The Miami Dolphins will have to finish the 2016 season without veteran safety Reshad Jones, the team's top defensive playmaker.
Jones will be placed on injured reserve because of a rotator cuff injury he suffered in Miami's 30-15 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday. Jones sought a second opinion, which confirmed that the shoulder injury will require surgery.
"We won't get him back this season," Dolphins coach Adam Gase said. "It's a big impact. ... The thing we have to do now is we have to step up. Guys have got to move into some positions here that they need to make some plays and we've got to play great team defense."
This is the first time Jones, 28, has suffered a season-ending injury in his seven-year NFL career.
Jones, a 2015 Pro Bowl selection who has 50 tackles, half a sack and one interception in six games this season, has been dealing with shoulder soreness for weeks.
Last week Jones, the team's leading tackler in 2015, skipped all of Miami's practices because of a groin strain. But he played against Pittsburgh, contributing five tackles and his first interception of the season.
The Dolphins will be forced to go with some combination of Isa Abdul-Quddus, Michael Thomas and Walt Aikens as the starting safeties.
"We'll go through this week of practice and kind of figure out what our best personnel package will be back there," Gase said. "We have a lot of moving pieces as far as what we like to do with defensive packages. We play a lot of different guys."
Abdul-Quddus, who has 32 tackles and two interceptions, could move to the strong safety spot, considering that's the position he's played most during his six-year NFL career. However, he's battling a knee injury.
Aikens, a core special teams contributor, has spent the past two seasons serving as Jones' understudy. But he struggled as a starter in 2015.
Thomas started 13 games at free safety last season, but has spent most of this year splitting his time between nickel cornerback and free safety. Against the Steelers, Thomas, who has 20 tackles, one sack and one forced fumble this season, split the free safety reps with Abdul-Quddus.
The Dolphins have a little over $7 million committed to Jones after this season. It's the final year of a five-year, $28 million contract extension Jones signed in 2013. But that money isn't guaranteed for injury.
With Jones, the Dolphins' secondary had three interceptions, was allowing 234.8 passing yards per game (23rd in the NFL), and opposing quarterbacks had a cumulative passer rating of 93.9 against them.
