Four months into Jaelan Phillips’ rehab for a torn Achilles, the Miami Dolphins remain publicly optimistic he will be “healthy for the whole season.”
But no recovery progresses in a straight line, and even though Phillips has looked fantastic in videos he’s posted to social media, there’s no guarantee he’ll be ready for Week 1, particularly given the severity of the injury.
Shawne Merriman on Miami Dolphins LB Jaelan Phillips
Phillips certainly will benefit from improvements in sports medicine over the last decade. The return-to-play timeframe for Achilles tears seems to get shorter by the year.
So it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison between Phillips’ journey and what Achilles injuries did more than a decade ago to Shawne Merriman’s career. But the former Chargers great’s experience should not be dismissed either.
Merriman suffered Achilles injuries in consecutive seasons that effectively ended his career at age 27. He spoke about Phillips’ outlook during a promotional appearance on behalf of his Lights Out Xtreme Fighting league’s big event Saturday in Southern California.
The 18-and-over event will be held at Thunder Studios in Long Beach. Ticket information is available here.
“I was praying for him, man, because he was an up-and-coming guy coming off the edge,” Merriman said. “I love his game.
“… The last thing you wanna do is rush that, because it is by far, in my opinion — because I’ve had a knee reconstruction, I’ve had shoulders, I’ve had the Achilles — the Achilles is the worst one to come back from,” Merriman continued.
The challenges in returning from a major trauma? Merriman said there are several.
No. 1?
“Even when you get back healthy, there’s a mental thing,” he said. “‘If I push off of this too hard or if I step back on the wrong, I’m gonna tear it again?’ So you gotta get over the mental part of it. That’s gonna be a difficult thing for him.”
And No. 2:
“The compensation. This is why he has to take his time on getting back, because if he doesn’t, you could tear the other one, or you’re gonna have the opposite knee is gonna start hurting, the opposite side of your back is gonna start hurting, you’re gonna be pulling the opposite groin. So you have to watch the compensation, man.
“But he’ll be back, he’ll be fine. But he has to take his time getting back because if not, you can risk other major things happening.”
What Is Jaelan Phillips’ Timeline To Return?
In other words, Phillips should be more focused on coming back fully healthy than beating some deadline.
Fortunately for him, the Dolphins have the same outlook.
Mike McDaniel told reporters last week that they have had to protect both Phillips and Bradley Chubb — who is recovering from a torn ACL — from themselves during their offseason of rehab.
“Relative to timelines, we specifically don’t have those for those two,” McDaniel said. “We’ve had to mandate that they have a week off of rehab just recently, both of them, because they literally live there. They have a pseudo-tape on the floor parking spots for their little scooters that they’ve graduated from.
“They’re both really doing exactly what you’d expect from those two individuals, which is absolutely attacking that process, but doing it from a perspective that they don’t want to get healthy for one week, they want to get healthy for the whole season. So that’s what they’re working towards.”
Achilles tears, while certainly not the career death sentence they were a generation ago, still remain quite dicey. The return-to-play timeline is nine to 12 months, which means that Phillips — who got hurt the day after Thanksgiving — has a decent chance of playing in the opener.
But how effective will he be?
The findings of a 2017 study into the impact of Achilles injuries on NFL players were a bit concerning.
“Postoperative performance scores were significantly worse for running backs and linebackers compared to preoperative scores. [Linebackers] had significantly worse postoperative performance scores when compared to matched controls.”
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