Breaking Down the Dolphins Roster ... From Every Angle

At this point, pretty much every Dolphins writer, analyst, aggregator and/or content creator has broken down the team's "final" roster cuts to get down to the 53-player limit, and that includes us.

But now, a week ahead of the regular season opener against the New England Patriots, it's time to take an in-depth look at that roster from all types of angles to get a better sense of what kind of team the Dolphins will bring to Gillette Stadium on Sept. 12.

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Before we start, we've decided to include wide receiver Will Fuller V in this exercise even if he doesn't technically count on the active roster for Week 1 (NFL suspension) because he will be on there starting Week 2.

We'll start with an interesting stat that perhaps indicates the progress the Dolphins have made in terms of building their roster, and that's the fact they have 21 newcomers (including Fuller), which is a lower number than usual.

On the flip side, the Dolphins have 50 players who first came to Miami in 2018 or later, the only four exceptions being DeVante Parker, Xavien Howard, Jakeem Grant and Jesse Davis.

With Bobby McCain released in the offseason, Parker is the longest-tenured player on the roster after arriving as a first-round pick in 2015.

Interestingly, the Dolphins do not have a single player who joined the team in 2017, and that includes the team's seven draft picks from that year.

Speaking of the draft, for those who put stock in such things, almost half of the Dolphins roster consists of players selected in one of the first three rounds.

The Dolphins have nine first-round picks on their roster (see video at the top of this story), along with 10 seconds-round choices and seven third-rounders.

There are 16 players on the roster who came into the NFL as undrafted free agents, a group that includes wide receiver Albert Wilson and cornerback Nik Needham, along with Jesse Davis.

It's also noteworthy that the Dolphins, given their historical success with fifth-round selections, have only one player on the roster taken in that round: linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel.

Next we move to player acquisition, and how the Dolphins landed their 54 players (again, we're including Fuller).

There's a pretty good balance here:

-- 24 draft picks

-- 15 unrestricted free agents

-- 5 players claimed off waivers

-- 4 "street" free agents

-- 3 rookie free agents

-- 3 trade acquisitions

The Dolphins clearly have had good success with the waiver wire in recent years; the five on the active roster include Zach Sieler, Salvon Ahmed and Mack Hollins, along with newcomers Trill Williams and Elijah Campbell.

The three trade acquisitions include two players who arrived this August, offensive linemen Greg Little and Greg Mancz, as well as tight end Adam Shaheen.

Finally, we get to NFL experience and see a Dolphins team loaded with young veterans.

The current active roster features seven rookies (five draft picks plus undrafted free agents Robert Jones and Trill Williams) and only two players with more than seven years of NFL experience (John Jenkins and Jason McCourty).

Here's the full breakdown:

-- 7 rookies

-- 1 first-year player

-- 9 second-year players

-- 8 third-year players

-- 5 fourth-year players

-- 7 fifth-year players

-- 9 sixth-year players (including Fuller)

-- 6 seventh-year players

-- 1 ninth-year player

-- 1 13th-year player

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Alain Poupart has covered the Miami Dolphins on a full-time basis since 1989. You can follow him on Twitter at @PoupartNFL. Feel free to submit questions every Friday for the All Dolphins mailbag.