One of the Miami Dolphins’ young defenders has apparently been working a little TOO hard this offseason
One of the Miami Dolphins’ second-year defensive tackle sounds like he’s a legitimate breakout
The Miami Dolphins‘ future is going to be determined by their development of young talent.
There’s no shortage of those youngsters on the roster between a 13 player NFL Draft class this year and an influx of players in last year’s draft, too. One of the ones who was the most consistent in his role? Defensive tackle Jordan Phillips. There’s still plenty of room for growth and more impact. But you saw a player that handled double-teams and won the point of attack. Phillips’ teammate, Zach Sieler, gave an update on his growth this offseason and shared a hilarious tidbit.
Miami Dolphins defensive tackle Jordan Phillips apparently has been squatting “too much” this offseason
“I think one of the first things (Phillips) got in trouble for was squatting too much. He’s worked his tail off this offseason; to see his growth from last year to this year has been incredible. His confidence on the field, his knowledge and you can tell the game is starting to click for him more and more. You can see that at the end of last season and how well he played the run and all that stuff, so to keep working with him, ‘KG’ (Kenneth Grant), Zeek (Biggers), all those guys has been awesome. It’s been exciting.”
— Miami Dolphins defensive tackle Zach Sieler
There’s a saying in player evaluation that comes to mind here. “You’d rather have to tell a guy ‘woah there!’ than ‘sic ’em!’…” Phillips, apparently, had to be told ‘woah, there!’ on the squats.
Phillips was a marvel coming out of Maryland. He was a stout, brick house of a defensive tackle who was just 20 years old when he had his name called in the fifth round of last year’s NFL Draft. He fell, in part, because of questions about what his value is going to be on passing downs as a pro. That’s still yet to be written.
But he was considered a point of attack standout defender and all of the evidence seems to point to him taking a leap this season. To hear that he’s hustling in the weight room isn’t a surprise. To hear that he got in “trouble” for too much squatting? Well that’s the best kind of trouble you can get into with your coaches.
The flashes were strong as a rookie. If he somehow does follow through with leveling up his strength to go along with a second-year leap between the ears? Miami could be looking at a big splash player. Sieler seems to see it. And the coaches seem to see the effort; so much so that they apparently called him on it.
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