The Dolphins have announced their practice squad: CB V. Agnew, TE B. Brackett, OG G. Chisolm, QB P Devlin, RB N. Grigsby, OT DJ Jones, WR J. Pruitt

Also note that Miami signed TE Will Yeatman from the Pats. Yeatman is the only UDFA to make the Dolphins 53 man roster.

Yeatman is a big boy at 6'6 and is a blocking tight end from the University of Notre Dame. Yeatman has potential and could develop into a nice player.

The Dolphins waived nose tackle Frank Kearse to make room for Yeatman.  

Today is a tough day for many NFL players. At 6 p.m. tonight all rosters can only have a max of 53 players. All around the league players are being cut. Some big names, some minor names and some players who will land up on the practice squad. Let’s not forget that many lives and families will be affected today.

So far the Dolphins have made 4 pretty significant cuts:

According to @ArmandoSalguero, RB Larry Johnson, CB Will Allen, CB Nate Ness, and FB Lousaka Polite have all been let go by the Dolphins today.

The Dolphins saved $1.35 million against the cap by cutting Lousaka Polite.

Will Allen had a very respectable time in Miami and had it not been for his nagging injuries he might have been able to make this team.  Benny Sapp had a strong preseason and that led to Allen getting cut. Larry Johnson was to me the most shocking of the players let go. After his 22 yard TD scamper I thought he had locked his position on this team but apparently not. The Dolphins would appear to be a bit thin at RB now.

Polite was a player not many knew exactly where he stood but its not shocking to see him released. This move leaves Miami with no true FB's on their offense.  

Dolphins waived or released QB Pat Devlin, CB Vincent Agnew, CB Nate Ness, G Garrett Chisolm, LB Jonathan Freeny, RB Nic Grigsby, OT D.J. Jones, OT Matt Kopa, WR Phillip Livas, WR John Matthews, WR Julius Pruitt, WR Patrick Carter, S Mark Restelli, LB David Nixon, LB Quinton Spears, LB Robert Rose, TE Brett Brackett and TE Mickey Shuler.

Some might have been hoping WR/KR Livas would make the team but realistically he is a liability on this roster at WR and only really holds returner potential.  

I’m showing up a little late to the party here considering the Dolphins have already made their first cut, waiving tight end Dedrick Epps this evening. But that should come as no surprise.

The Dolphins have until tomorrow night at 6 p.m. to trim their roster to 53 players. But nothing is stopping them from announcing more cuts any minute, so let’s jump right in with this prediction while we still have time.

OFFENSE

Quarterback: Chad Henne, Matt Moore, Kevin O’Connell
Cuts: Pat Devlin

The only way Kevin O’Connell doesn’t crack the 53 is if the Dolphins decide to keep two quarterbacks. We didn’t see much of O’Connell or Devlin this preseason, but O’Connell finally saw some action as the number three last night and has the experience edge over the rookie.

It’s a fairly safe bet Miami keeps three quarterbacks considering they saw Chad Pennington and Chad Henne go down with injuries in the same game last year.

Running back: Reggie Bush, Daniel Thomas, Lex Hilliard, Larry Johnson
Cuts: Nic Grigsby

The Dolphins decided to keep our running backs a year ago and that’s when they had two reliable workhorses in Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams.

Now, with Reggie Bush’s health concerns and with Daniel Thomas being an unproven rookie, keeping four backs makes more sense than ever. Larry Johnson made the splash he needed to make against the Cowboys on a 22-yard touchdown run last night.

On a night when the Dolphins rested all of their starters expect wide receiver Brian Hartline, the defense bent but didn’t break, the running game showed some life, and quarterback Matt Moore completed 81% of his passes in Miami’s 17-3 win over Dallas in a half-empty Sun Life Stadium.

In a bit of surprise move, Tony Sparano chose to sit his first-team offensive line after their embarrassing performance against the Buccaneers. The second string stepped in admirably, though, plowing the way for 106 yards on the ground and not conceding a sack.

Daniel Thomas ran hard on his eight carries, tallying 36 yards. The newly signed Larry Johnson also impressed, piling up 39 rushing yards and producing the play of the night on a 22-yard touchdown run.

Matt Moore looked the part of reliable backup, tossing for 142 yards and a touchdown on 9 of 11 passing. Moore found roster fringe players like Marlon Moore for a 22-yard connection and tight end Jeron Mastrud for an 18-yard touchdown. He also finally hooked up with Clyde Gates on a deep ball that went for 42 yards.

Defensively, the Dolphins struggled to get the Cowboys’ backups off the field, as Dallas held the ball for over 36 minutes and compiled nearly 400 yards of total offense.

But on the Cowboys’ first promising drive, roster bubble players Will Allen and Tyrone Culver helped their cause with a nice breakup from the former and an interception from the latter in the end zone. The Dolphins forced five field goals the rest of the way and Dallas only connected on one.

