Injuries aren’t anything to keep Dolphins safety Jevon Holland down for long. The third-year starter has missed three games this season (the most he’s missed in his short carer) while dealing with reported knee injuries. According to an interview Holland did with Adam Beasley of Pro Football Network, the Dolphins defender has been dealing with two MCL sprains.
A single MCL sprain is enough to force many players to sit out multiple games, as those knee ligament injuries are not meant to be dealt with lightly. Regardless, Holland wants to be through with missing time, telling Beasley that “he’s optimistic about playing this week.” With the team’s other starting safety DeShon Elliott out this week after suffering a concussion in Miami’s surprising loss to the Titans on Monday, the defense would be glad to return Holland to the field.
Here are a few other injury rumors from around the NFL:
- Packers running back A.J. Dillon has already been asked to step into a starting role with Aaron Jones out for the past three weeks. Green Bay may be down another rusher as Dillon reportedly suffered a broken thumb in the team’s loss to the Giants on Monday night, per ESPN’s Rob Demovsky. Like Holland, Dillon isn’t one to miss time with an injury. The only games he’s missed in his career were due to COVID-19 during his rookie year. That being said, he’s never played with a broken thumb. He’s listed as questionable heading into the weekend, but Dillon is trying to figure out if he can play through the injury. The biggest issue comes with the fact that opposing teams will know of the injury and attempts to punch out fumbles could lead to further harm.
- Isiah Pacheco has only missed one game since taking over as the Chiefs‘ starting running back in Week 2, sitting out for last week’s loss to the Bills. According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, head coach Andy Reid reported that Pacheco underwent “a clean up procedure on his shoulder” that will force him to miss this weekend’s matchup with the Patriots, as well. Reid expects that Pacheco should be able to return after that.
- Yet another running back, Saints rookie rusher Kendre Miller has missed the team’s past four games with an ankle injury and is scheduled to miss a fifth straight game this weekend. NewOrleans.Football’s Nick Underhill believes that we haven’t seen the last of Miller this season. While the TCU-product may not be back immediately after this week’s game, Underhill thinks a Week 17 appearance in Tampa Bay could be in the cards for the 21-year-old.
- Lastly, it’s safe to say that we haven’t seen the best from Bills second-year cornerback Kaiir Elam in his sophomore season. 2023 has been an injury-riddled year for the Florida-product as he’s only made an appearance in three games this year, the most recent of which only saw him on special teams. According to Ryan O’Halloran of The Buffalo News, Elam reportedly tore an ankle ligament prior to the start of the regular season. While he did sit out the team’s first four contests, Elam’s Week 5 return apparently saw him attempting to play through the injury without it being healed due to injuries to Tre’Davious White and Christian Benford in the team’s Week 4 win over the Dolphins. The injury would eventually push him onto injured reserve at the start of November. He’s since been designated to return from IR. If he isn’t able to return by shortly after Christmas, Elam will remain on IR for the rest of the year.