Last game of the Preseason is upon us, and this game, as it always does, will finalize some roster spots for the 53 man roster cutdown, which will be Sunday, August 30th. The Dolphins recently shipped WR Tutu Atwell, formerly of the LA Rams, back to the Rams, for RB Jarquez Hunter. Atwell was one of the few WR’s on the roster with experience, which then leaves the WR with Jalen Tolbert, 4 YR veteran who played the entire 4 years for the Dallas Cowboys as the senior man. Before you get yer panties in a bunch, yes, technically WR Jalen Reagor is the senior man, but he played sparingly the last 2 seasons, just 19 games with 3 starts, while Tolbert has played 30 games with 23 starts. After Tolbert and Reagor, it’s all rookies with Caleb Douglas, Chris Bell and Kevin Coleman. We should get our first look at WR Chris Bell in this evenings game against the Falcons. He’ll probably get a handful of plays but it will be great to see him in action for the first time.

Yes, Tua the Magnificent makes his return to Hard Rock, but thankfully, not wearing aqua, white and orange. No, this time Tua will look even more awkward wearing the Falcons red, black and white uni. Some will boo (I will even though I won’t be at the game and will be watching it many hours later whenever NFLN replays it), but I’ll take solace in knowing I never have to see him under center for the Miami Dolphins ever again. You can love him or hate him, makes no difference to me because he’s gone. I still feel very strongly that if Tua wanted to do the right thing he would have retired, but he selfishly continues to play and shortchange the team he is playing for by playing to protect himself rather than to win. He’s just not going to compete and put himself in harms way which really isn’t fair for the team that he’s leading. I’m not saying he has to be reckless, but you want the guy leading your team to do what it takes to win and we didn’t say that for the last 2 seasons he was here. OK, enough wasted time on Too-ugh.

It is so hard to get a sense of what to expect from this team. Last preseason game we didn’t see our starting QB, Malik Willis, or even our backup QB, Quinn Ewers. We didn’t see many starters along the O-line either, mostly 2nd and 3rd string guys. If you’re going to evaluate the offense, how do you go about doing so fairly? You simply can’t. On defense we also didn’t get to see a lot of starters, but more than on offense for sure. I’ve read that DL Kenneth Grant may miss game 1 of the regular season with an undisclosed leg injury. We haven’t see Jordan Phillips play much either, and my guess is he won’t see much action tonight because he will likely be the replacement for Kenneth Grant if he can’t go or is limited. That would be a D-line in the 4-3 as LE Chop Robinson, LDT Jordan Phillips, RDT Zach Sieler, and RE Joshua Uche. In preseason, we haven’t seen any pass rush, and that’s disappointing, although as we know, everything is vanilla in preseason, but there is still cause for concern. What you have in preseason is just one on ones and we didn’t win many of those.

On the offensive side, I remember loving that first drive in Preseason Game 1 against Washington. While the Commanders sat their defensive starters, our offense which had our starting 5 on the O-line looked very good, and our drive was a TD drive. Everything was clicking, the O-line provided rushing lanes and protected well. After the first drive when the starters came out, the wheels fell off, but that’s not too surprising. Oddly enough, rookie OG DJ Campbell who played his entire career at Texas at RG has been playing LG. So much with playing guys on the sides that they’re comfortable on! In any case, starting RG Jonah Savaiinaea, who looked quite a lot better in his limited action will continue to play RG, where he played during his collegiate career..

I have seen a lot of disappointment regarding our rookie defensive players on our blog, such as S/LB tweener Kyle Louis. The truth is, these guys were drafted with a plan. Louis will be put in situations where he can help and succeed, he will not be starting at either LB or S. My guess is he will come in some obvious passing situations in coverage or as a blitzer and Hafley will keep teams guessing on what he will be doing. It will probably translate, at least early on, to just a handful of plays, besides playing ST’s as well. Same will go for S Michael Taaffe, if he makes the 53. ILB Jordyn Brooks is a little banged up, but you’d have to think that ILB Tyrel Dodson is a guy we can trade for a either a 2027 pick or a player at a different position of need. Of course if Brooks injury is a lingering one, then we may need Tyrel Dodson next to rookie LB Jacob Rodriguez. Rodriguez also struggled some in Preseason, so this was nowhere near a Zach Thomas/Jack Del Rio type of situation at all for those of hoping for an historical replay of that.

Someone on the blog started the Season Record Prediction post, and I said 7 wins. That’s a best case scenario, QB Malik Willis stays healthy and plays 17 games and we don’t have any major injuries. Both the offense and defense have to play well enough to accomplish that, and I think for a team that will be a very young team, a team with an average under 24 years old, would be quite the accomplishment for both Sully and Haf. This team could be very reliant on the 2025 draft class and as well as the 2026 draft class which netted a total of 21 players, 8 last season and 13 this season. RB Jalen Wright continues to disappoint, I think many of us expected him to be at the very least a competent #2 back behind our best player, RB De’Von Achane, but this hasn’t happened. Not sure how much of this factored into the trade with the Rams to acquire RB Jarquez Hunter, who is a bowling ball at 5’9 211. There’s no guarantee Hunter makes the 53, but it absolutely puts doubt as to whether one of the incumbent RB’s Jalen Wright or Ollie Gordon are in danger of getting cut, or if we’re going to carry 4 RB’s and no FB, despite some here falling in love with FB DJ Herman. We all understood the ramifications of having a salary cap crisis, we won’t be picking up expensive vets, but looking for bargains after the cutdowns occur.

For those of you not in Florida, or even in Florida but not in the area where the Dolphins vs Falcons Preseason Finale will be shown, the game will replayed on NFL Sunday August 30th at 6AM EST. I will probably stay away from the blog during and after the game as to not ruin the viewing experience. I want to watch and form my opinions and watch it as if it were live. I’m excited to see WR Chris Bell play, it’s quite the story! Many of us hoped we could see him play this season but didn’t expect to see him activated until October at the earliest. Again, curb your enthusiasm, because he’s not going to be logging tons of playing time, but he will be playing, and that’s great. He can help the team even in small doses, he’s a very talented receiver, and has the size and speed that we desperately need. I’m hoping WR Caleb Douglas is getting the job done while Bell isn’t, and also hope rookie WR Kevin Coleman is as well. I like Malik Washington, but Coleman could be even better. As always, let’s hope we stay healthy in this final game of the Preseason.

GO DOLPHINS!!!