Wide receiver Tyreek Hill missed practice on Wednesday, but he’s good to go for the Dolphins on Friday.
Hill returned for a limited practice on Thursday and Hill, who is listed with a foot injury, did not receive an injury designation for Sunday’s game against the Bills.
The Dolphins will have Hill, but they are unlikely to have safety Jevon Holland. He’s listed as doubtful to play due to a hand injury.
Defensive tackle Zach Sieler (eye), cornerback Kader Kohou (neck), and tight end Julian Hill (shoulder) have been ruled out. Fullback Alec Ingold (calf), cornerback Storm Duck (ankle), and wide receiver River Cracraft (shoulder) are listed as questionable.
The status of two key Buffalo offensive players is still a bit up in the air for Sunday’s matchup against Miami.
Via multiple reporters, head coach Sean McDermott said in his Friday news conference that receiver Amari Cooper (wrist) and receiver Curtis Samuel (pectoral) will both be listed as questionable for Week 9.
Cooper and Samuel have each been limited in practice on Wednesday and Thursday. Cooper initially was not slated to participate on Wednesday, but then that changed.
In two games with Buffalo, Cooper has caught five passes for 69 yards with a touchdown.
Samuel missed last week’s game against the Seahawks.
McDermott also noted that linebacker Terrel Bernard (ankle/pectoral) should be good to go. Cornerback Christian Benford (wrist) will be questionable. And fullback Reggie Gilliam (hip) has been ruled out.
Wide receiver Tyreek Hill didn’t practice on Wednesday, but he was back on the field Thursday.
Hill was listed as a limited participant in practice. A foot issue and rest were given as the reasons for his appearance on the list. Hill did not practice last Friday, but played in the team’s loss to the Cardinals.
Tight end Julian Hill (shoulder), safety Jevon Holland (knee, hand), cornerback Kader Kohou (neck), and defensive tackle Zach Sieler (eye) missed practice for the second straight day. Left tackle Terron Armstead (rest, knee), cornerback Storm Duck (ankle), and edge rusher Emmanuel Ogbah (illness, bicep) were limited after sitting out on Wednesday.
Fullback Alec Ingold (calf) was added to the report as a limited participant while linebacker Jordyn Brooks (hamstring, wrist) and wide receiver River Cracraft (shoulder) remained in the limited category.
On Sunday, Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa mishandled a shotgun snap. It caused a safety.
On Wednesday, Salty Tua made an appearance at his midweek press conference, in response to criticism regarding the blunder.
“It’s as simple as catching the ball in the gun,” Tagvailoa told reporters. “I would say I’m a pretty good shortstop guy; I have pretty good vision; I have pretty good hands. I’d like to see a lot of other people go in the back there and try to catch that ball, too. You’ve seen it — it wasn’t [Aaron Brewer’s] best and Brew knows he can get it better, but it wasn’t my best as well. But I’m just saying to give perspective, it’s not as easy as what it looked like sitting down on your couch eating chips.”
The snap looked a little high, but it wasn’t anything Tua shouldn’t have handled. Plenty of quarterbacks have managed to catch a ball that was delivered similarly.
He should have just said he should have caught it. Turning the tables on the many who watch football and who can’t handle shotgun snaps (or do the other things an NFL quarterback does) but who expect Tua, in exchange for more than $55 million per year, to handle shotgun snaps the way other quarterbacks handle them is a rough look for a guy who has been choosing defiance since returning from his latest concussion.
It’s entertaining, but it’s a rough look.
Bills head coach Sean McDermott said that wide receiver Amari Cooper would miss practice on Wednesday, but McDermott was either misinformed or Cooper’s plans changed between the coach’s press conference and the start of the workout.
Cooper wound up getting in a limited practice despite the wrist injury he suffered last Sunday. The change in status would seem to be a good sign for the wideout’s availability against the Dolphins this Sunday.
Offensive lineman Alec Anderson (personal) was the only player who didn’t practice at all. Linebacker Terrel Bernard (ankle, pectoral), fullback Reggie Gilliam (hip), and wide receiver Curtis Samuel (pectoral) were limited participants.
Quarterback Josh Allen (left hand) remains on the report as a full participant. Safety Damar Hamlin (ankle), tight end Dawson Knox (ankle), and tight end Dalton Kincaid (collarbone, knee) are other regulars who fully participated on Wednesday.
Dolphins receiver Tyreek Hill, who was questionable for the Week 8 loss to the Cardinals, wasn’t seen at practice on Wednesday.
