Tyreek Status Still a Mystery
Tyreek Hill showed impressive recovery powers Monday night after what looked like a nasty leg injury, but his status for the Miami Dolphins' upcoming game against the New York Jets is up in the air.
After the Dolphins were off Wednesday, the team will conduct a pair of walk-throughs Thursday before its only regular practice of the week Friday, and head coach Mike McDaniel didn't provide any definitive answers.
"He's at such a great spot, knowing that he's going to take care of what's in his hands," McDaniel said Thursday. "But he's such an important part of our team that we're going to make sure that when he's on the field, he's not at risk of further injuring himself. So if it's a situation where he he can get to a point where he's doesn't have to worry about making something worse ... we're just going to be prudent and smart with him.
"He's a competitor and he's a captain of this team. And he very much wants to dictate the terms. But he's in a good place where he's not going to do it at the cost of further progression of injury, so happy where he's at."
Because the Dolphins are not having regular practices until Friday, the first two injury reports of the week are based on an estimation of what a player's status would have looked like, and Hill was listed as DNP (Did Not Participate) on Wednesday.
DOLPHINS WILL TAKE CAUTIOUS APPROACH
There's no downplaying Hill's importance to the offense, but the last thing the Dolphins want to do is to see him try to play before he's really ready and make his situation worse.
Hill is a true competitor — he's always saying "Cheetah don't get hurt" — and he's also chasing history in terms of becoming the first NFL player with 2,000 receiving yards in a season.
He remains on pace for that mark even after missing time against Tennessee because he still was able to finish with four catches for 61 yards. Hill is at 1,542 yards on the season, meaning he needs to average 114.5 yards over the final four games to reach the milestone. If he were to miss the Jets game but be able to return and play the final three, he then would need to average 153 yards.
Even playing at less than 100 percent, Hill had the two longest plays of the Tennessee game for the Dolphins after he returned from the locker room and sideline with catches of 25 and 23 yards.
But, as McDaniel pointed out Thursday, simply having Hill on the field makes a huge difference for the Miami offense because of the attention he commands.
"For the most part, if all 11 defenders are aware of where he's at on every snap, whether or not the calls change or not, 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 that 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.
"He's a special player for us and he will always have an impact on the game, even when he's not catching the ball or doing those things just by his presence out there. You have to account for him. He takes a personal when people don't."
