Breaking Down the Dolphins' Initial 53-Player Roster

The Dolphins joined the rest of the NFL in getting down to their 53-player limit Saturday, though things likely will change between now and the regular season opener at New England on Sept. 13.

For now, though, here's what the 53-man roster looks like:

QUARTERBACKS (2)

Ryan Fitzpatrick, Tua Tagovailoa

RUNNING BACKS (6)

Malcolm Perry, Matt Breida, Patrick Laird, Jordan Howard, Myles Gaskin, FB Chandler Cox

WIDE RECEIVERS (6)

DeVante Parker, Preston Williams, Jakeem Grant, Isaiah Ford, Mack Hollins, Lynn Bowden Jr.

TIGHT ENDS (3)

Adam Shaheen, Durham Smythe, Mike Gesicki

OFFFENSIVE LINEMEN (9)

Michael Deiter, Solomon Kindley, Ted Karras, Robert Hunt, Julién Davenport, Austin Jackson, Ereck Flowers, Jesse Davis, Adam Pankey

DEFENSIVE LINEMEN (7)

Davon Godchaux, Jason Strowbridge, Shaq Lawson, Emmanuel Ogbah, Zach Sieler, Christian Wilkins, Raekwon Davis

LINEBACKERS (7)

Andrew Van Ginkel, Elandon Roberts, Calvin Munson, Sam Eguavoen, Kamu Grugier-Hill, Kyle Van Noy, Jerome Baker

DEFENSIVE BACKS (10)

Eric Rowe, Noah Igbinoghene, Byron Jones, Xavien Howard, Bobby McCain, Brandon Jones, Jamal Perry, Kavon Frazier, Nik Needham, Clayton Fejedelem

SPECIALISTS (3)

Matt Haack, Jason Sanders, Blake Ferguson

Some quick thoughts on the roster:

-- First, I ended up having 49 of 53 players correct in my roster projection at AllDolphins+. The four I had making the roster who didn't were obviously Josh Rosen, along with Danny Isidora, Chester Rogers and newcomer Lynn Bowden Jr. The four who made the team when I didn't have them making it (sorry, fellas): FB Chandler Cox, WR Mack Hollins, T Adam Pankey and CB Jamal Perry.

-- The roster includes 24 newcomers, players who were not with the team at the end of the 2019 season. Impressively, not one of those players was a "street free agent." Of the 24, 11 were unrestricted free agent signings, 10 were draft picks, and three came over in trades — Bowden from the Raiders, Shaheen from the Bears, and Breida from the 49ers.

-- Along with the picks from the 2020 class, the Dolphins have 15 other original draft picks on the roster, meaning 25 of the 53 players were original Dolphins draft picks.

-- The Dolphins do not have more than two players from any one school on their roster. The schools with two alums are Alabama (Davis, Tagovailoa), Auburn (Cox, Igbinoghene), Clemson (Lawson, Wilkins), Illinois (Fejedelem, Karras), LSU (Ferguson, Godchaux), North Carolina (Hollins, Strowbridge), Texas Tech (Eguavoen, Grant), and Wisconsin (Deiter, Van Ginkel).

-- Even though the official roster says six running backs and six wide receivers, that's misleading because Perry really is a wide receiver. So that's five running backs and seven wide receivers, and Cox also has done a lot of work at tight end, so he's kind of a hybrid.

-- It's practically unheard of for a team to keep seven wide receivers, so that's where I would look first if the Dolphins bring in somebody through the waiver wire or otherwise.

-- The roster breaks down as 26 offensive players, 24 defensive players, and three specialists.

-- The initial 53-man roster does not include a single rookie free agent, which goes along with what everybody thought: that it would be very difficult for a UDFA to make a quick impression with no offseason practices and no preseason games.

-- By percentage, the bigger makeovers from last season occurred on both lines, with four of the seven defensive linemen being new as well as five of the nine offensive linemen.

-- None of the four players the Dolphins waived and brought back this summer made the 53-man roster, which isn't surprising because, well, there was a reason they were waived in the first place.

-- All 11 players signed as unrestricted free agents made the initial 53-man roster. Not only that, but safety Kavon Frazier has been voted as the team's special teams captain, according to his agent David Canter.

-- Again, this is the initial 53-man roster. Players waived can be claimed up to Sunday at noon and teams can begin filling out their practice squad (remember, this year it can be up to 16 players) starting at 1 p.m.