Dolphins Notebook: Doaks Update, 2022 First-Round Pick, Special Teams Rankings
The Miami Dolphins have decided to bring back running back Gerrid Doaks for a second look after all.
The Dolphins announced two more signings to futures contracts Thursday morning, and one of them was the 2021 seventh-round pick from the University of Cincinnati.
The other was fifth-year NFL defensive back Quincy Wilson, a 2017 second-round pick of the Colts who has played 32 career with 11 starts but has battled injuries. Wilson was waived with an injury settlement by the New York Giants in December after missing the whole season with a knee injury.
This was a second wave of futures contracts announced by the Dolphins following four players signed last week: WR Cody Core, CB Javaris Davis, T Adam Pankey and T Kion Smith.
Doaks was an interesting player for the Dolphins in 2021 because they made him one of the practice squad protections eight times during the regular season, but never activated him for a regular season game.
As always with those kind of signings, we'd caution against expecting him too much from any of those players. As proof, the Dolphins signed 15 players to future contracts in January 2021 and those players played a combined four regular season games for the team this past season — two by Kirk Merritt, one by Jordan Scarlett and one by Javaris Davis.
DOLPHINS PLAYERS MOVING ON
The rest of the players who ended the 2021 season on the Dolphins practice squad became "street free agents" earlier this week and now will be able to sign with any team at any time — unlike UFAs, RFAs or ERFAs, who have to wait until March 16.
That group includes the previously mentioned Kirk Merritt.
It also included defensive tackle Andrew Billings and tackle Roderick Johnson, who now have signed with the Kansas City Chiefs practice squad.
DOLPHINS 2022 DRAFT PICK UPDATE
Because of the San Francisco 49ers' victory at Dallas on Wild Card Weekend, we still don't know exactly where the Dolphins' 2022 first-round pick will fall.
Should the 49ers lose at Green Bay in the divisional round on Saturday night, the pick will be 26th if AFC top seed Tennessee defeats Cincinnati or 25th if the Bengals upset the Titans.
If the 49ers win at Green Bay, the best the Dolphins could do with that 2022 first-round pick, acquired in the trade down from 3 to 12 in the 2021 first-round order, would be 29th.
SPECIAL TEAMS RANKINGS
Kicker Jason Sanders' struggles took center stage, but it was a rough year all around for the Dolphins special teams, so it should have been no surprise they were in the bottom third in the NFL in the annual rankings compiled by longtime NFL writer Rick Gosselin for SI sister site Talk of Fame Network.
The Dolphins came in at number 22 based on Gosselin's formula, which breaks down 22 statistical categories.
Areas where the Dolphins stood out (good and bad) were punts inside the 20, where Miami finished with 31; and giveaways, where the Dolphins had a league-worst four. For the record, the four takeaways were a Jaylen Waddle muffed punt against Buffalo in Week 2; a Jakeem Grant muffed punt against Indy in Week 4; Jevon Holland's fumble on a punt return against Houston in Week 9; and Clayton Fejedelem's fumble on the ill-fated fake punt against the Jets in Week 15.
It was quite the fall in the rankings for the Dolphins, who were seventh for the 2020 season.
Interestingly, and perhaps not coincidentally, the Dolphins' special teams rankings have meshed with the performance of Sanders, who has been very good or excellent in even-numbered years since arriving as a seventh-round pick in 2018 and sub-par in odd-numbered years.
The Dolphins were fourth in Gosselin's special teams rankings in 2018 before dropping to 24th in 2019.
