Phillips can stay put in Miami
UM pass rusher moved his stuff; now he’s bringing it back after being drafted by Dolphins
Can Jaelan Phillips still ask for another month on his lease in his old apartment near the University of Miami’s campus?
The Miami Dolphins’ selection of the standout Hurricanes pass rusher with the 18th pick keeps Phillips in Miami after his lengthy journey through injuries and a momentary retirement from football, but there’s one problem: He already transported all his belongings out of South Florida.
“It’s funny because I just moved all my stuff out of Coral Gables back home to L.A.,” said Phillips, a Southern California native who played at UCLA before transferring to UM, “and now I’m going back to Miami, so it’s another road trip.”
Now that Phillips is about to begin getting paid like a first-round NFL selection and top defensive end chosen, he’ll be able to move out to a much larger home in Miami. He started mulling his real estate options as early as Thursday night on a web conference with reporters.
“I definitely want to be close to the facilities,” Phillips said. “The Hard Rock [Stadium] facilities are going to be open pretty soon, so anywhere I can be close up in North Miami, so Weston maybe, even Fort Lauderdale maybe.
“I know my way around there a little bit. I spent some time up north. I was down in Coral Gables for the most part, but I definitely spent some time up north. Wherever the team recommends that I should stay, and really just being close to the facility and being able to get that vibe.”
Phillips feels an appreciation for Miami after his college stint at UM helped revitalize his football career.
“Los Angeles made me, but Miami saved me,” Phillips said. “I owe a lot to this city, and I’m just so excited to be able to come back and be able to play here as long as I can.”
Once the top-rated high school football player in the country, Phillips’ winding road to this moment involved multiple concussions, wrist damage from a moped accident and sprains on both ankles while at UCLA. The multitude of injuries led him to initially retire after the 2018 season with the Bruins.
Months later, however, he reversed course and decided to transfer to UM. He had to sit out the 2019 season before becoming eligible due to NCAA transfer rules, but after losing muscle mass in his months away from training, using that time to restructure his body was instrumental.
Phillips dipped down to 225 pounds when he first arrived in Coral Gables, after playing around 250 pounds as a top recruit. His transformation, with intense workouts and a diet that involved consumption of 260 grams of protein a day, saw him get up to 270 pounds, he said in fall camp last August. He officially measured out at 6 foot 5, 260 pounds at Miami’s Pro Day last month.
The 2020 fall season saw him record 45 tackles, 15 ½ for loss, and eight sacks in 10 games. Six and a half of those sacks came in his final four games when he elevated his game another notch.
“Everybody’s path to success isn’t linear at all. There’s ups and downs,” he said after completion of Pro Day.
He also excelled in the combine-style workouts that day. Phillips ran the 40-yard dash in 4.56 seconds, a blazing time for a defensive end. Benching 21 reps of 225 pounds, he added a 36-inch vertical jump and 10-foot-5 broad jump to display his explosiveness.
Phillips was largely off the draft radar before the 2020 season. In the 2017 and 2018 seasons at UCLA, he was in and out as a starter as an outside linebacker when he was healthy, totaling 41 tackles and 4 ½ sacks over 11 games those two seasons.
When fellow Hurricanes defensive end and 2021 draft prospect Gregory Rousseau opted out of the 2020 season amid the pandemic and an already-high draft stock, it opened up a greater opportunity for Phillips to start opposite of Quincy Roche, the Temple transfer who is a third edge defender UM prospect in this draft.
Todd Stroud, Miami’s defensive line coach last season, saw it in Phillips immediately that fall camp.
“I would put Jaelan Phillips in the 99th percentile of any player I’ve ever coached, as far as physical attributes,” said Stroud, who has coached at nine other college programs since 1986, including Florida State, Auburn and N.C. State, in August. “His ability to run and jump and twitch is exactly what you want at that position.”
Phillips was the first of two Hurricanes selected in the first round on Thursday as Rousseau went to the Buffalo Bills with the 30th pick.
Roche, tight end Brevin Jordan and kicker Jose Borregales are still available to be drafted over the draft’s upcoming six rounds.