There are certain positions on a football field where not hearing a player's name much can actually be a good thing. Cornerback, offensive line and long-snapper come to mind. Defensive tackle can belong in that group, too.
This season, second-year defensive tackle Jordan Phillips could become one of the Miami Dolphins ' most important defenders while barely making a dent in the stat sheet.
As a rookie, Phillips started 16 games while finishing with 34 tackles.
He finished the season without a sack, and Pro Football Focus credited him with only seven pressures on 186 pass-rush snaps.
But those numbers don't fully capture what Miami expects its 324-pound defensive tackle to do.
"Jordan is a guy that is not going to get enough credit because he kind of plays a position where the limelight is not going to be on him," Dolphins head coach Jeff Hafley said. "He's going to be taking on double teams. He's going to be doing the grunt work and keeping the linebackers clean, pushing the pocket and the stats might not be there but the cool thing about him is he just embraces that role."
The Maryland product could play a significant role in how Miami's defense rebounds from its struggles against the run last year.
Now entering his second year, Phillips seems intent on making a jump.
"Obviously the players have this weekend off," Hafley said. "Jordan will be in the sauna at 5 a.m. tomorrow and probably lifting weights and then taking himself through - I mean, he just doesn't stop. I got a lot of respect for him."
The Dolphins allowed 2,251 rushing yards and 4.8 yards per carry in 2025, finishing among the league's bottom-ten teams in each category.
Improving those numbers doesn't require Phillips to become a high-volume run-stopper.
On most snaps, his job starts with occupying blockers rather than escaping them.
If Phillips can anchor against a center and guard without getting displaced, neither blocker can immediately climb to the second level to complete the combo block and get his hands on Jordyn Brooks or Jacob Rodriguez.
It's basically what former Dolphins D-tackle Tim Bowens did for so many years for Hall of Famer Zach Thomas, and he did it without much fanfare even as Thomas kept telling everybody how important Bowens was to him.
Phillips' strength is most apparent when offenses leave him one-on-one, which is why it rarely happens.
During one-on-one drills throughout camp, the 22-year-old repeatedly got underneath blockers' pads and extended his arms to essentially forklift them backward.
Even if the sacks don't come, Phillips' ability to generate immediate push off the line of scrimmage could still translate into more overall pressure.
He doesn't always have to beat a blocker cleanly and reach the quarterback himself. Driving the pocket backward can force the quarterback into the arms of Miami's edge rushers.
Phillips' development is difficult to judge strictly through traditional production.
There's no tackle awarded for keeping Brooks and Rodriguez clean. There is no sack credited for pushing a quarterback into Chop Robinson or Josh Uche . And absorbing a double team successfully doesn't appear in a box score.
Given the reckless abandon with which he plays, Phillips appears perfectly comfortable in that kind of role.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/nfl/dolphins/onsi as How Miami Dolphins DT Jordan Phillips Quietly Could Become a Star (Like a Newer Tim Bowens) .
