The Miami Dolphins started filling out their roster Wednesday morning by bringing back a familiar name.
The team announced it had signed defensive tackle Keith Cooper Jr. from the Carolina Panthers practice squad, using one of the three openings created Tuesday by the moves involving Malik Willis, Zach Sieler and Reese Taylor.
Cooper opened the season on Miami’s 53-man roster after what was described as a somewhat surprising win over the competition, then went through a quick shuffle: waived, re-signed to the practice squad and later released before landing with Carolina. Now he’s back in the mix for the Dolphins, giving them a fourth defensive tackle alongside Jordan Phillips, Zeek Biggers and Kenneth Grant. That said, it’s not really accurate to frame him as a direct replacement for Sieler, who went on IR with a season-ending biceps injury.
The bigger roster math still points to two more moves, and both appear to be tied to quarterback and kicker. Miami is not likely to carry only Kyle McCord at quarterback on the 53, and veteran Zane Gonzalez has run out of practice squad elevations, which means the Dolphins either need to sign him to the active roster or bring in another kicker.
At quarterback, the cleanest path looks like elevating Brady Cook from the practice squad to the 53-man roster. Cook started the year there before being waived the day before the Week 5 game against the Cincinnati Bengals. When he was on the active roster, he handled emergency third-quarterback duties and never got into a game, while Willis took every snap before landing on IR Tuesday.
Miami isn’t going to sit with just two quarterbacks, so another arm is coming. The most likely route is a practice squad addition rather than pushing someone past Cook straight onto the 53. And if you’re trying to figure out who that could be, the Dolphins’ recent tryout list offers the best clues.
Over roughly the past month, Miami has looked at five quarterbacks, with former New England Patriots draft pick Bailey Zappe the most notable name in the group. The others were Connor Bazelak, who played at Missouri, Indiana and Bowling Green; Austin Reed from Southern Illinois, West Florida and Western Kentucky; Derek Robertson from Maine and Monmouth; and Jacob Clark from Minnesota and Missouri State. None of those four has thrown an NFL regular-season pass, though Reed did spend this spring in the UFL and led the league with 21 touchdown passes.
The kicking search has been just as active. This week’s tryouts included two kickers, among them nine-year veteran Daniel Carlson.
He played seven games for the New Orleans Saints this year and made 8 of 12 field goal attempts, with every miss coming from 50 yards or longer. Before that, he spent more than seven seasons with the Raiders and hit over 90 percent of his field goals in three straight years from 2020-22.
He also picked up AP All-Pro honors in 2021 and 2022.
Miami is sitting 28th in field goal percentage at 75 percent, which matches Carlson’s number this season. The difference is where the misses have come from: three of Miami’s four have been inside 50 yards.
The Dolphins also had Ben Sauls, from Pitt, in for a workout Tuesday. On the day they signed Gonzalez to the practice squad, they brought in four more kickers: former Chargers kicker Michael Badgley, former Rams kicker Joshua Karty, Will Fern from BYU and Justin Tucker, who has been on the KC Chiefs practice squad for the past two weeks but has not been elevated for a game.
If Miami goes with the most obvious fit based on résumé, Carlson looks like the logical choice. Another name to keep in mind is Lucas Havrisik, who tried out for the Dolphins earlier this year and went 4-for-4 for the Packers in 2025, including a long of 60 yards.
In Other News...
Dolphins Home Crowd Problem Is Becoming Impossible To Ignore
After the Week 9 loss, the conversation around the Dolphins shifted from the field to the stands, where visiting fans have become impossible to miss at home games. Players noticed it, too, with the atmosphere inside Hard Rock Stadium drawing attention for feeling far less like a true home setting than Miami would want, especially when the opponent brings a loud and visible crowd.
The bigger issue, according to the discussion around the team, is not a lack of interest in the Dolphins so much as the way tickets are getting into the market. Between pricing, aftermarket sales and the incentives around attendance, local fans are being pushed out while more out-of-town supporters find their way in. It leaves Miami with a home-field problem that goes beyond one game and points back to the way the team has chosen to sell the experience. [Read more 🡒]
Dolphins Are About To Learn A Lot From Kyle McCords Debut
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It is also a different kind of debut than the ones Miami has recently seen at quarterback, both in how McCord arrived and in the offensive environment around him. The draft pedigree is modest, the path here has been unusual, and the Dolphins are still trying to learn what they have after paying a future sixth-round pick to bring him in. Sunday should offer a clearer read on McCord, even if it may not answer every question right away. [Read more 🡒]
Dolphins Keep Earning Respect In One Area Fans Can Appreciate
Even with the record still looking rough, the Dolphins have continued to show something that tends to travel well from week to week: they are staying competitive. In a Week 9 review and Week 11 betting preview, Miami was singled out for the way it has kept games from getting away from it, a trait that matters both to the standings and to anyone trying to size up this team honestly.
That kind of respect does not erase the losses, but it does change the conversation around Miami as the schedule moves on. The bigger question now is whether that competitiveness can turn into something more tangible in the weeks ahead, especially with the kind of uneven NFL landscape that keeps creating opportunities for teams to break through or slip further back. [Read more 🡒]