Miami, FL
Jaguars vs. Dolphins Won’t Include Odell Beckham Jr.
The Jacksonville Jaguars are already set to face a banged-up Miami Dolphins team in Week 1, and yet another Dolphins weapon has been ruled out this week.
Dolphins wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. will start the season on the Reserve/PUP list, which means he will miss at least the first four games. Beckham is the second big-name veteran the Dolphins placed on the list, following pass-rusher Bradley Chubb.
“We were very hopeful that it would be around week one here, and to be honest with you guys, we put him down,” Dolphins general manager Chris Grier said, via Dolphins On SI. “He did not want to go down. And he is very close. You guys have seen glimpses of him running around outside, doing stuff. He’s very close. But for us, it was a long play. We didn’t want him to rush back, feeling that he had to rush back, and then something happened and set us back.
“So this was more Mike and I sitting down talking with (head athletic trainer Kyle Johnston), the trainers, and we just felt what’s best for him. long haul to help us here win games is to put them down for a little bit right now.”
While Beckham is not Tyreek Hill or Jaylen Waddle at this stage of his career, this does mean the Jaguars have one less weapon to worry about next Sunday.
With the Jaguars’ tough slate over the first month of the season, every advantage they can get Week 1 will matter.
“Treat every day like it’s Sunday so Sunday is not different. We want to wear the same gear, same—look, that’s easy to say, right? But if you can take that approach and the mindset that when Sunday comes, I’m ready to go,” Jaguars defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen said on Wednesday.
“The indecision and things like that create kind of uneasiness for the player. We want everything to look and sound and everything to be as close as we can to Sunday, so the player shows up, he knows his alignments and assignments and he goes and plays a million miles an hour and plays fast and executes. That’s really important. In this league, you have to execute. Execute, play fast, play hard, play tough, violent, those things like that. We want to do that every single day, so it’s not different on Sunday.”