NFL cutdown day is forcing every team to make hard decisions, but the Miami Dolphins may be staring at one in a place most clubs hope never to touch: punter.
As rosters shrink from 90 players to 53 by 6 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, Miami’s preseason has left a lingering question about Bradley Pinion.
The concern hasn’t come out of nowhere. It’s been building all summer, and it showed up again in the Dolphins’ preseason finale against the Atlanta Falcons.
Pinion’s night against Atlanta was a mixed bag. He had punts of 60 yards, 53 yards, 51 yards, 33 yards, and 36 yards.
The big kicks are there. So are the ugly ones.
That uneven profile has become the story of Miami’s special teams, and Pinion sits right at the center of it.
The concern started in the opener against the Washington Commanders, when Pinion’s performance looked shaky enough to raise alarms. It carried into the second preseason game against the New York Giants, when the entire special teams operation looked out of sync. By the end of the Falcons game, the unease was still there.
That unease isn’t limited to punts, either. Pinion has also been handling the holds on field goal attempts, and those snaps have not always gone smoothly.
On one attempt, he didn’t field the snap cleanly and had to rush the operation before Riley Patterson connected on an awkward-looking kick that knuckled through the air. On another, a snap issue contributed to a blocked field goal.
Long snapper Tucker Addington is part of that mess, too, but Pinion’s role in it has only sharpened the scrutiny.
If Miami decides it needs a change, the options are limited but real. Among the available punters are Thomas Morstead, Jamie Gillan, Mitch Wishnowsky, and Nik Constantinou.
Morstead, who was drafted by the New Orleans Saints in the fifth round of the 2009 NFL Draft, is heading toward his 18th season. He owns a career average of 46.7 yards per kick and averaged 46.4 yards per kick in 2022 with the Dolphins.
Gillan was released by the Giants in March after four seasons there. He entered the league as an undrafted free agent in 2019 out of the University of Arkansas - Pine Bluff and spent three seasons with the Cleveland Browns, with a brief practice squad stop with the Buffalo Bills near the end of the 2021 season. His career average is 45.2 yards per punt.
Wishnowsky is expected to be cut by the Bills as they trim their roster, according to Tom Pelissero. He spent his first six NFL seasons with the San Francisco 49ers before last year in Buffalo. The fourth-round pick out of Utah in the 2019 NFL Draft has a career punting average of 45.5 yards.
Constantinou was waived by the Browns on Saturday. He had been one of two punters in Cleveland camp after previously signing with the Denver Broncos as an undrafted rookie in 2024, then spending two years in the Canadian Football League before returning to the NFL on a futures deal with the Browns.
Cleveland still has a decision to make at punter, even after letting Constantinou go. Corey Bojorquez and Wes Phal are both on the roster, a setup that runs against the way most teams handle the position.
New England is in a similar spot. The Patriots are carrying two punters as well, with Bryce Baringer as the starter through the preseason until an injury last week prompted the team to sign Matt Haack after he was cut by Washington.
If Baringer is healthy enough to take back the job, Haack could be on Miami’s radar. He began his career with the Dolphins after signing as an undrafted free agent out of Arizona State and played his first four of nine seasons in Miami.
His career average is 45.0 yards per punt.
Pinion has averaged 45.6 yards per punt this preseason, a number that would have ranked 25th in the league last year. That’s not the kind of stability a team wants when it’s leaning on younger players and rookies to grow together on offense. Miami needs its punter to flip the field and remove doubt from the operation.
Right now, that trust isn’t there. The Dolphins can’t spend the season wondering whether the next punt will sail more than 60 yards or barely clear 30.
They can’t keep worrying about the holds, either. If the coaching staff believes a more dependable option is available, a move at punter is on the table.
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