*** DOLPHINS NEWS ***
Aug 25, 1998: -- Roster Cuts Announced --
The Dolphins have announced the roster cuts made today in
order to bring the roster down to the required level. The team made
more cuts than were necessary and have trimmed the roster to 58
players. With 2 exemptions, one for Damon Huard and one for Tim
Bowens, that leaves the Dolphins with 62 spots on the roster until
next Tuesday.
The following players were waived by the team and can be
claimed off the waiver wire by other teams:
Kevin Alexander, WR
Dunstan Anderson, DE
Brad Jackson, LB
Richard Jones, CB
Jerris McPhail, RB
Andre Rone, WR
Scott Shaw, G
Derrick Shepard, DT
Antoine Simpson, DT
Landon Smith, FB
Barry Stokes, OT
Nathan Strikwerda, C
Ronnie Ward, LB
In addition to those 13, the team terminated the contracts of
the following two veterans:
Tim Jacobs, CB
John Kidd, P
The team also officially placed WRs Yatil Green and Larry
Shannon on the injured reserve list, meaning that they do not count
towards the roster numbers and can not return to play this year.
Mike Crawford was placed on the Physically-unable-to-perform
list and also doesn't count towards a roster spot, but can return
after week 6 of the regular season. And Randy Wheeler was placed on
the reserve/non-football related injury list.
The cuts today leave the team with the following number of
players at each position:
OFF: DEF:
QB: 3 DE: 5
RB: 4 DT: 4
FB: 3 LB: 7
WR: 6 CB: 5
TE: 4 S: 4
OL: 11
P: 1
K: 1
In related news, the Sun-Sentinel reported this morning that
the Dolphins and Tim Bowens have reached agreement on a long term
contract of 5 years for undisclosed terms. The Sun-Sentinel said that
Drew Rosenhaus spent yesterday in a marathon negotiating session with
the Dolphins that ended late last night.
While terms of the deal were not disclosed, the paper reported
that both sides had made considerable concessions from their original
negotiating positions.
My Comments:
There were no real individual surprises in today's cuts,
although taken as a whole, some of the decisions are intriguing. The
first thing I noticed was that JJ decided to keep 11 offensive
linemen. In the past 2 years, JJ has not kept more than 8 offensive
linemen on the regular roster.
Also, if you look at the players that remain on the offensive
line, the only one who is eligible for the practice squad is Jim
Bundren. All of the other offensive linemen are veterans and are not
eligible to be signed to the practice squad.
So what's going on? Is there some truth to the rumor that JJ
started the other day saying that other teams were calling and asking
about our offensive linemen? Is JJ trying to gear up for a trade?
Certainly, the Dolphins need at least some depth at wide receiver and
a genuine starter would be even better.
The double release of Ronnie Ward and Brad Jackson is a little
surprising and I'm wondering if they're hoping that Jackson will still
be around next week for the practice squad, but I doubt it. I guess
the competition was just too intense to keep them. Certainly,
linebacker is a deep position for the defense.
And speaking of the defense, JJ is keeping 25 defensive
players and 31 offensive players. I guess this means that most of
the cuts next week will be on the offensive side of the line.
I did look briefly at the players who have been cut and there
don't appear to be any particularly good wide receivers out there
right now - not that I would expect that there would be. The only
name I recognized was Michael Haynes, who was a great receiver in the
past, but is really gone downhill over the past few years. Last year
he only caught 12 passes.
The other thing that surprised me was that JJ kept 4 tight
ends. I think they may be projecting Chris Fontenot for the practice
squad, but I was sure that Frank Wainwright was history. That,
however, does not appear to be the case. I guess Mike Westhoff still
likes his long-snapper too much to let him go.
Also, with the new offense, tight ends are much more important
than they have been in the past. With Fontenot headed for the
practice squad and JJ probably wanting to keep at least 3 on the
roster, Wainwright may be safe for another year.
I expect that you will see a flurry of players come to Miami
and try out for the team in the next few days. With 4 roster spots
available, JJ will want to see if he can find another gem like Mark
Dixon in the cuts made by the other teams. I would not be surprised
to see Miami sign two or three players by the end of the day, today.
As for Tim Bowens' contract, I'm glad that they're getting it
done. With Rosenhaus finding no takers for his trade ideas and Bowens
showing some good faith by reporting to camp, both sides were put in a
position to compromise - which is apparently what has happened.
Related Info:
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Curt Fennell,
curt@phins.com, DOLFAN in New Rochelle (almost)
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