Dolphins’ McDaniel addresses Hill and other injuries, the team’s weather decision, more

Receiver Tyreek Hill is dealing with a quadriceps injury, but Mike McDaniel said Wednesday that he’s not concerned about his status for Saturday’s wild card playoff game at Kansas City (8 p.m., NBC-6, Peacock).

“Should I be concerned about Tyreek Hill this week? Probably not. I had no idea about any quad until there was an injury report,” McDaniel said.

Because he took a hard hit on a reception on the previous play, Hill wasn’t on the field when Tua Tagovailoa’s pass (intended for Chase Claypool) was intercepted late in Sunday’s loss to Buffalo.

The Dolphins say Hill would have been able to practice on limited basis Tuesday if team had practiced Tuesday. Miami is doing a walk-through on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, safety DeShon Elliott - who is dealing with a calf injury sustained in warmups before the Buffalo game - will not practice on Wednesday, but McDaniel said “we’re hopeful he will be able to get himself right for game day.”

The Dolphins also hope that safety Jevon Holland - who is dealing with knee injuries - also will be able to play on Saturday.

Elliott and Holland played Sunday against Buffalo but did not play as much as usual.

McDaniel has said that he’s optimistic that running back Raheem Mostert and receiver Jaylen Waddle will play Saturday after missing two games with ankle injuries.

WEATHER PLAN

NBC predicts near zero temperatures at kickoff of the Dolphins-Chiefs playoff game in Kansas City on Saturday, which would make it one of the coldest games in NFL history.

McDaniel was asked Wednesday why the team is practicing in South Florida this week, as opposed to practicing in Kansas City on Thursday night and doing a walk-through in Missouri on Friday night.

McDaniel cited the need for the injured players to have “the best access for rehabilitation and all those resources” at the team’s training facilities at Dolphins headquarters, and also cited Miami’s strong play in its 32-29 loss to Buffalo in snow flurries in a Saturday night game last December. The Dolphins practiced all week in Miami before that game.

“Last season in Buffalo, that game influenced me a little bit too,” McDaniel said. Going into “that game, 30 or 40 percent of the team hadn’t ever played [in temperatures] under 50 and it was unchartered territory. So we spent a good amount of time talking through that. Individuals who never played in the cold, their response [in that Bills game allayed] my worries.”

McDaniel said playing in that type of Arctic conditions “can be an excuse or something that galvanizes a team because you’re going through it together. I’m excited to go do that with the team.”

Though the Dolphins can lower temperatures inside their indoor practice facility to 50 degrees, McDaniel said, half-jokingly, that doing that would be “insulting to the weather” in Kansas City.

“I’m confident our guys will be up for the challenge,” McDaniel said. “It’s going to be a prime time game at Arrowhead [Stadium]. I just got goose bumps now” thinking about that.

McDaniel addressed other issues in his Wednesday media briefing:

▪ On adding outside linebackers Justin Houston, Bruce Irvin and practice squad player Malik Reed on Tuesday: “That’s a unique challenge. We’re up to the challenge to get these guys up to speed as quickly as possible.

“We’re fortunate there’s overlap in scheme [from their past teams]. We can have guys join the team that I’m not going to have to inspire to understand what the moment is.”

Houston and Irvin are late in their careers. How did the team know that they have something left?

“The old eye test,” McDaniel said. “You put [those] guys through a workout and see where they’re at. You standardize those workouts over time so you can have a relative appreciation for what guys are doing.

“There had been [previous] discussions [with these players or their agents] in terms of where they’re at. [General manager] Chris Grier is always preparing for the worst.”

The Dolphins’ top three outside linebackers - Bradley Chubb, Jaelan Phillips and Andrew Van Ginkel - are out Saturday because of season-ending injuries. Before Houston and Irvin were signed, Emmanuel Ogbah and Melvin Ingram were the team’s only healthy outside linebackers.

Ingram was moved from the practice squad to the 53-man roster on Wednesday. Houston, Irvin and Ingram filled the 53-man roster spots of Jerome Baker, Van Ginkel and Cameron Goode, who were all placed on season-ending injured reserve.

▪ Kansas City ranked second in the league this season in yards allowed and points permitted.

McDaniel said Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo “is never afraid to be bold. He was blitzing corners when that wasn’t necessarily in vogue in the early 2000s. His system is his own and has answers for pretty much everything, which keeps you off balance.

“You will see coverage and you will see blitz. It’s not like blitzing is necessarily a bad thing to face. There are times I actually prefer that, because if you’re on your Ps and Qs, there’s less field covered. But everything has to be coordinator; a lot of time it can be a big play for either team. It just depends on who is executing better.

“They have a top five defense... and play like it every week.”