Jaelan Phillips – August 12, 2024
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Monday, August 12, 2024
LB Jaelan Phillips
(How does it feel?) – “It feels great. It feels amazing. I’m just happy to be back out there. 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.”
(Head Coach Mike McDaniel mentioned that he feared that you might be the No. 1 violator as far as sneaking in extra workouts. How did you resist that temptation?) – “Just trying to take it day by day, trying not to get too ahead of myself. Obviously, I’m a high achiever and I want to come back healthy as quick as possible. So throughout this whole process I’ve just been listening to my body, listening to my trainers obviously, and it’s been great so far. Been definitely great.”
(What’s your main takeaway from this whole process?) – “It’s just taught me a lot of patience. Your body is going to be ready when your body is ready, so I’ve just been doing everything humanly possible to give my body what it needs and take the time to get after it. I have such a good training staff here and such a good strength staff, and we’ve been working our asses off for eight and a half months now. I just, like I said, feel very fortunate to be back out here doing what I love again.”
(The mental part is just as big as the physical. Are you in your mind completely comfortable on the Achilles, or will that take some time?) – “I think it’s a process. I definitely found that the more that I’ve done, the more confident that I’ve gotten. If you asked me two months ago or whatever, ‘Oh, are you going to be ready to play?’ I would say, ‘Oh I don’t know, I haven’t done anything yet.’ The more that I keep putting load through it and doing football movements, I just get more and more confident every day. So yes, I feel great.”
(If we had told you at the time of the injury you’d be back by August 12, what do you think you would’ve said at the time?) – “I wouldn’t be surprised, because like I said, I’m a high achiever and I’ve been pushing myself as much as I’ve been able to. 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. Now that August is here, it just feels great. It feels really strong.”
(Where do you stand as far as the big question, the season. When it starts, what are your thoughts on where you think you’ll be then?) – “We’re just playing it by ear. This is the first time I’ve practiced with the boys in eight months. It’s hard to give you an exact timeline or an 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 think I’m ready.”
(What have you learned from your rehabilitation process and also what you’re being told by your doctors and trainers about the explosiveness return. Obviously, it’s not going to be immediately right?) – “People have told me in general like – some people have said the explosivity doesn’t fully come back until the second year. I talked to Shaq (Barrett) for example, because he did his Achilles a couple of years ago, he was saying he felt pretty good, pretty great his first year back. With me, I’m trying to hit the ground running. How it’s going react, how it’s going to feel is to be determined but I feel really explosive and really strong right now.”
(Who else have you consulted about the Achilles and the recovery process?) – “I’ve talked to Aaron (Rodgers) some when it first happened. I checked in with him, he’s checked in with me throughout the process. His situation is a little different than mine, it’s kind of not really comparable in that sense. Shaq was somebody I talked to, I talked to Kirk (Cousins), but again another quarterback, it’s kind of a different situation. Vince Biegel is a guy who I played with – you guys know Vince. He did his Achilles a couple of times. Cam Akers when I was back in LA doing my rehab, he was there as well. I’ve just been picking people’s brains and kind of the main takeaway I’ve gotten from everybody is that they feel 100%. They don’t feel like they had to miss a step or whether it’s a year or two years afterwards, they don’t feel there is an injury there. That just definitely reassured me, like I said, the more I’ve been able to do, the less I’ve been thinking about the Achilles and the more I’ve been building confidence. It’s feels great.”
(Because of Hard Knocks we got a unique look into the injury and post-injury process. Did you watch that episode of Hard Knocks?) – “Several times. (laughter) A lot of times.”
(The emotional journey the fans went on with you on that episode, I’m curious to kind of reflect with you going back to then versus today, just those dark days of your journey by yourself versus getting back on the field. When you think about that. what comes to your mind?) – “When it happened obviously, I was just so devastated that all the work we put in together as a team, and obviously individually, throughout the whole offseason and everything culminating to that and kind of just the way the season was going. Obviously I had some adversity at the beginning of the season injury wise, and I felt like I was really hitting my stride. Especially the way that game was going, like I said I was hooping, I was balling out. (Head Coach) Mike (McDaniel) had told me before the game, ‘This is your opportunity to kind of be a household name,’ so I was riding high. Like probably the highest I’ve been in my NFL career, and then to be humbled just like that, it was devastating. But right when that happened, I remembered going to the shower and I was crying. I just told myself, like ‘This is OK. I’m going to attack this. I’m going to get over this and this is going to make me stronger at the end of the day.’ I really thanked God. I really said thank you. Thank you for giving me this opportunity, because I know it’s going to make me a monster. So yeah, it’s been a hell of a journey just having to test my patience like I said. I couldn’t walk for basically four months, and then getting back into it, obviously I love running. I love speed that’s my whole thing, so coming back into it, having to start on the treadmill, and then when I’m out running on the ground the first couple of times, I was running it felt good, but then afterwards I’m super, super sore and having to cut it down for a little bit. It’s just been an up and down process. Most things in life in general aren’t linear, but especially recovering from an injury and a major injury like that is not linear. There’s been a lot of peaks, a lot of valleys, but I feel like I’m in a really strong part of my recovery now and I’m making a lot of big strides. I don’t have a lot of time to reflect on it just because like I said I’m so present. I’m so focused and really so eager to get back. When I watch those videos and stuff like that, sometime I have to remind myself who I am as a player. Looking at old film, looking at the Hard Knocks episode and stuff just to give me that confidence because I’ve been away from the game. This is the longest, basically, my whole life that I’ve been away from football other than when I retired, but that’s kind of a different story. But I came back swinging when I retired, so hey, I’ll come back swinging now.”
