What Jaelan Phillips Had to Say About his First Practice of 2024

The Miami Dolphins outside linebacker called his first practice work "amazing," but also a "tease"

Miami Dolphins linebacker Jaelan Phillips (15) reacts with fans during training camp at Baptist Health Training Complex. / Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports

All the hard work Jaelan Phillips put forth for more than eight months started paying off Monday with his first Miami Dolphins practice of 2024, but the edge defender basically said it was but a morsel.

“I feel great," Phillips said Monday, the day the Dolphins activated him from the Physically Unable to Perform list. "I feel amazing. Just happy to be back out here. It was a little bit of a tease. I'm ready to start hitting some things, but it was great. I'm just so blessed to have my health and be out here running around with the boys.”

Given the nature of Phillips' 2023 injury — you're not a real Dolphins fan if you don't know it was an Achilles tendon tear — it makes that the Dolphins are going to take things slowly with Phillips because the last thing they want is a setback now.

But because a good part of practice involved walk-through work, Phillips actually was able to line up at the end of the defensive line during an 11-on-11 period late in the session.

“Like I said, it was great, but it was a tease," Phillips said. "I need more. But like I said, I'm patient and I trust the trainers. I trust my coaches. And at the end of the day I trust myself too. So I'll be honest with them about how I'm feeling and I know that they'll take care of me and they want to see me back out on the field too, but they also have the long-term vision. I do as well, obviously, but Mike (McDaniel) said it perfectly. I'm my biggest enemy when it comes to trying to get back just because I'm so eager to be playing and be back out there with my guys. So yeah, it'll all happen in this national course.”

With Phillips off PUP and practicing by mid-August, it's certainly fair to think he'll be available for the regular season opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sept. 8, something that maybe didn't seem so clear as the early months of 2024 rolled by.

But Phillips isn't about to make predictions or talk about timetables because timetables never were on the table (sorry) at any point during his recovery.

“Yeah, we're just playing it by ear," he said. "I mean, this is the first time I've practiced with the boys in eight months. So it's hard to give you an exact timeline or exact date when I'm coming back. But all I know is that I feel great and I trust my coaching staff, I trust the training staff to get me back into play when they feel like I'm ready.”

God is great!! Feeling so blessed to be back on the field with my brothers 🙏🏾 https://t.co/hAV7tj42Rf

— Jaelan Phillips ;🕴🏾® (@JJPhillips15) August 12, 2024

THE END OF A LONG JOURNEY FOR PHILLIPS ... OR IS IT?

Phillips' road back from the injury began pretty much as soon as he was injured on Black Friday, with the initial setback chronicled during the Dolphins' "Hard Knocks" in-season appearance.

And now he's cleared one major hurdle.

“Like I said, I'm a high achiever, and I've been pushing myself as much as I've been able to," Phillips said. "And so I didn't really know what the timeline was. Frankly, I didn't really care because what was more important to me was taking it day by day, week by week. So now that August is here, it just feels great.”

Phillips said he's watched the "Hard Knocks" episode featuring his injury "several times," but is too busy focusing on what he needs to do now to be doing a lot of reflecting.

It's also why Phillips didn't see getting activated off PUP as necessarily a huge deal.

“I mean, I'm not like celebrating because I'm ready to go," he said. "I'm excited for actually being back into playing. I'm really focused on being on point with the playbook. And obviously (with) a bunch of new teammates, like my No.1 priority is gaining their respect. And they do respect me based off of my merits and based off what they've seen but I want them to respect me based off what I'm doing right now and I know they do because they see me working my ass off and they see everything that I put into it.

"But I'm really just excited to actually get back on the field actually. This defense is really special and we have a lot of talented guys and it's been really exciting seeing them fly around seeing them make plays, but I want to be a part of that too and I want to be that guy on this defense. Like I said, play it day by day and be patient."