Dolphins have worrisome situation as clash with Chiefs approaches
The Miami Dolphins injury issues have been a plague on the 2023 season. That's no more evident than the team having to sign veterans Justin Houston, Bruce Irvin, and Malik Reed this week to serve as edge rushers that the Dolphins will likely rely upon on Saturday when the Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs square […]
The Miami Dolphins injury issues have been a plague on the 2023 season. That's no more evident than the team having to sign veterans Justin Houston, Bruce Irvin, and Malik Reed this week to serve as edge rushers that the Dolphins will likely rely upon on Saturday when the Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs square off in the playoffs.
However, there's another area on Miami's defense that's become a serious concern as Wild Card weekend arrives: the secondary. Three of the Dolphins' four starting defenders in the secondary are either out or very iffy for the game.
Howard has been ruled out, and both safeties Jevon Holland and DeShon Elliott weren't able to log even a single limited practice all week, which earned them questionable game status tags on the final injury report and puts their availability in serious jeopardy.
According to Mike McDaniel, the availability of both will be determined on Saturday.
“They both fall into that questionable kind of situation there," McDaniel told reporters on Friday. "I think specifically, the way DeShon really pressed through that game last week, he’s not going to be able to take any reps to get that calf to his best position. He seems to be of the stubborn quality where I’m optimistic about him, but I still won’t know. He’s going to take all the time. He might as well have a post office box here in the training room and get his mail delivered there because he’s been living in it.
"Then same thing with Jevon. Those two are going to be game day decisions for sure based upon their ambition to play in the game, their work. The training staff does an outstanding job with those guys and short weeks, playoff games, are kind of adding variables.”
While McDaniel was referring to the health of his two starters regarding the use of "situation", the word is perfectly applicable to his defense because the Dolphins are in a bad one right now. Miami will be starting Eli Apple in place of Howard for a second straight week. There's also a serious possibility that Brandon Jones and Elijah Campbell will be on the field for the entire game. To his credit, Jones has graded out well this year per Pro Football Focus, earning a 76.8 defensive grade in 484 total snaps.
However, trying to stop Patrick Mahomes with three backups in the secondary to go with a group of edge rushers who were watching Miami play Buffalo on their couches a few days ago is not an enviable place for the Dolphins to be. Now, they will have to try to do what they have all season – rise above it with the guys they have.
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