Dion Jordan said Sunday that he isn't worried about redeeming his name, or altering anyone's perception of who he is as a football player, and a person.

He's not thinking about possibly being one of the Miami Dolphins' biggest draft busts in franchise history based on his two suspensions for violating the NFL's Policy and Program on Substances of Abuse.

After spending a year banned from the game and the Dolphins' facility, Jordan said his focus is on making each day better than the last, and figuring out what he needs to do to become a contributor to the team.

"I'm a young man. I made mistakes," said Jordan, who added that his last suspension was caused by a diluted urine sample.

He appealed to be reinstated in June and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell granted him a conditional reinstatement Friday. He hasn't been cleared to play in a regular-season game, but appears to be on the right track.

"I'm going to learn from them," said Jordan referring to his past mistakes which have cost him 22 games, and could put him $3.3 million in debt to the Dolphins if he has to refund a portion of the $13.3 million signing bonus he received in 2013.

"Once I get out here and I have a chance to compete with these fellas I'm going to use everything that I've learned since I've been out to help the young players and myself moving forward," said Jordan, who has contributed 46 tackles, three sacks and three pass deflections in the 26 regular-season games he's played.

Jordan and the Dolphins will have to wait a while to see what type of impact he could have on the football field because of a knee procedure he underwent earlier this summer that prevented him from passing the team's physical.

Jordan was placed on the non-football injury list, which means he can rehab with the team, but doesn't count against the training camp roster.

Jordan also won't count against the team's 53-man, regular-season roster if he isn't taken off that list. However, he can't practice with the team until he is.

"That was news to us," Dolphins coach Adam Gase said about Jordan's knee surgery. "When you don't have contact with someone for as a long as we did, you don't know every little detail about what was going on."

Gase said Jordan is medically on the same recovery timetable as cornerback Xavien Howard, who is expected to be cleared to return in time for the Sept. 11 season opener against Seattle.

Gase said he had a brief conversation with Jordan and told him he'll be treated like every other player.

"He has a fresh start with me, and whatever's happened in the past is irrelevant. Moving forward, his job is to do everything he's been told to do right ... that checklist is fairly long. We've got a lot of steps going forward. We're here to support him."

Jordan said he weighs around 275 pounds. In past seasons he was long and lean. Now he's thicker, which raises some concerns about his ability to drop back into coverage, which was how he was primarily used in the past.

The Dolphins fortified their defensive line this offseason, signing defensive ends Mario Williams, Andre Branch and Jason Jones as free agents, and Chris McCain was moved from linebacker to defensive end. The Dolphins are relatively thin at linebacker, but it's unclear if Jordan can handle that workload.

When asked where he'd prefer to be utilized Jordan was coy, and said "on defense."

At this point, his focus is familiarizing himself with his new coaches, new teammates, and the new defensive scheme.

"It's a lot of new faces. Everything just kind of seems brand new," said Jordan, who will earn a $585,000 base salary this season. "I'm just excited to be out here, be around the guys in the locker room and just have that opportunity to compete once again."

Whether Jordan gets cleared to play in the regular season will be determined by how fine a line he walks on his road back to redemption.

"I'm just a good person overall. I had a couple of bumps and I had to overcome them," Jordan said. "It's part of my journey as a person, first of all, and as a football player second."