special for us.”

ON THIS DATE IN DOLPHINS HISTORY

Dec. 14, 1986: Dan Marino sets an NFL record with his seventh career 400-yard passing game in a 37-31 overtime victory against the Los Angeles Rams.

Dec. 14, 2008: Bob Baumhower and Bob Brudzinski are inducted into the Dolphin Honor Roll.

Dec. 14, 2012: Former Bill Arnsparger takes his place on the Dolphin Honor Roll.

Dec. 14, 2015: At halftime of a Monday night game against the New York Giants where the team is wearing its throwback jerseys, the Dolphins honor the top 50 players in franchise history as earlier determined by a panel vote.

Tyreek Status Still a Mystery