Miami Dolphins activate linebacker Jaelan Phillips from PUP list ahead of second preseason game

Almost nine months removed from his torn Achilles, linebacker Jaelan Phillips is returning to the Dolphins’ active roster this week. The team removed him from the PUP list on Monday, according to Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel.

Phillips, selected in the first round in 2021, is coming off of a 43-tackle, 6.5-sack season for the Dolphins. He tore his Achilles eight games into the season and missed the remainder of the team’s games, though he appeared to be having a breakout year before injury.

Though he missed the Dolphins’ first preseason game, which was a 20-13 win over the Atlanta Falcons, he’s now eligible to return to play. Miami faces the Washington Commanders at 7 p.m. ET on Saturday. Now back on the active roster, Phillips could play, though it’s likely that he’ll ramp back up slowly.

Coach McDaniel praised Phillips during his press conference on Monday for attacking his rehab in a way that best benefitted the team.

“For a guy that has ambitions as he does, he wants to be great in the worst way, it’s a long-vision challenge to attack this injury appropriately, not something that by nature is totally his speed. He wants to fix the issue and go play… I thought he was going to be a number 1 violator of secretly overdoing what he was supposed to do,” McDaniel said on Monday.

“To have the patience and to have the vision for his teammates really, we’re all relying on him to come back and find his footing from a health perspective, I’ve been very proud of how he’s attacked that. And doing things that leaders do. You feel his presence as a teammate, even when he’s not playing.”

Phillips is back for Miami

Through his first three years in the NFL, Phillips has 146 tackles, 22 sacks, and 13 tackles for loss. As a rookie, he finished second on the team with a career-high 8.5 sacks.

Even though the Dolphins weren’t sure how the former Miami star would recover from his torn Achilles, the team opted to move ahead with his rookie contract’s fifth-year option this summer. The decision will keep Phillips with the team through the 2025 season. After that, if he doesn’t have an extension, he’ll become a free agent for the first time in his career.

Despite his impressive production through three seasons, Phillips has yet to make a Pro Bowl, which makes his fifth-year option figure slightly less expensive for the Dolphins. For a linebacker, the figure is $13.35 million. His original contract was for four years, $14 million.