Get Ready for More Dolphins Roster Moves (But With a Specific Profile)

As the Miami Dolphins keep making roster moves ahead of the restart that is the 2026 season, every player released by another team will be viewed in the context of whether they should bring him in as they keep looking for hidden gems.

But the Dolphins clearly have a type, so fans shouldn't look as any new free agent as a potential addition, and that applies to those veterans still on the market.

That type, if you've been paying attention, clearly is failed former first-round picks or early-round picks or young unproven players looking to, well, prove themselves and prove they can contribute to an NFL team.

And we've now got another player to monitor now that the New England Patriots have waived 2024 third-round pick Caedan Wallace, an offensive tackle from Penn State.

While one can wonder why the Dolphins would pick up a player New England jettisoned before even the start of the preseason despite already having paid his signing bonus and despite him having a low base salary, he most definitely would fit the mold as a young player looking to establish himself.

What's really at play here is the fact the Dolphins are looking for young, cheap talent wherever they can get it, whenever they can get.

"As we go forward and we get into the season, we will continue to churn the back end of this roster," GM Jon-Eric Sullivan said Monday morning during an interview on The Joe Rose Show. "Nobody will sit around comfortably. It's my job to go find players, whether it's practice squad or waiver wire claims or whatever. We will continue to churn and and make sure that everybody understands, you better show up every day or somebody's going to come take your job.”

The Dolphins have made about a dozen roster acquisitions since signing their undrafted rookie class in May, and that group has consisted entirely of young unproven player along with former first-round picks Clelin Ferrell and Jalen Reagor.

And the same goes for the players the Dolphins have brought in for tryouts.

Good luck finding somebody, anybody — with the exception of former Chiefs first-round pick Clyde Ewards-Helaire — with even as many as 10 games of NFL experience.

And this goes along with an offseason comment from Sullivan on the eve of Bradley Chubb's cap money coming off the books when he cautioned against expecting "splash signings."

This is why the idea of adding a veteran like Keenan Allen or Stefon Diggs before that or Trevon Diggs at cornerback or Zack Ertz at tight end just doesn't compute.

It goes against everything the Dolphins have done while putting together their 2026 roster, where every acquisition involves a one-year deal at low money, the one exception being Malik Willis.

DOLPHINS BUSY WITH THE WAIVER WIRE

Two of the Dolphins' most recent acquisitions involving waiver claims, first for former New England Patriots tight end Jeremiah Franklin and more recently for Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Ahmari Harvey.

They joined the earlier claim of Green Bay Packers defensive lineman James Ester, who became Dolphins offensive lineman.

Those three waiver claims already match the highest yearly total since 2021 when the Dolphins claimed five players off waivers.

But this year is more like 2019 when the Dolphins also were in reubilding mode, and that year they made an astounding 20 waiver claims.

The reality with waiver claims, though, is the percentages of hitting on real keepers always is very low.

Since that 2019 season, the Dolphins have picked up 43 players off waivers and they've hit on, let's say, five of them. The headliner, of course, is Zach Sieler, and then we have linebacker Tyrel Dodson, special teams ace Elijah Campbell, wide receiver Mack Hollins and now possibly JuJu Brents.

Make no mistake, a return to prominence for the Dolphins will have to come more than anything for the development and emergence of draft picks.

But that doesn't mean the Dolphins are going to stop looking for contributors wherever they can find them.

Just remember the kind of players they're adding this year, though, before thinking everyone is the perfect Dolphins candidate.

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