Jaelan Phillips posted a shirtless video of himself looking like a sculpture of a Greek God while training at the Miami Dolphins on Tuesday.
The Miami Dolphins pass rusher, who is nearly eight months into the rehabilitation of the right Achilles tendon he injured in Miami’s 34-13 win against the New York Jets in late November, was typewriting the ladder drill with his legs — the injured and healthy one — moving them fluidly in and out the boxes used to improve a player’s footwork.
He then bragged that four months ago he couldn’t walk — which was a slight stretch of the truth — but his recovery is a testimony of how hard the 2021 first-round pick has worked with the goal of being healthy for next week’s start of training camp.
Problem is, if Dolphins executives are smart — and more importantly strategic — they will have Phillips, and his fellow injured pass rushers Bradley Chubb (who is facing a 9-to-12-month rehabilitation of his Achilles tendon) and Cameron Goode (who has a 9-to-12 month rehab of his patella tendon) begin camp on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list because that’s what would be in the best interest of the team.
How does the PUP work?
The PUP list becomes one of the more popular terms used during NFL news reports around the start of training camps every season because it’s a way of creating extra roster space for rehabbing players.
Being on the PUP list means a player isn’t allowed to practice with his team because of an injury. He can train on the side, attend meetings and watch practice and walk-throughs, but not participate until removed from the list.
A player can only be placed on the active/PUP list before the start of training camp, which is next Tuesday. The player counts against the 90-man roster limit and can come off the PUP list at any point during camp, practicing immediately.
However, the player cannot return to the PUP list if he sustains a setback or another injury during training camp.
What are the reserve/PUP list rules?
Teams have until rosters are cut down to 53 players, which is Aug. 30 this season, to move a player to reserve/PUP.
A player can receive this designation if he’s still on the active/PUP list by the time training camp rosters are trimmed down to 53 in the final week of August.
The player has to remain on the reserve/PUP list for at least the first four regular season games, which carries Miami through Sept. 30 against the Tennessee Titans.
Once a player leaves the reserve/PUP list, he has up to 21 days to return to the 53-man roster. He can practice with the team until he’s taken off the list.
That means Miami’s PUP players can return at any point between Week 5’s contest against the New England Patriots, and week seven’s game against the Indianapolis Colts. During that span there’s a bye week, so the likelihood that any player placed on the PUP next week will contribute before November’s games arrive are high.
If the player still isn’t able to play in games after the 21-day span, he’ll stay on the reserve/PUP list for the rest of the season.
The difference between reserve/PUP and injured reserve?
A player who lands on injured reserve can also return after four games, which the league changed recently. But only if placed on IR after the cut down to 53-man rosters.
Any player placed on injured reserve before the cut down to 53 must either miss the season, or negotiate an injury settlement with his team to become a free agent, at which point he could join another team, or re-sign with his initial team after a couple weeks.
Teams can put a player on IR with a designation to return at any point throughout the regular season and postseason.
Teams are allowed to have eight players return to the 53-man roster from IR during the season.
Dolphins are cautious with injuries
Even though Dolphins coaches remained consistent about not placing a timeline on either player, and use Jalen Ramsey’s miraculous three-month recovery from an MCL knee injury last season as the reason timelines should be avoided, it’s also clear that the training staff’s biggest concern is that either Phillips or Chubb will push themselves too hard, and possibly suffer a setback trying to rush their recovery process.
“From the onset, you really have to keep an eye on both those guys to make sure they aren’t doing too much,” said Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel said earlier this summer, pointing out the Dolphins training staff has had to ban Phillips and Chubb from training for a week this spring. “The second they were able to move around without a scooter they were hard-pressed to do over exaggerated [activities].
Phillips, who contributed 43 tackles, 6.5 sacks, 11 quarterback hits, and pulled down his first career interception in the eight games he played, is far from the first NFL player who has had to come back from an Achilles injury.
Last year Nik Needham began the 2023 season on the PUP because of an Achilles injury he sustained in November.
The veteran cornerback missed the season’s first seven games, but participated in the last 10 contests, working mainly on special teams and in Miami’s dime defensive package.
Needham openly admitted the rehabilitation process was one of the most challenging things he had done in his career, and confessed he didn’t start feeling like himself until the end of the 2023 season.
Cameron Wake is the most fitting example of a player similar to Phillips who came back from an Achilles tendon injury in one season.
Wake’s injury occurred in the final days of October in the 2015 season, and he was back for the start of the 2016 regular season.
Wake came off the bench for the first five games of the 2016 season and was on a limited snap count. But after that he was inserted into the starting lineup and his snap count picked up.
He finished the season re-establishing himself as a pass rushing force, recording 10.5 sacks over the final 10 games, and helped that Adam Gase-led team finish 9-1 and qualify for the playoffs.
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