(What was your reaction when the pulled you off the PUP list?) – “I’m not celebrating, because I’m ready to go. I’m excited for actually being back into playing. I’m really focused on being on point with the playbook and obviously a bunch of new teammates. My No. 1 priority is gaining their respect. They do respect me based off my merits and based off what they’ve seen, but I want them to respect me based off of what I’m doing right now. I know they do because they see me working my ass off and they see everything I’ve put into it, but I’m really just excited to actually get back on the field. This defense is really special. We have a lot of talented guys and it’s really exciting seeing them fly around, seeing them make plays, but I want to be a part of that too. I want to be that guy on this defense. It will soon come, but I’ve just got to like I’ve said I just got to play it day by day and be patient.”
(Speaking of those new teammates, what have your first impressions been of guys like LB Chop Robinson or LB Mohamed Kamara who’ve had these increased reps with you and LB Bradley Chubb being out?) – “They’ve been great. They’ve been super eager to learn. They’ve been picking my brain; I’ve been trying to give them as much knowledge as possible. When I see them play, like Chop (Robinson), he’s super athletic, super explosive. His get off, his aggression, his leverage, everything is better than I was when I was a rookie, for sure. His mentality too, like he doesn’t even celebrate. I’m trying to get him to be a little more emotive just because you could tell how that’s not enough for him, when he makes a big play, makes a TFL or whatever, that’s kind of the standard, which is an amazing thing. So I think he’s been doing a great job. ‘Mo’ (Kamara) has been doing a great job, like I said, super eager to learn. Grayson (Murphy) has been doing great – obviously, it was really unfortunate to see what happened to him. But the guys in our room are amazing, having ‘Og’ (Emmanuel Ogbah) back has been incredible. I know he is a great leader for the guys and obviously he can play his ass off still, and then ‘Q’ (Quinton Bell) has been the biggest – I wouldn’t say surprise because everybody within the organization knows that he’s been a dawg, but he’s taken that next step and he just embodies energy. He embodies confidence and he does all the right things right and his mentality is in the right place, so we got a hell of a group of guys.”
(I saw you talking to Kirk Cousins last week during joint practices – two things: No. 1, did you seek him out or did he seek you out? And No. 2, what have you learned about the fraternity of NFL players who have had similar injuries?) – “I actually met Kirk (Cousins) at the Super Bowl in Vegas and I was at some NFL corporate sponsor event just being a show pony. (laughter) I saw Kirk, went up to him and kind of approached him. He knew who I was, and we just started chopping it up. He’s just super humble, super down to earth guy, so we had some great conversations then and then obviously when I saw him out here, checked in on him, saw how he was doing. And then in terms of the fraternity of the NFL, especially when you’ve got guys who have similar injuries, it’s just kind of like you’re already connected off the bat. Obviously if they’re good people, you can kind of chop it up and stuff like that. I think in general the NFL fraternity is pretty great, is pretty cool. Most guys when I meet them outside of ball, it’s just like game respects game. People like Maxx Crosby, who is someone I met in the offseason, and we were able to chop it up and him telling me he loves my game, I tell him obviously I love his game. I think that’s pretty cool, it’s a really cool part about being in the league.”
(What does it say about the Dolphins faith in you that you’re going your rehab and then they pick up the fifth-year option not knowing if you’d have this moment today?) – “It means the world obviously. Contracts and things of that nature aren’t obviously my priority. I want to be here as long as they’ll keep me, I love being a Dolphin. Really with me, I’m focused on coming back, being healthy and staying healthy and doing everything I can for this organization both on the field and off the field. So it meant the world to me that they had the faith in me and obviously it shows how they feel about me as a person and as a player, so very appreciative of that, for sure.”
(Even if it was at a walkthrough pace, what were those moments like today being back on the field with the guys in the team setting?) – “Like I said, it was great but it was a tease – I need more. (laughter) 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. I’ll be honest with them about how I’m feeling, and I know that they’ll take care of me. 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 like 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. But yeah, it will all happen on its natural course.”
