The worst-case state of affairs for Miami Dolphins security Brandon Jones and his knee damage has develop into actuality.
Coach Mike McDaniel mentioned Wednesday it was an anterior cruciate ligament tear that Jones suffered in final Sunday’s win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, and it’ll finish the season for the Dolphins’ main tackler by means of seven video games.
“I feel terrible, absolutely terrible for a guy that was playing at a very, very high level,” McDaniel mentioned.
The workforce felt his loss in a Wednesday morning movie session.
“You could hear the hurt with the team when his highlights would come on, because there was a ton of them,” the Dolphins coach added.
McDaniel’s newest replace earlier than Wednesday was that there have been nonetheless issues the Dolphins’ medical employees was to substantiate the severity of the knee ailment, however he sounded discouraged about information that was forthcoming.
McDaniel didn’t reveal what the defensive plan Miami will go together with to interchange Jones, who formally was positioned on injured reserve Tuesday, in his robust security function.
Veteran Eric Rowe looks like the probably candidate, however towards the Steelers, McDaniel used a mixture of special-teamer Clayton Fejedelem and undrafted rookie Verone McKinley, a practice-squad elevation for the sport.
“Those packages are ever-changing week by week,” mentioned McDaniel, noting it has to do with using participant strengths given sport circumstances. “From an offensive perspective, it makes it very difficult because you’ll see people move around.”
He provided that Rowe had proven encouraging indicators, although.
“Eric had two of his best days of practice, specifically within the last week and he’s doing some real good stuff,” McDaniel mentioned.
The Dolphins’ ailing secondary, with Nik Needham additionally out for the season with an Achilles tear and no imminent return for fellow cornerback Byron Jones (leg) from the physically-unable-to-perform checklist, is making an attempt to return cornerbacks Kader Kohou and Keion Crossen to the lineup.
“I’m optimistic with those human beings, just knowing that we have a good collection of players on this team that I can trust how bad they want to play,” McDaniel mentioned. “It killed them not to play in this last one, so I feel good about it in that, if it’s feasible, they’ll make the outing.”
Without Kohou and Crossen, Noah Igbinoghene and Justin Bethel stepped up because the second and third corners taking part in with All-Pro Xavien Howard. Each had an interception within the win over the Steelers with Igbinoghene’s sealing the victory within the last seconds.
Miami can also be hoping to return defensive finish Emmanuel Ogbah, the workforce’s sack chief in 2021, after he missed the Steelers sport with a again damage.
“He’s doing better,” McDaniel mentioned.
“We knew the game before [against the Vikings] that he was going to have, to have a big game from how we’re going to operate as a defense. He rose to the challenge got nicked in the process. But hoping that we’re going to get him back on the field here soon, optimistic about [this Sunday against the Detroit Lions], but just because I know where his game was at, he was in a really good place. And he wants to get back there as soon as possible. I know he’ll do whatever it takes.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com