Miami Dolphins running back Raheem Mostert missed the team’s Week 2 game against the Buffalo Bills on Thursday Night Football.
What happened to Mostert? How long will the veteran running back be sidelined, and who will the Dolphins lean on while he’s out?
What Is Raheem Mostert’s Injury?
The Dolphins ruled out Mostert due to a chest injury that he suffered in Week 1 against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Mostert got hurt early in the Jaguars game and tried to work through it, according to Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel. McDaniel said that “most people” don’t play through the injury he suffered and added that the short week was a factor in Mostert being ruled out against the Bills.
“My sense is it’s not something that time won’t take care of,” McDaniel said on Wednesday. “However, I’m definitely not going to make him worse [by putting him at risk].”
Former Chargers team doctor David Chao (who now runs Sports Injury Central) said on X that he believes Mostert suffered a sternoclavicular joint sprain.
How Long Will Mostert Be Sidelined?
In addition to missing the Week 2 contest against Buffalo on Thursday Night Football, Dr. Chao believes that Mostert is “likely to miss Week 3 at least as well, but hopefully stay off of injured reserve.”
Raheem Mostert has been ruled OUT for Thursday Night Football. @profootballdoc expects him to miss next week as well but avoid IR.
➡️https://t.co/tSyCatyFKU pic.twitter.com/16cViG1Aal
— Sports Injury Central (@SICscore) September 11, 2024
This lines up with what NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported on Thursday, when he said that Mostert “is not expected to be placed on injured reserve.”
“His injury is not considered to be season-ending or long-term, and Mostert should be back sooner rather than later,” Rapoport added.
It sounds like Mostert may miss Week 3 (and potentially Week 4) before returning to the lineup.
Who Will Step Up in Mostert’s Absence?
The biggest beneficiary of Mostert being out will be De’Von Achane, who was Miami’s lead back in Week 1, finishing the game with 10 rushes for 24 yards and a touchdown while also catching seven passes for 76 yards. In Week 2, he racked up 96 rushing yards on 22 carries while also catching seven passes for 69 yards and a touchdown.
Behind Achane and Mostert are rookie Jaylen Wright and veteran Jeff Wilson Jr.
Wright was taken in the fourth round of the 2024 NFL Draft out of Tennessee. He showed up on NFL teams’ radars following his 1,013-yard season with the Volunteers in 2023. He also improved his rushing yardage total in his three seasons in Knoxville while scoring 18 career touchdowns on the ground.
Pro Football Network NFL Draft Analyst Ian Cummings described Wright as a back with “quantifiably elite speed and explosiveness” while also calling him “one of the top RBs of this class” in his evaluation of the 5’11”, 209-pound back.
Miami clearly drafted Wright to improve the team’s depth and add another speed option out of the backfield. If Mostert is sidelined for a bit, Wright may need to step up sooner than expected after being a healthy scratch in Week 1 against Jacksonville. In Week 2, Wright made his NFL debut, rushing five times for just four yards.
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If McDaniel opts to go the veteran route to put less pressure on Wright, Wilson is an option he’s grown awfully familiar with over the years.
McDaniel and Wilson first met in the Bay Area with the San Francisco 49ers. Even in rotational duty, Wilson proved to be a trusted option for the Niners’ former run game coordinator, tallying 1,733 rushing yards from 2018 to 2022. Of those yards, 1,265 came while McDaniel was on Kyle Shanahan’s coaching staff before he took the Dolphins’ job in 2022.
McDaniel helped orchestrate the trade to nab Wilson in November 2022 to bolster Miami’s running game. That move also reunited former teammates Wilson and Mostert. Once inserted into the Dolphins’ rushing attack in 2022, Wilson responded with 392 yards and three touchdowns.
Wilson has five career 100-yard games and earned his fifth during his second game as a Dolphin, a 17-carry, 119-yard performance against the Cleveland Browns on Nov. 13, 2022.
With a promising rookie and reliable veteran, McDaniel has two solid options in the event that Mostert is sidelined for several weeks.