At any rate, the exhibition season is finally over. The next time the Dolphins step onto the field it will be the real deal on Monday Night Football against the Patriots. Let the countdown begin.

But business is in order first. The Dolphins have some difficult decisions to make between now and Saturday night at 6 p.m. when they will be forced to cut 27 players in order to establish their 53-man roster. Look forward to our 53-man roster prediction at some point tomorrow.

Game Ball: Matt Moore- 9-11, 142 yards, 1 touchdown 

What: Dolphins’ preseason exhibition vs. Cowboys
When: Tonight at 7:30 p.m.
Where: Sun Life Stadium/ Miami Gardens, Florida
Weather: 85 degrees, scattered thunderstorms
Watch: KTVT 11 Dallas, will air on CBS 4 in Miami around 11:30 p.m. due to black out, replay on NFL Network tomorrow night at 8 p.m., NFL Preseason Live

College football kicks off tonight, the NFL opener is a week from today, and the Dolphins’ Monday night showdown with the Patriots is a mere 11 days away. I think it’s safe to say most fans are over preseason football.

But there’s still one more exhibition on the slate. While the first team likely won’t see much time, tonight’s game could go a long way in putting the finishing touches on the 53-man roster.

In a sport where key players could be lost on any given play, establishing the right 53 for depth purposes is crucial. But even as most NFL teams around the league won’t suit up many of their starters, tonight probably won’t be exclusively about the roster fringe players for the Dolphins.

The regular season is fast approaching and the offensive line and running game don’t appear to be ready. If the Dolphins are going to stick with their current line, and from all indications that’s what they plan to do, their only hope is that some chemistry begins to form.

If they can gel, they’ll improve. Probably not by much, but judging by last week, this O-line has nowhere to go but up. But that does mean that they could use all the work they can get.

I wouldn’t mind seeing the first-team offensive line for the majority of the first half and some quality work for Daniel Thomas as well. With that said, here are my five keys to success for the Dolphins:

1. Strong night for Daniel Thomas: We don’t know how much time rookie running back Daniel Thomas will get, but he’s certainly not going to get the night off.

I expect Thomas to run behind the Dolphins’ first-team offensive line for at least the first quarter tonight, but he could play the entire first half. He needs the work.

Outside of a few solid runs against Carolina, Thomas has been a disappointment this preseason. I think the offensive line deserves more of the blame, though. He’s seemingly hit a brick wall on the majority of his carries.

But he still could hit the hole, or where the hole should be I should say, with a little more conviction, especially in short-yardage situations or near the goal line.

With the Cowboys likely resting most of their defensive starters tonight, there’s no excuse for Daniel Thomas and the offensive line not to step up and prove they can get something going.

By the time the fourth preseason game rolls around, most fans are ready for real football. The starters are all but done with their dress rehearsal reps and it’s simply time to let the roster fringe players make one final impression.

That may explain why tomorrow night’s game didn’t sell out before the 72-hour deadline and will consequently be blacked out in South Florida.

The interest in the preseason finale may not be there with the majority of the fan base, but it’s going to be far from a boring and meaningless game in the minds of several players on the roster bubble fighting for their NFL lives.

Here are five players that need to impress tomorrow night, as their 53-man roster hopes are very much in limbo:

Will Allen, CB: The 11th year veteran finally got on the field Saturday and looked pretty good doing it. Allen was sharp in coverage, minus an illegal contact penalty, and had a sack that would have resulted in a safety if the play hadn’t been negated by penalty.

Benny Sapp seems like a lock as the nickel, but Nolan Carroll’s struggles this preseason has opened the door for Allen to land the fifth cornerback spot. Keeping Carroll around would save the Dolphins some cash and he has an upside advantage at only 24 years old.

But with young corners like Vontae Davis, Sean Smith, and Jimmy Wilson in the secondary, the Dolphins would benefit from a knowledgeable mentor in the mix. But he’ll still need to prove he has something left in the tank and that his knee is 100% and ready to go. Another solid showing should do the trick.

Larry Johnson, RB: I have a hard time seeing the Dolphins keep only three running backs. With the uncertainty of rookie Daniel Thomas and Reggie Bush’s injury history, Miami needs a capable workhorse as insurance.

Nic Grigsby is also on the roster, but as an undrafted rookie who’s yet to impress this exhibition season, he’s likely auditioning for practice squad consideration at this point. Larry Johnson is essentially competing against the names that will hit the waiver wire when 31 other teams make final cuts on Saturday.

Tick tock; tick tock….it’s that time of year where everyone stares at the clock waiting for the regular season to start. It’s also the time of year where the season previews and super bowl predictions start coming out.

