Injuries are inevitable in the NFL, but for the Miami Dolphins unfortunately those have included this year losing two key players to season-ending injuries before reaching the halfway point.

Defensive tackle Zach Sieler was placed on injured reserve Tuesday, joining running back De'Von Achane on the sidelines for the remainder of the season, Sieler with a biceps injury and Achane with a torn ACL.

These were two of the most prominent players on a young, rebuilding Dolphins team already lacking in proven talent, so they're just not minimizing the impact of each loss.

Unfortunately, this continues a trend of front-line players the Dolphins have lost for the season before reaching the halfway point.

Over the past 10 years, you almost invariably can count on a key starter going down early, and sometimes it's more.

But how do the losses of Sieler and earlier Achane compare to some of the major losses the Dolphins have suffered in the past 10 years.

Here's our ranking of the top 10 most impactful injuries for the Dolphins since 2017, with the stipulation being that the injury occur in the first half of the season and based on positional value and player quality.

COUNTING DOWN THE 10 MOST IMPACTFUL SEASON-ENDING INJURIES OF THE PAST 10 YEARS

10. WR Will Fuller, 2021 — The Dolphins wide receiver corps in Tua Tagovailoa's second season got a boost with the addition of Jaylen Waddle in the first round of the draft, but Fuller also was supposed to help with his speed after arriving as a free agent from Houston. Instead, he sustained a finger injury in his second game with the Dolphins and never played again in the NFL.

9. G James Daniels, 2025 — Daniels was supposed to help solidify the Dolphins offensive line, but his first and only start for Miami lasted all of four plays. His absence was supposed to last a month or so, but he never came back and the Dolphins were left with trying to find an answer at right guard.

8. S Reshad Jones, 2019 — Jones easily was one of the Dolphins' best players of the 2010s and he was one of the remaining veterans on the rebuilding 2019 team, though he was done after four games.

7. CB Xavien Howard, 2019 — Similar to Jones, Howard was among those established players on that very young 2019 team, but an early knee injury slowed him down until he wound up on IR.

6. G Josh Sitton, 2018 — Sitton was a four-time Pro Bowl guard who really was going to help the Dolphins offensive line, but instead wound up on IR after sustaining a shoulder injury in the season opener and that became the end of his 11-year NFL career.

5. QB Ryan Tannehill, 2017 — Normally, we'd put losing a starting quarterback early in training camp higher on this kind of list, but the Dolphins were able to recover nicely by signing Jay Cutler, who turned in a performance similar to what Miami likely would have gotten from Tannehill.

4. OLB Jaelan Phillips, 2024 — The Dolphins already were going to play the 2024 season without Bradley Chubb as he continues his comeback from his brutal December 2023 knee injury, but then Phillips' own comeback from an Achilles injury ended with a torn ACL in the Week 4 Monday night game. And, just like that, the Dolphins found themselves struggling for pass-rushing help.

3. DT Zach Sieler, 2026 — Besides being easily the best interior defensive lineman on the team, Sieler also will be missed for his leaderhip and mentorship of a very young group at his position.

2. RB De’Von Achane, 2026 — It's a tough call here between Sieler and Achane, but we put Achane higher on our countdown because he was such a focal point for the offense, not only this year but the past two seasons as well. And in a group with so many young, unestablished players, he was the one player the Dolphins couldn't afford to lose.

1. WR Tyreek Hill, 2025 — An argument could be made that Hill shouldn't be No. 1 on the list because the Dolphins were 0-3 when he went down with that catastrophic knee injury last September, but the offense had had its moments in those three games and it just wasn't the same after Hill and his big-play threat were gone.