DAVIE, Fla. -- The Miami Dolphins placed former first-round pick Dion Jordan on the non-football injury list Sunday.
Dolphins coach Adam Gase said that Jordan suffered a knee injury, and his timeline to return could be several weeks. The team wasn't aware of the injury until recently, and Jordan didn't elaborate to the media Sunday on how he was injured.
"Him coming in here, that [injury] was news to us," Gase said. "When you don't have contact with somebody for as long as we did, you don't know every little detail of what's going on. So that was the decision that we had to make and we'll see how every goes moving forward."
Jordan was conditionally reinstated by the NFL following his one-year suspension for violating the NFL's substance-abuse policy. The move to the NFI list also has financial implications for Jordan. He would have been due a roster bonus of $1.69 million on the fifth day of the league year if he were on the active roster. However, being put on the NFI list means Jordan will not cash in on that bonus on Monday.
Jordan hasn't played a game since December 2014 and has a lot of catching up to do. He is expected to join a deep group of defensive ends that includes veteran Andre Branch and former Pro Bowl players Mario Williams and Cameron Wake. An area where Jordan also can eventually help is special teams.
"I'm happy to be in the building. It's a lot of new faces," Jordan said. "Things seem kind of brand new. For me, I'm excited to be here and around the guys in the locker room and have the opportunity to compete."
Jordan said he was always confident that he would return.
"I never had doubt. I'm a hard worker on the field, first of all," he said. "I feel they've seen that with my play that I was doing while I was here. But I'm just a good person overall. I had a couple of bumps and I've had to overcome them. That's part of my journey as a person first of all and as a football player second."
Jordan also said he missed the game.
"It was tough. All of it was tough, I feel, being away from the game the whole year," he said. "But I knew I wanted to come back and I wanted to prove to myself first and foremost, and other people in this organization that I can be a big factor once I get out here. So I just put my mind to it. I trained real hard and I'm here."
The Dolphins also activated veteran running back Arian Foster from the physically unable to perform list. Sunday will mark his first practice with his new team after spending seven seasons with the Houston Texans.