Via Joe Schad of the Palm Beach Post, Hill was absent during the portion of practice open to reporters.
Hill wasn’t on last Wednesday’s report. He was limited on Thursday and didn’t practice on Friday.
Last year, Hill was on pace for 2,000 receiving yards until an ankle injury in December. This year, he has only 366 receiving yards through seven games. That puts him on pace for 888 yards for the full season. He had more than 1,700 receiving yards in each of his first two seasons with the Dolphins.
Hill also has only one 100-yard performance this year. It came in Week 1 against the Jaguars, when he caught seven passes for 130 yards and a touchdown. It’s his only touchdown of the entire season.
The 2-5 Dolphins visit the 6-2 Bills on Sunday. A loss would put Miami 5.5 games behind the Bills, since Buffalo would own the head-to-head tiebreaker.
The Bills will be short a wide receiver at Wednesday’s practice.
Head coach Sean McDermott told reporters at his press conference that Amari Cooper will not be on the field as the team prepares to host the Dolphins in Week Nine. Cooper is dealing with a wrist injury.
Cooper’s injury occurred in last Sunday’s win over the Seahawks and McDermott said that the team will take it day by day in terms of Cooper’s availability for the Miami game.
McDermott also said that wide receiver Curtis Samuel (pectoral) and linebacker Terrel Bernard (ankle) will be limited participants in the team’s first practice session of the week.
As the trade deadline approaches, one receiver who once was among the best in the game could be secretly hoping for a ticket out of his current team.
Receiver Odell Beckham Jr. has zero catches in three games for the 2-5 Dolphins. In the 28-27 loss to the Cardinals, Beckham wasn’t even targeted.
“I thought he looked as comfortable as he’s looked,” coach Mike McDaniel told reporters earlier this week, “and I think Tua [Tagovailoa] sees that on tape and we kind of adjust to what players show us and I thought he was running the best routes, so my expectation would be more involvement based upon him being consensual in that and owning that much more of the offense so we can get him on the field more. So I think it was a step in the right direction, albeit, the box score doesn’t really assess that. From our standpoint from the way we look at offense and the way we look at doing our jobs, I thought he did a good job with the opportunities he had, and we’ll continue to push that envelope because we’re trying to max out what type of football team we are and we know he can help us.”
Beckham came to Miami to help the Dolphins, but not without catching the ball. He missed the first four games due to injury. It’s unclear whether another team would trade for him at this point, but the Dolphins should be thinking about possibly making a move — especially if they lose to the Bills on Sunday to fall to 2-6.
The Dolphins can use all the help they can get as they try to turn things around after a 2-5 start to the season, but edge rusher Bradley Chubb isn’t someone they’re going to be banking on anytime soon.
Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel was asked at a Monday press conference if Chubb would return to practice in the near future. McDaniel said that he’s sure Chubb “wishes that would be the case,” but that Chubb’s return is “not on my immediate horizon.”
Chubb’s injury was called an ACL tear, but McDaniel referred to it as an “ACL-plus” while discussing the veteran’s outlook on Monday. The significance of the injury will complicate the return timeline, so it’s not clear when Chubb, who was hurt in late December last year, will be able to return.
The Dolphins lose Jaelan Phillips to an ACL injury and they have produced nine sacks in the first seven games of the season.
The good news for Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is that his return to the lineup on Sunday unfolded without any further concussions or other injuries, but the bad news was that the Cardinals rallied for 10 late points to pull out a win in Miami.
The loss drops the Dolphins’ record to 2-5 and the quarterback said that the pain associated with the result wound up overshadowing any positives about his first game action since Week Two.
“It feels good,” Tagovailoa said, via the team’s transcript. “It feels good to be able to come back and play with my teammates, to hopefully help in whatever way I can to get a spark going for us offensively or get the mojo going for the entire team. It feels good but a tough loss today against a really good team, so that diminishes not just what I’ve done, but a lot of what other guys have done individually as well.”
As the Dolphins hoped, Tagovailoa drew cheers from the Hard Rock Stadium crowd when he slid at the end of a run and the quarterback said it was “super cool” to hear that response. Head coach Mike McDaniel said he thought the quarterback “was decisive and kept himself out of harm’s way and I think that’s big for our team as we try to get through this rut.”
Tagovailoa said “there’s always time” to get out of that rut and noted that the team opened 1-7 in 2021 before finishing with eight wins in their final nine games. The quarterback said he feels this team is more talented than that one, but the results will need to get better soon if they want to avoid the same playoff miss that team experienced.
