Dolphins waive 12, trim toward 53 with Grant's status still unsettled
Miami waived a dozen players Saturday on the way to the 53-man deadline, closed out an 0-3 preseason with Tua Tagovailoa getting booed in Atlanta colors, and still doesn't know if Kenneth Grant plays Week 1.
Recent News
Saturday was the least fun day of August, and the Dolphins spent all of it on it. First-year general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and head coach Jeff Hafley worked the roster down toward Sunday's 53-man deadline, and the team's own account got there first: "We have made a series of roster moves," it posted before a single name leaked. Receiver Theo Wease Jr. and inside linebacker Stephen Dix Jr. led the list, with cornerback Alex Austin, running back Coleman Bennett, tackle Kevin Cline, edge Seth Coleman-Lyles, tight end Ethan Conner, running back Donovan Edwards, defensive lineman Alex Huntley, safety Louis Moore, defensive lineman Cam Rice and inside linebacker Jaheim Thomas all waived alongside them, confirmed within minutes by both Adam Schefter and Aaron Wilson of KPRC 2 Houston.
It capped a week that was already busy at running back. Miami flipped receiver Tutu Atwell back to the Rams on Thursday in exchange for running back Jarquez Hunter, a swap that reads as much about Ollie Gordon II's bruised ribs as it does about needing another arm in the backfield. Tight end Cole Turner reverted to injured reserve the same day. None of it settles the 53 by itself, but it tells you where the roster crunch actually was.
Hafley won't promise Grant is back for the opener
The one injury that actually threatens a Week 1 snap is Kenneth Grant's. The rookie defensive tackle has been week-to-week with an undisclosed leg injury through the back half of camp, and Hafley isn't dressing it up: "He's week to week, so I think of course there's going to be concern. If I felt like he was going to for sure be back next week, I would tell you that," the coach said Friday, a line that's about as close to a real admission as a coach gives in August.
Grant sat out Friday's preseason finale, and with the opener at Las Vegas less than three weeks out, his availability is a genuine question mark for a defensive line the Dolphins were counting on him to anchor as a rookie. Elsewhere on defense, linebacker Jacob Rodriguez is considered day-to-day with an undisclosed issue, per Joe Schad of The Palm Beach Post, and tight end Will Kacmarek is week-to-week, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reports — neither one as pressing as Grant's, but both worth watching into next week.
Tua came back to Hard Rock and got booed for it
Friday's preseason finale was never really about the final score. It was about Tua Tagovailoa walking back into Hard Rock Stadium in Atlanta red — the quarterback Miami released this offseason at an NFL-record $99.2 million dead-cap hit — and hearing exactly what the fans who watched him for six years thought about it. He was booed on his first series and pretty much every one after, as Tua Tagovailoa Booed In Miami As Falcons QB Job Slips Away laid out. He went 7-of-8 for 95 yards in the win and had one line for it afterward: "It is what it is."
Falcons12-17
Giants3-26
Commanders7-20Miami's own night ended the way the whole preseason had, a 12-17 loss that closes the exhibition slate at 0-3 through the Commanders, Giants and Falcons. Rookie receiver Chris Bell made his debut off the knee that cost him the spring, working back from December ACL surgery to catch two of five targets for 22 yards, and Jalen Tolbert caught all three of his looks for 27 yards. PFF's grade sheet from the night, via Joe Schad, had receiver Terrace Marshall at 81.4, tight end Jeremiah Franklin at 81.0 and linebacker Jaheim Thomas leading everybody at 90.7 — a game he won't get to build on after Saturday's cuts.
Quinn Ewers sat this one out entirely, per the Miami Herald's C. Isaiah Smalls II, which tracks with a backup quarterback who has nothing left to prove in August. None of it changes the record — Miami is 0-0 where it actually counts — but an 0-3 preseason run through those three opponents is exactly the kind of evidence coaches use to sort out who plays in September, and Friday gave them one more data point on it.
The opener in Vegas just got a little murkier up front
Sunday afternoon in Las Vegas is the next real football Miami plays, against a Raiders team that finished its own preseason 1-2 and lost its last tune-up 12-18 to the 49ers. The Dolphins open as an underdog, with the line set at Raiders -3.5 and the total at 40.5 — numbers that suggest a defensive, grind-it-out afternoon rather than a shootout.
That reading gets more interesting if Grant is still out. Miami's front seven is what this defense is supposed to be built around, and a Week 1 without its rookie tackle changes the math on a low-scoring game against a Raiders offense that just found 18 points on a good defense. Nothing is confirmed either way yet, which is exactly why Hafley's hedge on Friday is the thing to watch this week.