MIAMI GARDENS — Things look a bit brighter at the Miami Dolphins’ training facility — not just for the defense, but for defensive tackle Zach Sieler, who returned to practice Thursday for the first time since suffering a fractured orbital bone two weeks ago.
Sieler said he still isn’t sure exactly how it occurred or who poked him in the eye, but there was no mistaking the result of the blow.
“It was just kind of dark,” he said. “There’s no other way to say that.”
Outside of missing two games, which Sieler said “kills me,” he came away from the incident feeling lucky because there was no damage to his retina or cornea.
“It definitely was not an injury I ever expected to have to forego with football,” he said. “I was very fortunate. God looked out. My actual physical eyesight and everything ended up being all right. The biggest thing was the swelling. Once that started to calm down, I was able to work through what happened.”
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In one way, it was a career-changing situation.
“I’ll have a visor on for my wife for the rest of my career,” he said. “And she’s right, though.”
The Dolphins lost both games Sieler missed, against Arizona and Buffalo, to fall to 2-6 leading into Monday night’s game against the host Los Angeles Rams. Sieler said he hated to be working with the team most of the Arizona week before having to tell teammates that Thursday, “It’s on y’all this week.”
Sieler was happy that the defense held both opponents to fewer than 100 rushing yards but he knows the team must raise its game to get back in the playoff hunt.
“Urgency is a good word,” he said. “You know, we have no more time to mess around. I mean think 2-6, but we can still achieve what we want to achieve. We’ve just got to clean some things up and come together as a unit.”
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Sieler has made his share of impactful plays this season. He has 18 tackles, two sacks, three tackles for loss, five quarterback hits, an interception, a pass defensed and a fumble recovery.
There’s a reason players voted him a team captain.
“Everybody loves when Zach is out there,” linebacker Emmanuel Ogbah said. “He makes stuff go.”
Sieler also loves when Sieler is out there.
“I’d like to think I bring some energy to it,” he said, grinning.