Mike McDaniel provides injury updates on Austin Jackson and Cam Smith on Sunday

As with any training camp in recent years, the injury bug has continued to bite the Miami Dolphins. Kader Kohou suffered a season-ending knee injury last week. Jaelan Phillips had a brief scare but turned out to be alright with just a bruise. Most recently, starting right tackle Austin Jackson suffered a lower body injury that the NFL Network referred to as "weeks" for a timeframe.

Mike McDaniel addressed his big right tackle on Sunday during his meeting with the local media, and he gave some optimism that the Dolphins' offensive line could be intact come time for the season opener.

"He got the injury playing football, he got stepped on," McDaniel said. "Has nothing to do with anything but that, and with Austin, the bottom line for me where he's at - out of all the guys, I would say he had some time off. He knocked some rust off. He got back, and, in my opinion, exceeded where he was playing before. So, we're fortunate that that timetable doesn't appear to be into the regular season.

"Austin is projected to be starting Week One."

Meanwhile, cornerback Cam Smith has been off the field for a couple of days, and McDaniel was asked about his status and timeframe. McDaniel advised that Smith is day-to-day, but had some other words for his availability, or lack thereof.

"This is the story that - we're all awaiting his ability to stay on the field. So every time that there's a setback, we're trying to assess, but you're got to stay on the field to continue to develop. I like the stuff that he's doing in his development when he's on the field.

"Soon, later, I'm hoping the sooner the better. But yeah, days, not weeks."

Jackson missed the last nine games of the 2024 season with a knee injury, and missed basically all of the 2022 season, so something popping up already is concerning, even if just a freak accident as McDaniel indicated. It's a tough break for an offensive line looking to begin gelling as a group, as it sounds like it could be a situation that lingers right up until it's time to put toe to leather in games that matter.

Smith, meanwhile, is in the running for the boundary QB spot opposite Jack Jones, and it's not like he was at the top of the heap of candidates there either. So, every day he's on the sideline is a day his chances of winning the starting job that he should have seized diminish. From the words of McDaniel and Chris Grier this year, it sounds like his inability to stay on the field is wearing thin in their eyes.