Recently, Peter King put out his season preview listing the Dolphins 4th in the AFC East with a 6-10 record. King also posted his Super Bowl prediction, taking the Falcons over the Chargers in this year’s Super Bowl.

That being said, you won’t be ready for this year’s kickoff until you check out my 2011 NFL season preview. So here you go:

Today, the Dolphins had their kickoff luncheon at Sun Life Stadium, where players, coaches, and fans all got together to get pumped up for the 2011-2012 season.

Players sat down and chatted with fans, also doing interviews with Jesse Agler (@finsjesse if you’re not following him on twitter don’t consider yourself a true Dolfan). Then they closed it out with Coach Sparano giving a speech to all in attendance.

Like him or hate, Coach Sparano can give one hell of a speech. Tony is a very motivating speaker that can light up any room. In fact, Brandon Marshall tweeted earlier: @BMarshall19: Every time I hear coach Sparano speak I get chills. #greatness

There were a couple of lines that stood out to me from Tony’s speech:

Sparano at Dolphins luncheon said " this team will win!!"

Talking about home opener, "I hope it’s outrageous out there.”

Tony quoted Gladiator, saying "If you win the crowd, victory belongs to you, this group will win the crowd."

Here is a link of the video of Tony’s speech courtesy of The Finsiders.com

http://thefinsiders.com/blog/2011/coach-sparano-kickoff-speech-83111

The Dolphins began today with 82 players on the active roster. NFL rules required them to trim off two, dropping them to 80 players by 4 p.m. today.

The two players that got the axe were OT Allen Barbre and OG Tyler Donahue. Barbre was placed on injured reserve with an undisclosed injury and the rookie Donahue was waived.

Of course, the real cut-down deadline will be Saturday evening at 6 p.m. when the Dolphins will be forced to make 27 cuts in order to establish their 53-man roster. With the starters only getting limited action at most on Thursday night against the Cowboys, the spotlight will be on the roster fringe players in their last ditch effort to make an impression. 

Bittersweet is probably the word that describes it best. There was plenty to feel good about in the Dolphins’ 13-17 loss at the hands of the Buccaneers on Saturday night.

Well, when I say plenty I’m mostly just referring to Chad Henne’s performance. But he’s a quarterback. A quarterback whose struggles prevented this team from threatening for a playoff spot a year ago. So, when Henne plays well there is a huge reason to be pleased.

But there was plenty of bad too. 76 yards worth of penalties bad. A grand total of 22 rushing yards in the entire game bad. The Tampa Bay running backs combining for 116 yards receiving bad.

Even with all the bad, though, the Dolphins were a Brandon Marshall fumble away from possibly taking a 13-3, maybe even a 17-3 lead into the half on a team that went 10-6 a year ago in the brutal NFC South.

And so the flip-flopping continues.

What should the fan base be feeling this Monday morning? Should they be thrilled that Chad Henne is seemingly coming around, or should the offensive line’s nightmare game have Dolphin fans lining up to hit the panic button? Let’s weigh the positives and negatives from a very indifferent night in Tampa.

POSITIVES

Chad Henne may be a different quarterback: It may be the preseason, but it’s looking more and more safe to assume that Chad Henne has finally turned the corner. I’m not saying he’s going to be an elite quarterback in this league, but he surely looks like a quality one. A quarterback that is suddenly capable of putting this team on his back and actually winning games on his own. That’s crucial because with the current state of the running game, he may have to.

But it’s not just the big-time yardage and gaudy quarterback rating that has me thinking I’m looking at a completely different player. There were two plays that stood out to me against the Bucs in particular.

The first being an all out blitz from Tampa Bay that led to a simple quick out to Anthony Fasano for a 9-yard gain. But it’s what Henne did before the play that excited me. He clearly recognizes the blitz and audibles at the line to a quick hitter to Fasano. That’s the type of play that shows me he’s finally taking command of this offense. Simple, yes, but still something we haven’t seen from Chad in the past.

The other play was about a 6-yard completion to Clyde Gates on third and three. Henne’s eyes are fixated to the right of the field from his drop back. Instead of forcing the pass into his first read, though, Henne looks left to find just enough room to fit a tight pass into Gates. Staring down receivers has been my major grip against Henne from day one. The sky is the limit if he’s going to begin to go through his progressions.

And all of that isn’t even mentioning the beautiful 60-yard touchdown strike to Brandon Marshall and another well-placed deep ball on a pass Clyde Gates should have probably reeled in. Henne has always had the arm strength; he’s just never had the deep ball accuracy or the touch to utilize it consistently.

In the past two games Henne has completed 25 of 37 passes and has thrown for 369 yards and a touchdown with no interceptions. I don’t want to make Henne’s maturation official until he has similar success when it counts, but being optimistic isn’t jumping the gun after what we’ve seen in back-to-back weeks.