*** DOLPHINS NEWS ***
Aug 01, 1997: -- Fiala and Lopez Waived --
The Dolphins released rookie draft choices John Fiala and
Nicholas Lopez today in a move that reduced the Dolphins' roster to 81
players and left 11 of the 14 original draft choices still with the
team.
Lopez was picked up by the Dolphins in the 5th round of the
draft out of Texas Southern University. He had a great senior year in
college, but never managed to catch on with the Dolphins.
John Fiala was the Dolphins' first pick in the 6th round and
was one of 4 linebackers that the Dolphins took in the draft. He had
surgery on his knee after the first mini-camp and apparently wasn't
able to impress the coaches enough to make the team.
My Comments:
The release of Lopez doesn't surprise me. Even though I
thought he might turn out to be a big surprise, he never showed enough
to make the team. In fact, this marks the first time I've heard
Lopez's name reported since the beginning of training camp.
Letting Fiala go surprised me a little bit more, since I had
heard from at least one person that Fiala looked pretty good. However,
the high number of linebackers on the team left a lot of players
fighting for a relatively few number of slots and even though Larry
Izzo is out for the year, there are still at least 8 active linebackers
fighting for about 6 slots.
It looks right now as if OJ Brigance is the most likely to get
cut of the remaining linebackers. Checking the depth chart reveals that
Marc Lillibridge is also in trouble, despite his performance in the
WLAF. Behind the first string of Hollier, Thomas and Harris, the
second string currently consists of Ronnie Ward, Mike Crawford and
Derrick Rodgers.
Related Info:
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Curt Fennell,
curt@phins.com, DOLFAN in New England
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