How Much Did Injuries Hurt the Dolphins in 2025?

Injuries are part of life in the NFL, and to be sure the Miami Dolphins had their fair share of them during the 2025 season.

And those injuries obviously played a role in the team's disappointing 7-10 record.

But every team has to deal with injuries, and the question becomes: How hard were the Dolphins hit by injuries compared to other teams?

Also, what teams were able to overcome their injuries better than others?

Based on an annual report done by Over The Cap's Jason Fitzgerald, the Dolphins came in fourth in the NFL in 2025 for adjusted average annual salary for players on a reserve list, whether it be IR, PUP, NFI, suspended list or Retired list. They ranked fifth in terms of percentage of the total APY that went to players while they were on reserve lists.

The Dolphins had a total of 25 players who spent time or the entire 2025 season on a reserve list, a figure that ranked fifth in the NFL, behind the Arizona Cardinals' 32, the New York Giants' 28, the Detroit Lions' 27 and the New York Jets' 26.

Perhaps not coincidentally, none of those teams made the playoffs.

But two teams that did make the playoffs ranked first and fourth in the percentage of total APY going to players on reserve lists, those teams being the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Chargers, respectively.

The 49ers played a good chunk of the season without QB Brock Purdy and lost defensive stars Nick Bosa and Fred Warner midway through the year. The Chargers, meanwhile, lost their two starting tackles, Rashawn Slater in training camp and Joe Alt early in the season.

The Dolphins' list of 25 players who spent all or part of the 2025 season on a reserve list consisted of WR Tyreek Hill, K Jason Sanders, CB Kader Kohou, G James Daniels, DT Benito Jones, TE Darren Waller, CB Jason Marshall Jr., OL Andrew Meyer, T Austin Jackson, CB JuJu Brents, DB Elijah Campbell, RB Alexander Mattison, WR Dee Eskridge, CB Storm Duck, CB Artie Burns, T Yodny Cajuste, T Germain Ifedi, TE Jalin Conyers, CB Jason Maitre, T Obinna Eze, LB Jordan Colbert, LB Caleb Johnson, CB Isaiah Johnson, OL Liam Eichenberg and tackle Terron Armstead (reserve/retired list).

Marshall, Meyer and Jackson all had stints on injured reserve before being activated and finishing the season on the 53-man roster.

RANKING THE DOLPHINS' MOST SIGNIFICANT INJURIES

Among those players who landed on IR, Kohou, Mattison, Burns, Cajuste, Sanders, Ifedi, Conyers, Maitre and Eze all were injured before the start of the regular season and never played a down for Miami in 2025.

The others got injured at some point during the season.

But what were the most damaging injuries?

Here's our ranking of the top five:

1. WR Tyreek Hill — There's no other choice and this went beyond Hill's production and ability to change a game very quickly, it also about how he made everything easier for the offense because of the attention he always commands. Losing him to that knee injury in Week 4 was a massive blow.

2. CB Kader Kohou — The Dolphins were expecting the former rookie free agent to take a big step in his fourth season and anchor the cornerback room after the departures of Jalen Ramsey and Kendall Fuller, but instead his season ended with a bad step while covering Hill in a camp practice.

3. G James Daniels — The Dolphins offensive line ended up performing probably better than most observers might have anticipated, but it clearly would have helped to have the team's biggest free agent acquisition in the lineup for more than three whole snaps.

4. TE Darren Waller — Waller played by far the most games (9) of any of this list so far, but just think what he could have done over a whole season after catching six touchdown passes in his limited time.

5. CB Storm Duck — It might be easy to forget, but Duck actually won a starting cornerback job out of training camp when he looked really good.