MIAMI GARDENS — Ahead of the 2025 season, running back Alexander Mattison was simply trying to carve out a role on the Miami Dolphins’ roster.
He was doing a pretty good job of it, standing out in training camp as a big, power tailback who could help fix the team’s short-yardage woes but who was showing flashes of a burst that had him breaking off long runs in practice.
As camp turned into preseason games, the Dolphins’ opener to the exhibition season in Chicago nearly turned Mattison’s life upside down, let alone his chances of contributing to the team.
Mattison, who scored a touchdown earlier in that Aug. 10 preseason game against the Bears, caught a short fourth-quarter pass and rumbled 21 yards before being brought down awkwardly inside the 5-yard line.
He suffered a neck injury that required emergency fusion surgery as he stayed back in Chicago while the Dolphins traveled to Detroit for a week of practice with the Lions and another preseason game the following weekend.
The next day, Mattison was ruled out for the coming season as he had a long recovery ahead of him.
“It’s been quite the rollercoaster, but just operating in a mindset of gratitude,” Mattison told the South Florida Sun Sentinel when Dolphins players cleaned out their lockers at the end of the past season in early January. “Everything is good. I’m healthy. I’m able to walk. Proud of that. So, now I’m just on the road to recovery from the injury, and it’ll be a long process.”
And, yes, Mattison was nearly at risk of losing his ability to walk.
It could’ve gotten dangerous if the ailment occurred lower toward the C7 vertebra at the base of the neck. Fortunately for Mattison, that’s not where the injury occurred, and he walked off under his own power at Soldier Field on Aug. 10.
“It does get scary when you deal with the neck,” Mattison said. “For me, I was moving my legs and I was able to walk off the field immediately, so that concern wasn’t there so much. … “That just made me even more grateful that that wasn’t the case for me.”
Mattison, who turns 28 June 19, has aspirations to return to playing football, possibly even next season.
“That’s the goal, is to get back out there better than ever,” he said.
Mattison is a free agent, and the Dolphins are now run by new general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and coach Jeff Hafley, so it’s not the same pairing of former GM Chris Grier and coach Mike McDaniel who brought him to Miami.
That said, he said back at the end of the past season, he would like for his comeback to occur with the Dolphins.
“They’ve done an amazing job of keeping me and my family informed, everything, keeping me up to date on what’s to come, just helping me through the process,” Mattison said of the doctors and training staff at the facility, where he has received attention since days after his emergency surgery in Chicago in August.
“I love it here. I don’t think I got to, necessarily, accomplish all that I wanted to accomplish here. I guess, with any injury, with any person, you never want to end the season early. You never want to have a situation where you’re not playing football, but I think, specifically, coming here and being optimistic about being here, that definitely hurt and stung. I love this organization. I love this locker room, so God willing, I’d love to be back.”
As of early January, Mattison hadn’t done any football training or lifted heavy weights. He had begun returning to light cardio sessions.
“We’re still in the process,” he said then. “I still have my limitations, but going along smoothly.”
Aside from that, Mattison has been spending time with family as he recovers.
At 5 feet 11, 220 pounds, Mattison is a physical runner. The Dolphins’ running back room is led by De’Von Achane, who is coming off his first Pro Bowl selection and is eligible for a contract extension this offseason.
Miami also has rising second-year tailback Ollie Gordon II to provide short-yardage capabilities and had Jaylen Wright, who enters into his third season in 2026, come along later in the past season.