Waddle Dealing with High Ankle Injury

Head coach Mike McDaniel is optimistic that tackle Austin Jackson will be back against the Baltimore Ravens in Week 17

The Miami Dolphins' playoff-clinching victory against the Dallas Cowboys might have come at a cost.

Wide receiver Jaylen Waddle missed the end of the game because of a leg injury that initially was described as being to his shin, but head coach Mike McDaniel said in a Zoom media session Monday it's a high ankle issue.

McDaniel indicated the team would need to gather more information over the next couple of days, but it would be difficult to envision Waddle being able to play against the Baltimore Ravens in the big AFC showdown next Sunday.

Not having Waddle clearly would be disappointing for many reasons, not the least of which is what he did against the Ravens secondary in Week 2 last season.

In the Dolphins' remarkable 42-38 comeback victory against Baltimore, Waddle finished with 11 catches for 171 yards and two touchdowns, including the game-winning score with 14 seconds left.

This is the latest in a series of injuries this season for Waddle, who earlier in the game got poked in the eye while run blocking.

"He's a really, really tough player," McDaniel said. "He's battled through several things this year, which has made him even more eager just as a playmaker to to kind of make up for that with his play. So yeah, it does give me optimism because of the individual and because of what he has gone through for sure. He's had several several things that have been real, that other players who might take them longer, especially at that position might take them longer to come back from. I do have a lot of confidence in him for that type of thing."

TYREEK'S TOUGHNESS

Waddle's speedy partner, Tyreek Hill, also had huge numbers that day with 11 receptions for 190 yards and two more of Tua Tagovailoa's franchise-record-tying six touchdowns.

Like Waddle, Hill is nursing an ankle injury, but he was able to tough it out against the Cowboys on Sunday, not only returning to the lineup but playing his second-highest snap total of the season after Waddle and wide receiver Robbie Chosen (concussion evaluation) left the game.

"That's a great example of why we make those tough call sometimes,  have a game day workout because there's residual effects to when people go down," McDaniel said. "And he was ready to go. We definitely didn't plan on playing him that much, but it was also very hard to get him off the field in a competitive game like that, which speaks to him as a competitor.

"I was just happy that Tyreek had put in so much time. For a captain to be able to step that up and and play the second-most snaps he has all season coming off an injury, what that means is he was all in trying to play for the last two weeks and doing everything ... I mean, he's been living in the training room. That's what you need from captains, that's what you need from your star players if you're trying to do anything in December.

"And when everything's on the line, for him to come through that way with the stuff you guys saw, but then all the stuff that you didn't see where he's been spending multiple hours every single day trying to get his body right, we're all very fortunate that he did that because he was able to have an impact on the game even when he wasn't touching the ball."

OTHER DOLPHINS INJURY UPDATES

Austin Jackson was active against the Cowboys but ended up not playing, with Kendall Lamm starting and playing the whole game at right tackle.

McDaniel said he was hopeful could be in the lineup for the showdown at Baltimore on Sunday.

"We kind of knew it's gonna go down to the wire, which it did in the course of the week, and we felt like that he could strain through some ball but to be able to go through the whole game, we thought that that was unfair," McDaniel said of Jackson. "We have so much confidence in Kendall. It was definitely the most appropriate thing to do with regard to where he was at. That being said, I am very, very optimistic for him for this week."

Finally, like Waddle, Raheem Mostert was dealing with a lower-leg injury against Dallas and didn't finish the game, but McDaniel said that was more of a coaching decision than anything else.

"Because we have so many tough-minded, tough players on the team, we've become kind of like body language readers," McDaniel said. "Raheem wanted to go in the game. It had nothing to do with that. It was more that we could tell that it was pretty painful at the time. To the credit of the room, we have so much confidence in that room and all the different guys that he kind of are able to ride the momentum. I think it was just really the disposition Jeff Wilson had the entire game and being a Texas boy, it kind of made sense, but it wasn't because (Mostert) was unable or that he was saying that he couldn't go. It was quite the opposite. Just kind of a relationship professional. kind of read into what was going on and thought that gave us the best chance in those in those particular moments."

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