MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Calais Campbell doesn't want to think too far ahead.
The veteran defensive tackle knows he will suit up for the Miami Dolphins against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday. Beyond that, he's not too sure.
“I'm cherishing this moment,” Campbell said after practice Wednesday. “I feel like this team is so much better than how we've been playing.”
The Dolphins nearly sent Campbell to Baltimore ahead of the trade deadline before coach Mike McDaniel stepped in and vetoed the move, making the argument that Miami — then 2-6 — had time to turn the season around.
“It speaks to what he means to the team, that teams would be willing to do that,” McDaniel said in November, “and there was some competition for that. But yeah, my job is to speak on behalf of what’s the best thing for the 2024 Dolphins.”
Campbell said Wednesday that he and the Dolphins could have conversations about releasing him so he can join a playoff contender if Miami (6-8) is eliminated from the postseason soon.
“Weeks back before the trade deadline and stuff, there was a small conversation that you really didn’t hope would ever even become a thing,” Campbell said. “And it was kind of like just something to talk about. Nothing concrete or anything like that. I don’t know if we're there just yet, but it’s definitely something you think about.”
After last week's loss at Houston, the playoffs are a long shot for the Dolphins. It is still mathematically possible for Miami to earn its third straight postseason berth if it wins the remaining three games on its schedule and gets help with other teams losing. The Dolphins host San Francisco on Sunday then close the season at Cleveland and the New York Jets.
Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa said Miami will need to move on from the disappointing loss against the Texans in which the offense turned the ball over four times, but he's seen nothing in the locker room to suggest that the team has given up on the season.
“I think what’s so cool is there’s so many guys that have played in the league for some time in this locker room,” Tagovailoa said, “to where they also understand the magnitude of ‘if I lay down,’ what that looks like. We all make a living playing this game.”
Campbell played for Baltimore from 2020-2022. He spent the first nine seasons of his 17-year career with Arizona, where he went to the Super Bowl and lost to Pittsburgh as a rookie in 2008. He has not been back to the Super Bowl.
Campbell said he doesn't “live with regret” when asked if he wished he would have joined a contending team back in November.
“There’s no wrong decision,” he said. "You just make a decision and you rock with it. ... I came here to the Dolphins with a year-long commitment to go out here and compete and try to make the playoffs. That job’s technically not done yet. We still have a shot, so, you know, I’m committed.”
Campbell is third on the Dolphins with four sacks. The six-time Pro Bowler has 43 tackles, 10 tackles for loss, five passes defensed and a forced fumble this season.
Campbell said he has considered retirement, but hasn't given much thought to the idea of returning for an 18th NFL season. If he keeps playing, he did not count out a potential return to Miami. He signed a one-year deal with the Dolphins back in June.
“This locker room, group of guys, coaching staff, I’ve had a great experience," Campbell said. "I wish we won a few more ball games this year, but it’s definitely a great place to play football. I've loved it here so far. Finishing the year strong and having a chance to make the playoffs would be sweet. If the time comes and I decide to play football again, this is definitely a place I love playing.”
Receiver Grant DuBose was expected to travel back from Houston on Wednesday after he was hospitalized from a hit to the head against the Texans on Sunday. Miami placed DuBose on injured reserve on Tuesday. ... WRs Tyreek Hill (wrist/rest) and Jaylen Waddle (knee), as well as offensive tackles Kendall Lamm (back) and Terron Armstead (knee) were among those who did not practice Wednesday. ... Tagovailoa was listed as limited with a hip injury.
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Miami Dolphins defensive tackle Calais Campbell (93) enter the field before an NFL football game against the New York Jets, Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
SEATTLE (AP) — The world's largest hornet, an invasive breed dubbed the “murder hornet” for its dangerous sting and ability to slaughter a honey bee hive in a matter of hours, has been declared eradicated in the U.S., five years after being spotted for the first time in Washington state near the Canadian border.
