MIAMI GARDENS — Miami Dolphins linebacker Jaelan Phillips offered his most upbeat prognosis yet Thursday, saying he no longer feels like he’s coming off a torn Achilles and isn’t viewing this as a season with lowered personal expectations.

“I don’t see this as a ‘get-back’ year,” Phillips said. “I don’t see this as like getting my toe in the water. Like I’m coming, guns blazing.”

Phillips was injured in the Black Friday game against the New York Jets in the Meadowlands. The Dolphins activated him off the physically unable to perform list Aug. 12. He said he has experienced steady improvement over the past six weeks.

“Every time I would just start to add load and do new things, I would just kind of surprise myself with how my Achilles didn’t get sore,” he said.

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Critically for his style of play as an edge rusher, Phillips said, “Pushing off of it, there’s no rebound, there’s no weakness. It’s just explosive. It’s feeling great. So yeah, I just feel very grateful and blessed.”

Although he described the Achilles as “rock solid,” Phillips admitted he was uncertain what his recovery would be like, given his reliance on pushing off with the Achilles.

“When I first got hurt, I didn’t really know what to think,” he said. “I didn’t know what it was going to be like coming back. I heard a lot of people mention to me about confidence things and having like a mental block almost. But I haven’t had that issue at all. I’m fully confident and I don’t even feel hurt, honestly, so far.”

Dolphins reporter Hal Habib can be reached at  hhabib@pbpost.com. Follow him on social media @gunnerhal. Click here to subscribe.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Miami Dolphins' Jaelan Phillips says Achilles feels ’rock solid'