When Jaelan Phillips came out of his momentary retirement from football in college and decided he would renew his career at the University of Miami in 2019, he had a lot of work to do on his body.
The time away from the game, due to multiple injuries and concussions sustained while at UCLA, caused him to lose muscle. The edge defender was down to 225 pounds after playing at around 250 when he became the nation’s No. 1-rated recruit in high school. He talked about that before his breakthrough 2020 season with the Hurricanes that eventually led him to become a 2021 first-round pick of the Miami Dolphins.
In the year and a half’s time from arriving at UM to training camp before that stellar college season, he worked his weight up 45 pounds to 270, mostly muscle gained, as he maintained his speed rush at the new weight.
In his first full offseason as a pro, Phillips actually now has reversed course to get leaner heading into his second NFL season. He said recently he trimmed five pounds since the end of his rookie campaign, when he recorded a franchise rookie record 8½ sacks. He was officially listed at 266 pounds last season.
“Just working on body re-composition, just continuously trying to build lean muscle and cut as much fat as possible, and so, weight-wise I feel really good,” Phillips said. “I feel like I’m running around well. I feel like I’m strong as well, so just continuously trying to improve my body and fine-tune some smaller muscles that you might not think about that are really good at stabilization and different lateral movements.”
The leaner Phillips, who took off after he started working with a confidence coach as a rookie, wants to prove himself to be an every-down outside linebacker in Year 2. He came to the Dolphins as a versatile edge defender whose best college season came with Miami, when he played defensive end in a 4-3 scheme. It’s no surprise, as a rookie, his best moments as that hybrid edge came when he was told to put his head down and rush the passer, whether with a hand in the ground or standing up.
“I’m just trying to be the most well-rounded player that I can be,” said Phillips, who added he’s still in the outside linebackers room and not with defensive linemen, “so whatever roles that the coaches see fit for me, I can fit those roles accordingly.”
The new weight wasn’t necessarily done for the sole purpose of fitting into the outside linebacker role in the scheme, however.
“There’s always a conversation with our strength staff, nutritionists, our players, things that we’re asking them to do,” said defensive coordinator Josh Boyer. “It really starts with overall health more so than like, ‘Hey, we need you to lose five or 10 pounds to do this’ or ‘We need you to gain 20 pounds.’ It’s not advantageous to ask someone to lose five pounds and not be able to hold an edge. Obviously, running better, feeling better.
“Jaelan is a guy that wants to be great and wants to do everything perfect. I think he’s finding that happy balance of work-failure to bring the best out of himself. A couple of pounds here and there, it’s more nutrition-based than it is football or playing-based.”
New Dolphins outside linebackers coach Ty McKenzie has been impressed with Phillips’ approach since McKenzie came on board this offseason.
“He’s been so eager to get better. From Day 1, we started from ground zero and worked up,” McKenzie said. “He’s had success in the preparation. His approach has been great in the classroom with [Boyer], with me in my meeting room, with [coach Mike McDaniel] in the squad meeting room. He’s taken that to preparation on the practice field.”
Phillips was always exceptionally athletic at his size, running an impressive official 4.56-second 40-yard dash at his Miami pro day, and still bench-pressing 21 reps of 225 pounds.
“I would put Jaelan Phillips in the 99th percentile of any player I’ve ever coached, as far as physical attributes,” once said former UM defensive line coach Todd Stroud, who coached at nine other college programs since 1986, including Florida State, Auburn and N.C. State. “His ability to run and jump and twitch is exactly what you want at that position.”
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