MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Miami Dolphins pass rusher Jaelan Phillips finished the first half of the 2023 season strong, with three sacks and two tackles for loss in his last three games.
Phillips’ turnaround has coincided with a big improvement by the Dolphins defense and portends good things over the season’s final two months (and beyond).
But that improvement by Phillips only came after one of the most challenging stretches of his pro career, with back and oblique injuries severely impacting his effectiveness — and his mental health.
On Monday, the nation’s No. 1 recruit-turned-first-round pick opened up about the low moments of his season — and how he’s at times his own “biggest enemy.”
Miami Dolphins’ Jaelan Phillips Opens Up
Phillips acknowledged Monday that his early season injuries sapped his self-confidence, making a bad situation even worse.
“I just felt like I was a shell of myself, and even when I was getting back on the field, I was just second-guessing everything,” Phillips said. “… My confidence had been kind of shot.”
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That’s a candid admission and refreshing honesty in a game that for decades saw vulnerability as weakness.
Not so with the Dolphins under Mike McDaniel.
The second-year coach encourages his players to be comfortable as themselves.
But Phillips’ inner struggles far predated McDaniel’s time in Miami.
When asked if he’s had to deal with confidence issues in the past, Phillips replied:
“All the time. That’s, that’s literally like the biggest battle, I think, for me personally, for a lot of guys too. But for me personally, like obviously staying healthy is a big thing. But, you know, even if I’m out there playing with little ailments, I can still do well, for me. For me, it’s all up here (pointing to his head).
“Like it’s, it’s crazy how much of an impact your mentality can have. And, you know, it’s something I’ve been dealing with really, you know, my whole life, but especially, you know, college, things like that.
“And so I think the biggest battle for me has been trying to find out how to stay even-keeled throughout the whole process and even when I have down games or even when I get hurt and things might not be going how I want them to, I just gotta kinda have that perspective that it’s all part of the process. And that, you know, ‘it gets greater later’ type situation.
“Just to know that even when you’re in those moments and feeling not confident that, you know, eventually it’s gonna turn around.”
For Phillips, things began to turn around in the Dolphins’ Week 6 win over the Carolina Panthers. While he didn’t have a sack, simply getting back on the field was great for his mental health.
But his big breakthrough game the next week, when he had his first solo sack of the season — which came at the expense of All-World Eagles tackle Lane Johnson — the first sack Johnson had allowed in years.
This sack by Jaelan Phillips was the first sack that Lane Johnson has allowed since the 2020 season. pic.twitter.com/eKMn1mZ6HY
— King of Phinland🐬👑 (@KingOfPhinland) October 23, 2023
“I was really anxious leading up to the game because, coming off injury, obviously that’s a big primetime game against the Eagles, stuff like that, going against Lane Johnson,” Phillips said.
“And, like I said, my confidence had been kind of shot the weeks prior to that. So I was really anxious leading up into it, and, honestly, I was kinda like second-guessing myself, like thinking, ‘Damn, I don’t even know if I can beat this guy. I don’t know if I can just straight win, get a sack.’
“I was like, ‘I’ll be able to run around, maybe get a second-effort sack or something like that.’ But to be able to go out there and actually perform — it was a good matchup. He obviously got me a few times. I got him a few times, but even just to be able to win against a guy like that, it gave me a lot of confidence.”
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