Jaelan Phillips has shown flashes of dominance, but 2025 is all about resilience.
Once ranked among the top 10 edge defenders in the league, Phillips enters this season after battling through a brutal stretch of injuries, a torn Achilles in late 2023 and an ACL tear just four weeks into 2024. Yet the talent is undeniable.
In 2022, he posted a 90.1 PFF pass-rush grade, proving he can be a game-wrecker off the edge.
Now nearing full health, the 26-year-old faces a pivotal year in Miami.
The Dolphins believe in his ceiling, and if he can return to form, he could still become one of the NFL’s most feared pass rushers.
Is 2025 the year Jaelan Phillips reclaims his place among the elite?
For Jaelan Phillips, his 2025 season with the Miami Dolphins could be his most important because nothing is guaranteed after it.
The Dolphins saw much more than an injury history when they selected Phillips in the first round of the 2021 draft. They saw enough talent to warrant making a risky pick. Has it worked out for Miami? Not the way they had hoped, and not the way Phillips had dreamed.
There may not be a harder worker than Phillips on the roster. Sadly, most of his highlights are taken during rehab. On the field, he is a force, but staying healthy is a concern.
This year, the Dolphins’ defense needs him. They need him to stay healthy, and they need him to take the next step they have been waiting for. Phillips may be the most important player on the front seven this season.
The Dolphins were pleasantly surprised last season by rookie Chop Robinson, and if Phillips lines up on the opposite side of him, Miami will have a two-headed pass rush that will create problems for opposing quarterbacks.
When we add Bradley Chubb into the mix, the Dolphins have excellent edge rushers, but there is still no denying the importance of Phillips. While Chubb is an excellent pass rusher, he typically doesn’t line up at the line, but instead moves around from the outside linebacker spot.
Miami Dolphins have been much better defensively with Jaelan Phillips on the field
In his four seasons, Phillips has 23 sacks and 152 total tackles, but the real story is how the Dolphins do when he is not on the field. In 2021 and 2022, Phillips was available for all 17 games of the season, but he missed nine games in 2023 and 13 games in 2024.
- 2023: Phillips had 6.5 sacks on the season. He had at least 0.5 sacks in all but two of the eight games he played, including at least one sack in each of his final five games. The Dolphins won six of the eight games he played in, and they went 5-4 in games that he didn’t play.
- 2024: Phillips didn’t last long to start the season. After three games, he tore his ACL, and his season was over. The Dolphins lost three of the games he played in and six of the games he did not. Of course, 2024 was also a season Miami dealt with losing Tua Tagovailoa for six games.
While the stats may not jump off the page, you have to wonder what the Dolphins’ defense would look like with Robinson, Phi
