{"id":102939,"date":"2025-06-04T09:11:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-04T09:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/102939\/"},"modified":"2025-06-04T09:11:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T09:11:11","slug":"dolphins-austin-jackson-primed-for-return-from-knee-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/102939\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolphins’ Austin Jackson primed for return from knee injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI GARDENS \u2014 Even after finding out he would be sidelined for the second half of the season in 2024, Miami Dolphins<\/a> right tackle Austin Jackson knew he would be back.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew I was going to be back soon,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cThat was my goal the whole time, getting better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackson was a full participant at Tuesday\u2019s rainy session of organized team activities<\/a> and was without a brace or wrap on his surgically repaired knee for the first time since injuring it midway through last season.<\/p>\n

Jackson, 25, missed the second half of last season after tearing his meniscus in the Dolphins\u2019 early November loss at Buffalo, and he had surgery in January to repair it. And, by most metrics, Jackson\u2019s rehab was right on schedule.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustin Jackson is playing and out on the field moving as good as he\u2019s ever looked,\u201d coach Mike McDaniel said Tuesday before the OTA session.<\/p>\n

The Dolphins offered a sign that his rehab was progressing positively in March, restructuring his contract to convert $9.7 million of his 2024 salary into a signing bonus. The move freed up over $8 million in 2025 cap space for Miami, but raised Jackson\u2019s 2026 cap hit from $13.8 million to $15.8 million.<\/p>\n

With his restructured contract, the Dolphins are relying on Jackson to be the bookend of the future for their offensive line and to pick up the slack left by longtime stalwart tackle Terron Armstead<\/a>, whose retirement was made official on Monday. Miami\u2019s trust in Jackson is based on several weeks of production a year ago before going down with the torn meniscus.<\/p>\n

Before Jackson\u2019s injury last season, Miami was averaging 133 rushing yards per game, good for the ninth-best ground game in the league. After losing Jackson, the Dolphins\u2019 average rushing yards dipped to 80 per game, which ranked 21st.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was tough,\u201d Jackson said of the injury. \u201cI hate to leave the season the way I did last year with so much at stake in terms of fighting for playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Entering his sixth season out of USC after the Dolphins selected him No. 18 in the 2020 draft, this will be Jackson\u2019s first as the leader within the offensive line room.<\/p>\n

At his retirement party two months ago, Armstead proclaimed that the offensive line room now belongs to Jackson. Without Armstead around, Jackson has already begun seeing his role shift, he said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am the older player in the room now,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cBecause people would usually go to Armstead for stuff and ask him questions. But now, they come and ask me. It\u2019s cool, I appreciate it. I make sure I\u2019m on my best, giving advice and really just making sure I\u2019m leading by example.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of Jackson\u2019s newfound role as a leader within the Dolphins\u2019 locker room will be helping develop who will be playing on the opposite end of the offensive line as him: starting left tackle Patrick Paul<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustin is here every day, he works and leads by example every single day,\u201d Paul said of Jackson on Tuesday. \u201cHe\u2019s the standard setter, and in my time here, I\u2019ve seen that.\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen him day-in and day-out come in and compete and do his job at the highest level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even more paramount for Jackson than helping develop Paul will be protecting the blindside of Tua Tagovailoa.<\/p>\n

On most NFL teams, blindside protection is the responsibility of the left tackle, as most quarterbacks throw with their right arm. In Miami, however, where the left-handed Tagovailoa starts at quarterback, that job falls to the right tackle: Jackson.<\/p>\n

Tagovailoa is entering the second season of his four-year, $212.4 million extension and is banking on Jackson to keep him upright and healthy after dealing with numerous injuries in his young career.<\/p>\n

Jackson, McDaniel said, is up to the task.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s a more ready version of him, I\u2019m super excited,\u201d McDaniel said on Tuesday. \u201cHe\u2019s ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI GARDENS \u2014 Even after finding out he would be sidelined for the second half of the season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2049],"tags":[10084,217,7,216,251,2087,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-102939","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-dolphins","8":"tag-austin-jackson","9":"tag-dolphins","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-miami","12":"tag-miami-dolphins","13":"tag-miamidolphins","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}