Life is good these days for Miami Dolphins outside linebacker Jaelan Phillips.
Sure, Phillips would prefer to be fully healthy and not having had to miss the offseason program because of his Achilles injury, but he's doing very well all things considered.
His rehabilitation, while not easy, is proceeding well and his new foundation has gotten off the ground.
"I'm feeling great," Phillips told the Inland Sports Show on YouTube this week from Riverside, California, where he put on a youth football camp. "I've been attacking the rehab. It's been a tedious process. You learn a lot about yourself through times like this. Adversity makes us stronger."
Dolphins outside linebacker coach Ryan Crowe said during minicamp he was pleased with the way Phillips and fellow edge rusher Bradley Chubb, coming back from a torn ACL, have been handling their rehabilitation.
"They were great, first and foremost," Crowe said. "They attack their rehab just like they attack the football field, and that was awesome to see. I have no doubt that when they are ready to go, we'll be ready to go."
While Phillips and Chubb continue to rehabilitate, rookies Chop Robinson and Mohamed Kamara got more of an opportunity to showcase themselves in their absence. Cameron Goode has also missed time and his reps were available as well.
"It;s almost like, not trial by fire, but probably getting more reps than they ordinarily would," Crowe said. "Yeah, and they are taking advantage of them. And I think the cool thing is, Jaelan and Bradley and Cam Goode, being around those guys they've really taken them under their wing just to help them, coach them up a little bit, but be around them, have a vet presence of guys who have done it before which is also helping to excel their growth."
PHILLIPS STILL BUSY HELPING OUT
The young camp was for younger children to come out and learn a little about the game of football and be taught how to exhibit good sportsmanship.
Phillips, the Dolphins' 2022 Man of the Year nominee, presented the camp free of charge to the youngsters. It is something that he wants to do more of in the future. He hopes to one day have a high school skills camp for older kids to participate in, and learn to do some more one-on-one drills.
"The ability to have a platform to be able to put on a free camp for these kids to come out here, meet each other, be social and show good sportsmanship come out here and have a good time it's really a beautiful thing," Phillips told the Inland Sports Show. "I'm so grateful that I can put this camp on. This is where everything started."
While 2024 has been about rehabilitation from a football standpoint, Phillips is having a banner year already off the field.
He graduated in May from the University of Miami and also this year established the Jaelan Phillips Foundation, to go along with his continuing role as a Board Member for the Dolphins Challenge Cancer event.
Phillips said that he never attended an NFL player camp when he was growing up and that it is the goal of his foundation to be able to provide events like this in the offseason and not have to charge a fee for the children to participate.
"I noticed that a lot of NFL guys, for whatever reason, not necessarily good or bad, charge for their camps. they might be charging $100 a kid or whatever the case is," Phillips said. " For me, my foundation, everything is about eliminating barriers and we wanted to give them a camp for free. That is what the goal was and that's what we will continue to do."
