Phillips article

[bigchub22]

Dolphins LB Jaelan Phillips' injuries put football into perspective

Before being selected by the Miami Dolphins with pick No. 18 in the first round of the 2021 draft, Jaelan Phillips overcame adversity in his football life. His collegiate career began at UCLA, roughly 80 miles from his hometown of Redlands, California.…

dolphinswire.usatoday.com

“His 2018 didn’t go much better. He was in a car accident that caused him to undergo multiple operations and remove multiple bones. Phillips played through pain for the first four weeks before he suffered another concussion and was advised to retire at just 19 years old.

Phillips called it “one of the most important things that ever happened [to him].”

 

[bigchub22]

I had no idea he had all those surgery's I knew about the medical retirement from concussions. Anyway a little offseason read on a kid we all have high hopes for!

 

[Ozfin]

Missed many games in college so limited experience to a degree coming out, then getting stuffed around in the first half of the season with coverage duties..
Second half really exploded in pressuring the QB.
He is a weapon in the making just set him up to attack the QB when ever possible.

 

[NY8123]

Hopefully this kid can keep climbing. With Ogbah retained it makes it easier for Philips. Oh and they fact that in the last half of the year they stopped using him as a swiss army knife and just lined him up in his natural potion.

 

[djphinfan]

What I saw and said in camp came to fruition.

A perfectionist..will come on strong in the 2nd half, just like he did at the U

 

[Danny]

He's a player I'm hoping for can have a big 2nd year. The tools are there if he can stay healthy and is used correctly

 

[circumstances]

He can be the Swiss Army Knife down the road when he's a grizzled vet with years of experience and knows the game inside and out.

For now, get him after that QB!

 

[ugadolfan]

If phillips takes that next step our defense will be elite

 

[royalshank]

Just keep him off of those electric scooters

 

['Deep]

He's a player I'm hoping for can have a big 2nd year. The tools are there if he can stay healthy and is used correctly

I thought he had a great rookie year and it was nice to see him stay healthy. Would've liked to have seen better production at the end. He had seven sacks from weeks 9 thru 13. Zero the final four games.

 

[Danny]

I thought he had a great rookie year and it was nice to see him stay healthy. Would've liked to have seen better production at the end. He had seven sacks from weeks 9 thru 13. Zero the final four games.

maybe he hit the rookie wall but with another year he could really be much better and more consistent

 

[Mach2]

I guess I'm in the minority here, but I think Philips' skillset is far higher than "just" a pass rusher. He was highly effective against the run at Miami and has a background as a LB previous to that.

I want him on the field a majority of snaps, and in this scheme that requires him to be proficient/excellent in understanding the responsibilities of the position. In that respect, I have no problem with him being force fed the non pass rushing aspects. Sure, you could make the argument that he might have had a few more sacks last season if used differently, but that doesn't mean that's what is best in the long term.

 

[The Ghost]

Scary to think Phillips and Holland have room to improve. Scary but true.

Sky's the limit here on a few of our guys. I don't think the rest of the league has an idea of the overall talent level our roster possesses.

 

[TheRevoltingBlob]

I thought he had a great rookie year and it was nice to see him stay healthy. Would've liked to have seen better production at the end. He had seven sacks from weeks 9 thru 13. Zero the final four games.

In 2020, so many focused on Ogbah’s late season sack slump where he had 1 in the final seven games. But his pressures remained consistent.

Sacks can be very streaky and are a poor gauge of how a pass rusher is performing if ur using smaller sample sizes.

If ur searching for a concerning stat, it’s that Phillips only had 3 pressures over his last 4 games. But his pass rush snaps were also way down. He averaged 16.7 over that span after averaging 30 over the previous 11 games.

But whatever. Phillips showed a ton of promise over his rookie season. Inconsistency is completely normal for a rook and only concerns me if it becomes a theme moving forward. But not expecting that and I think he’s going to a real problem for opposing QB’s moving forward.

 

[rafael]

I had no idea he had all those surgery's I knew about the medical retirement from concussions. Anyway a little offseason read on a kid we all have high hopes for!

You always get that same tired, hackneyed post if we sign or draft a player with an injury history, but reality is that many times it's a smart gamble. Guys like Phillips, Waddle and Ogbah all came here after missing games the previous season.