If you watched the Dolphins’ final preseason contest — a 14-6 victory for Miami over the Jacksonville Jaguars — you may have noticed that All-Pro kicker Jason Sanders was not doing the kicking for the team and instead, punter Jake Bailey handled those duties. Following the game, head coach Mike McDaniel intimated that the reason for that was a minor injury to the 29-year-old Sanders.
On Monday, McDaniel updated Sanders’ injury status, and the ailment seems to be more serious than initially thought. Miami’s head coach told media members in attendance that Jason Sanders would miss the beginning of the 2025 NFL Season.
The good news is that McDaniel also shared that Sanders’ injury isn’t season-ending and does not require surgery. Still, for a team that was hoping for some positive regression on the injury front, losing your star kicker for any amount of time does not fall into that category.
Soon after the Dolphins head coach spoke with the media, renowned NFL insider, Adam Schefter updated Sanders’ return-to-play timeline:
The Dolphins will now need to go shopping for a kicker — with plenty of noteworthy names available. Eddy Pineiro was 22 for 26 with the Carolina Panthers last season — nailing 11 of 14 kicks from 50+ yards out.
Nick Folk (40) and Matt Prater (41) are getting long in the tooth, but would provide some stability at the position until Sanders is healthy enough to return.
Of course, the team could treat the position like they did the longsnapper position last year — stashing any signed kicker on the practice squad and elevating that player for game day. That can be done a maximum of three times per player.
Sanders joined the Dolphins as a 7th round draft pick in 2018. He has a career 84.6% conversion rate on field goals with a career long of 57-yards, connecting from that distance each of the past two seasons. His All-Pro season came in 2020.
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