The Miami Dolphins close out the preseason on Friday night against the Atlanta Falcons at Hard Rock Stadium, and the timing could not be more important. With roster cuts to 53 players coming in just a couple of days, every snap in this one carries extra weight for players fighting to stick around.
This will also be the first preseason game for Miami without a joint practice leading into it. The Dolphins and Falcons go at it at 7:00 p.m. ET, and Dolphins Wire will be tracking the action throughout the night.
Miami is expected to be short-handed. According to NFL Network's Cameron Wolfe, the Dolphins won’t play Malik Willis, De'Von Achane and many other starters. Backup quarterback Quinn Ewers is also out because of a groin injury.
There’s already a prediction on the board for the matchup, and it doesn’t favor Miami. Even with Atlanta sitting its starters, the Dolphins are projected to come up short, 20-10.
The game is part of a big stretch for the Dolphins as they get ready to trim the roster and move toward the regular season. Miami’s 2026 schedule opens with a trip to the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday, Sept. 13 at 4:25 p.m. ET, followed by games at the San Francisco 49ers and against the Kansas City Chiefs in Weeks 2 and 3.
From there, the slate runs through matchups with the Minnesota Vikings, Cincinnati Bengals, New York Jets, New England Patriots, Detroit Lions, Indianapolis Colts, Buffalo Bills, and more, with a bye in Week 6. The schedule also includes late-season games against the Denver Broncos, Chicago Bears, Green Bay Packers, Los Angeles Chargers and Buffalo Bills to finish the year.
In Other News...
Dolphins Backfield Suddenly Has One Trade Question Fans Should Watch
The Dolphins have already made one backfield move this week, shipping Tutu Atwell to the Rams in exchange for running back Jarquez Hunter, and it was the kind of swap that naturally invites a little roster-watching in Miami. Any time a team adds a young runner, it stirs up the same question about how the depth chart might shift, especially for a club that has spent a lot of time trying to get the right mix behind its top options.
Josh Jacobs legal situation in Green Bay only adds another layer to the conversation around running back movement around the league, even if there is nothing official on Miamis side yet. For the Dolphins, the intrigue is less about a completed deal than about whether the market could keep opening up and make one of their own players a candidate to move if the right opportunity comes along. [Read more 🡒]
Dolphins Just Made A Cut That Says A Lot About Their Priorities
With roster cutdown day closing in, the Dolphins made one of the more revealing moves of their late-summer cleanup by releasing linebacker Tyrel Dodson along with eight other players. The decision is believed to be tied to finances, with Miami creating about $3 million in salary cap space as it trims the roster and reshapes the back end of the team.
The timing adds another layer to a day that already included a trade of quarterback Quinn Ewers to the Jacksonville Jaguars for a 2028 sixth-round pick. Between the cap move and the draft-pick shuffle, Miami is clearly treating this stretch as more than a simple numbers exercise, with every transaction hinting at how the front office is sorting priorities before the season starts. [Read more 🡒]
Dolphins Just Raised A Bigger Question About Their Quarterback Plan
The Dolphins used the cutdown deadline to reshape a few corners of the roster, and the moves were more revealing than routine. Miami sent wideout Tutu Atwell to the Rams for running back Jarquez Hunter, then dealt quarterback Quinn Ewers to Jacksonville for a 2028 sixth-round pick pending a physical, while also waiving more than a dozen players and claiming two others. On paper, it was a busy churn of fringe roster business. In practice, it also nudged the conversation back toward how Miami wants to build out the back end of the depth chart and where it stands with its quarterback room.
Ewers was never going to be the headliner here, but moving him anyway is the kind of decision that gets attention because it touches the one position teams almost never stop managing. The financial angle matters too, since these kinds of trades can help shape the books while clearing space for other players, and Miami clearly chose flexibility over keeping a developmental arm in house. The bigger question now is what this says about the Dolphins broader quarterback plan, especially with the deadline pressure easing and the roster nearly set. [Read more 🡒]