The Washington and U.S. Departments of Agriculture announced the eradication Wednesday, saying there had been no detections of the northern giant hornet in Washington since 2021.
The news represented an enormous success that included residents agreeing to place traps on their properties and reporting sightings, as well as researchers capturing a live hornet, attaching a tiny radio tracking tag to it with dental floss, and following it through a forest to a nest in an alder tree. Scientists destroyed the nest just as a number of queens were just beginning to emerge, officials said.
“I’ve gotta tell you, as an entomologist — I’ve been doing this for over 25 years now, and it is a rare day when the humans actually get to win one against the insects," Sven Spichiger, pest program manager of the Washington State Department of Agriculture, told a virtual news conference.
The hornets, which can be 2 inches (5 cm) long and were formerly called Asian giant hornets, gained attention in 2013, when they killed 42 people in China and seriously injured 1,675. In the U.S., around 72 people a year die from bee and hornet stings each year, according to data from the National Institutes of Health.
The hornets were first detected in North America in British Columbia, Canada, in August 2019 and confirmed in Washington state in December 2019, when a Whatcom County resident reported a specimen. A beekeeper also reported hives being attacked and turned over specimens in the summer of 2020. The hornets could have traveled to North America in plant pots or shipping containers, experts said.
DNA evidence suggested the populations found in British Columbia and Washington were not related and appeared to originate from different countries. There also have been no confirmed reports in British Columbia since 2021, and the nonprofit Invasive Species Centre in Canada has said the hornet is also considered eradicated there.
Northern giant hornets pose significant threats to pollinators and native insects. They can wipe out a honey bee hive in as little as 90 minutes, decapitating the bees and then defending the hive as their own, taking the brood to feed their own young.
The hornet can sting through most beekeeper suits, deliver nearly seven times the amount of venom as a honey bee, and sting multiple times. At one point the Washington agriculture department ordered special reinforced suits from China.
Washington is the only state that has had confirmed reports of northern giant hornets. Trappers found four nests in 2020 and 2021.
Spichiger said Washington will remain on the lookout, despite reporting the eradication. He noted that entomologists will continue to monitor traps in Kitsap County, where a resident reported an unconfirmed sighting in October but where trapping efforts and public outreach have come up empty.
He noted that other invasive hornets can also pose problems: Officials in Georgia and South Carolina are fighting yellow-legged hornets, and southern giant hornets were recently detected in Spain.
“We will continue to be vigilant,” Spichiger said.
FILE - Washington State Department of Agriculture workers, wearing protective suits and working in pre-dawn darkness illuminated with red lamps, vacuum a nest of Asian giant hornets from a tree Saturday, Oct. 24, 2020, in Blaine, Wash. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)
FILE - A Washington state Department of Agriculture worker holds two of the dozens of Asian giant hornets vacuumed from a tree Oct. 24, 2020, in Blaine, Wash. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)
FILE - Washington State Department of Agriculture entomologist Chris Looney, wearing a protective suit, fills a tree cavity with carbon dioxide after vacuuming a nest of Asian giant hornets from inside it Saturday, Oct. 24, 2020, in Blaine, Wash. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)
FILE - Sven Spichiger, Washington state Department of Agriculture managing entomologist, displays a canister of Asian giant hornets vacuumed from a nest in a tree behind him on Oct. 24, 2020, in Blaine, Wash. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)
FILE - Sven Spichiger, Washington state Department of Agriculture managing entomologist, displays a canister of Asian giant hornets vacuumed from a nest in a tree behind him Oct. 24, 2020, in Blaine, Wash. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)
FILE - A Washington state Department of Agriculture worker holds two of the dozens of Asian giant hornets vacuumed from a tree Oct. 24, 2020, in Blaine, Wash. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)
FILE - A Washington State Department of Agriculture worker displays an Asian giant hornet taken from a nest, Oct. 24, 2020, in Blaine, Wash. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)
