The Miami Dolphins didn’t wait long to keep reshaping their roster after cutdown day.
A day after the initial 53-man group was set, Miami added another player in edge Malik Herring and had already been awarded seven players off waivers: quarterback Brady Cook, tight end Justin Joly, cornerback Marcellas Dial Jr., tackle Chukwuebuka Godrick, tackle Jarrett Kingston, cornerback Reese Taylor and safety Julius Wood.
To make all of that work, the Dolphins cleared out several names from the roster. Edge Clelin Ferrell and cornerback A.J.
Green III were released, while cornerback Ethan Bonner, tackle Marques Cox, wide receiver AJ Henning, edge Max Llewellyn and guard/tackle Josh Priebe were waived. Tight end Ben Sims was waived/injured.
That churn left Miami’s position groups looking like this: three quarterbacks in Malik Willis, Kyle McCord and Brady Cook; four running backs in De'Von Achane, Jaylen Wright, Ollie Gordon II and FB DJ Herman; six receivers in Malik Washington, Caleb Douglas, Chris Bell, Kevin Coleman Jr., Jalen Tolbert and Ryan Miller; four tight ends in Greg Dulcich, Will Kacmarek, Seydou Traore and Justin Joly; 10 offensive linemen; four defensive linemen; four edge players; six linebackers; five cornerbacks; four safeties; and three specialists.
Herring, listed at 6-3 and 275, spent the last four seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs after signing as an undrafted free agent in 2021. His draft stock took a major hit when he tore an ACL in the Senior Bowl in January 2021.
He spent his entire rookie year on injured reserve while recovering, then appeared in 28 games over the next four seasons with one start, which came in 2023. Last season he played just six defensive snaps in two games before being waived and later re-signing to the practice squad.
He joined the Tennessee Titans this offseason but was released Sunday.
Herring will turn 29 in November, which makes him one of the oldest players on Miami’s 53-man roster.
Ferrell was the biggest name to go out the door. The former No. 4 overall pick in the 2019 draft had been dealing with an undisclosed injury for a couple of weeks, and his status had become murky after what had been a solid enough start to his Dolphins stint. He was around the team at practice and participated in stretching, but he never made it back onto the field after head coach Jeff Hafley labeled him “week to week.”
The moves also ended Miami’s run of keeping all 13 draft picks either on the initial 53-man roster or on injured reserve with Trey Moore. Llewellyn’s departure changed that.
Llewellyn had started slowly in camp, then picked up steam late, and he looks like a candidate to return to the practice squad if he clears waivers. His exit, along with Ferrell’s and Herring’s arrival, left the Dolphins with only four edge defenders and four interior defensive linemen.
Those are light numbers. On the other side, Miami still has 10 offensive linemen, which is a lot.
At cornerback, the Dolphins had already made clear there wasn’t much separation once you got past rookie first-round pick Chris Johnson, JuJu Brents and Jason Marshall Jr., so Bonner and Green being moved on from a day after the initial roster was finalized wasn’t exactly a shock. Both could circle back to the practice squad if they clear waivers.
Safety was a different story. Miami needed help there badly, because three simply wasn’t enough, even with Kyle Louis still listed at linebacker on the roster.
And then there was Sims. Waiving him injured instead of stashing him on injured reserve and deciding later whether to move on or designate him to return stood out as a surprise, especially since he had apparently made a strong impression before getting hurt. The Dolphins clearly did not need to take that route unless they had decided they wanted to move on from him.
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