Thursday Dolphins Notebook: Jackson Back, New Injury for Armstead, Stopping Chubb, and More
Austin Jackson's long road back from took a positive step when he returned to practice Thursday, though it's unknown when he'll be ready for game action and where he'll line up when that happens.
"I’m really excited to be back out there doing my job," Jackson said after practice Thursday. "It’s been a lot of fun. It’s been a long time, obviously, as you know. I’m just glad that everything is working out the way it should be.”
Jackson has been out of the lineup since the opener against the New England Patriots when he left the game with a high ankle sprain, and his comeback hit a snag when he added a calf injury after he returned to practice.
While offensive coordinator Frank Smith said the goal was to use the five best offensive linemen as a combination up front, Jackson made it clear he'd prefer staying at right tackle, where he was switched this year after going from left tackle to left guard in 2021.
“Yeah, it’s definitely not ideal to switch positions out of the blue for any football player," Jackson said. "But I’m definitely looking to play right tackle or wherever I can fit, just because that’s where I was at last time. There’s no plans of me switching that I know of.”
DOLPHINS INJURY UPDATE
Jackson returning to practice was one of five changes on the Dolphins injury report Thursday.
Tackle Terron Armstead also was limited in practice after not participating Wednesday, but the big news with him is there's a new injury added to his name. Along with the toe issue, he's now also dealing with a calf injury. Armstead had an Achilles issue along with toe, which he also injured in the opener, but that problem went away, only to be replaced by new calf issue.
Armstead has been able to play every game, except the one against Minnesota, despite his injuries, but his status obviously bears watching given his importance to the offensive line.
QB Teddy Bridgewater (knee) and DT Zach Sieler (knee) both were added to the injury report, though both were listed as full participants.
DT Raekwon Davis (knee) was a full participant after being limited Wednesday.
HILL HAPPY WITH FLIPPING MEMES
Tyreek Hill's end zone flip after his touchdown against the Bears spawned a lot of memes, as one would expect in this age of social media, and not surprisingly he's been getting a kick out of it.
“The memes been crazy, man," Hill said. "My family, they’ve been doing a great job of keeping me aware of all the memes – the Shawn Michaels memes, the dolphin memes, me jumping out of planes memes, so it’s great. I feel like I can use those to my leverage. I really enjoyed that.”
As for his favorite? “Definitely the Randy Orton, the RKO one – I liked that one a lot, because I’m a Randy Orton fan. So, really enjoyed that one.”
As for why he pulled out the backflip after this particular touchdown, his third of the season, Hill explained: "I’ve been doing a backflip my whole career, baby. That’s what I do, man. But I haven’t really had an opportunity to do a backflip, because against the Ravens when I scored, we were down like two touchdowns. So I had to save my energy a little bit. In Chicago, it was the right moment, man. I feel like we either went up or we tied the game, so I was feeling the energy. The juices were nice and flowing there.”
DOLPHINS DEFENSE PREPARING FOR CHUBB CHALLENGE
After having to deal with the running of Bears quarterback Justin Fields last weekend, the Dolphins defense is in for a different kind of challenge Sunday against Browns running back Nick Chubb.
The second-leading rusher in the NFL behind only Derrick Henry (and trailing him by only 29 yards), Chubb is a punishing running back who'll present a physical challenge, a sharp contrast from having to deal with the speed of Fields.
Defensive coordinator Josh Boyer said the message to his players this week is pretty simple.
“We need to get everybody to the ball," Boyer said. "We need to get everybody to the ball. This won’t be a one-man show. You can see there’s many instances when you watch him on film that somebody has him in the backfield and he’s able to break that and then he stiff arms the next guy and then he keeps moving. So we need to get everybody to the ball and I would say whether it’s the run or the pass game, hitting him on a check down or whatever route that they’re running. It’s definitely going to be important for us to get everybody to the ball.”
