MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Considering their short, condensed week, the Miami Dolphins will be doing a lot of estimating with injured wide receiver Tyreek Hill.
They projected he wouldn’t have practiced Wednesday and then again Thursday, had the Dolphins held one on either day.
They had the day off Wednesday, and held two walkthroughs Thursday.
Put it all together, and Hill’s status for Sunday’s game against the New York Jets remains very much in doubt.
The Dolphins will hold their only practice open to reporters Friday. That’s the same day they need to list a game status for Hill.
If we had to guess, based on Hill’s nature and head coach Mike McDaniel’s comments Thursday, they will list him as questionable.
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Hill painfully sprained his ankle in the first half of Monday night’s Dolphins loss to the Tennessee Titans. He basically missed a half of football before gutting it out late and helping Miami as much as he could.
Three days later, the ankle remained an issue, based on McDaniel’s remarks.
“It was unfortunate,” McDaniel said. “He’s at such a great spot. …
“He’s doing everything he can knowing that, you know, he’s gonna take care of what’s in his hands. He’s such an important part of our team that we’re gonna make sure that when he’s on the field, he’s not at risk of further injuring himself.
“If it’s a situation where he can get to a point where he doesn’t have to worry about making something worse … ” McDaniel added. “Football’s football. Anything can happen. — but in terms of outside of the normal, he was tackled in whatever fair or unfair way that he was tackled — again, he knows he’s always at risk of that.
“But we’re just going to be prudent and smart with him, and he’s a competitor, and he’s the captain of this team. He very much wants to dictate the terms. But he’s in a good place where he’s not gonna do it at the cost of further progression of injury. We’re happy with where he’s at.”
Hill’s injury could not have come at a worse time. The Dolphins are coming off their worst loss of the year, and the AFC playoff race is tightening. What’s more, the offense is already impacted by multiple injuries on the offensive line.
But none of those issues are as significant to the team as Hill being hurt.
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“You just have a huge impact on the game when he has the ball and when he doesn’t,” McDaniel said. “It’s very much like any one of the best players in the league.
“It has nothing to do with anybody else. We have a lot of capable playmakers, a lot of really talented people on the team. But everybody knows that there’s someone that you can’t exactly replicate anywhere, let alone on this team.
“So he’s a special player for us and that he will always have an impact on the game, even when he’s not catching the ball or doing those things, just, just by his presence out there. You have to account for him. He takes it personal when people don’t.”
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