If a fan is hoping to meet the 2019 Miami Dolphins, it may call for drastic measures. Perhaps name tags are in order? The Dolphins’ 53-man roster is settling into formality after a chaotic long weekend — the Dolphins were busy cutting, trading and then cutting more of the players who have experience playing in Davie.
The end result? The Dolphins’ roster has turned over 32 of the team’s 53 roster spots from last year — meaning more than 60% of the Week 1 roster is playing with the Dolphins for the first time. The holdovers include prominent players from general manager Chris Grier’s previous draft classes in 2016 (Howard, Drake and Grant), 2017 (Harris, McMillan, Godchaux) and 2018 (Fitzpatrick, Gesicki, Ballage).
And even that nucleus of players may not be safe in 2020 — the Dolphins have 13 selections lined up for next year’s draft — meaning they could push out another significant portion of the old guard’s roster.
In the meantime, the focus is going to be trying to win a few football games. After the front office stripped this roster down to the foundational pieces and left little else to work with, that in itself seems like a challenge. It’s going to be a rough season. After all, many of the Dolphins’ replacements are lottery ticket-type players who have flopped elsewhere but are still generally considered talented.
