The Dolphins' rebuild took a wild turn Monday when Adam Schefter reported Miami had claimed 7 players off waivers in one swoop: QB Brady Cook from the Jets, DBs Marcellas Dial (Patriots), Taylor Reese (Broncos) and Julius Wood (Cowboys), tackles Chukwuebuka Godrick (Chiefs) and Jarrett Kingston (Texans), and TE Justin Jolly out of Denver.
Dolphins claimed seven players on waivers: QB Brady Cook from the Jets, DB Marcellas Dial from the Patriots, T Chukwuebuka Godrick from the Chiefs, TE Justin Jolly from the Broncos, T Jarrett Kingston from the Texans, DB Taylor Reese from the Broncos and DB Julius Wood from the Cowboys.
Cook is the name that jumps out. He closed out last season as the Jets' starting quarterback before New York moved on and kept a two-man QB room of Geno Smith and a rookie, cutting him loose over the weekend. Now he lands in Miami, where he'll compete for a backup job behind Malik Willis and newly-acquired Kyle McCord, who the Dolphins got from Green Bay in a trade just a day earlier. Three different quarterbacks have arrived in South Florida within 48 hours.
Joe Schad, who covers the team, made clear these aren't reclamation projects off Miami's own cut list -- these are 7 brand new players plucked from other rosters. "No waived Dolphins were claimed," he wrote. "The Dolphins claimed seven players. Yes, that means what you think it means." Translation: Hafley and the front office are betting outside talent beats what they already had, at least for now -- and Schad noted Miami can still bring its own released players back on the practice squad.
Dolphins add SEVEN on waiver wire to NFLs youngest roster Patience. grasshoppers This is gonna take time t.co/O3r9QhnTzn
ESPN's Jeremy Fowler broke down the logic: a QB, three DBs, two offensive tackles and a tight end. The secondary swap makes the most sense on paper -- Fowler flagged Miami's depth issues in the back end as the reason three defensive backs landed in one afternoon. It's a scattershot approach, but it's also what you do when you're bottom of the league and stocking bodies at positions that got exposed.
That bottom-of-the-league status is exactly why Miami could pull this off. Waiver priority runs in reverse order of standings, and Greg Auman pointed out just how rare a 7-player haul is unless you're picking first. "Seven is a lot if you're first in waiver order," he wrote. "It's wild when you're as far down as Miami was." Schad went further, wondering aloud whether it's an outright NFL record, while Auman countered that the 2015 Buccaneers -- also picking first that year -- only grabbed 5.
@schadjoe Seven is a lot if you're first in waiver order. It's wild when you're as far down as Miami was.
Schad also floated the comparison everyone in Miami is thinking about: Brian Flores' 2019 team, which started ugly but visibly tightened up on fundamentals and discipline as the season wore on. Hafley, in his first year running the show, is reportedly hoping for a similar late-season arc. Adding 7 players in a single afternoon isn't going to fix a rebuild by itself, but it's a loud early signal that Miami plans to churn its roster aggressively while it figures out who actually fits.