Miami Dolphins moves come with little surprises as team gets down to 80

The Miami Dolphins and the rest of the NFL must trim their roster to the 80-player limit by 4:00 pm this afternoon. The Dolphins got an early start.

This is the last cut that many would consider “easy”. The next cut-down date will be August 30th and NFL teams will trim from 80 to 53. Today’s releases are five players.

In the past, the Dolphins have typically waited until the final minutes to release their list of releases but last week, Miami made their cuts known early, and today, they followed the same path.

Miami announced this morning that safety Sheldrick Redwine has been released along with backup punter Sterling Hofrichter and Deandre Johnson.

Hofrichter wasn’t much of a surprise given the fact the Dolphins added Thomas Morstead this off-season. Morstead has emerged as a leader on the team given his 14 years in the NFL.

Redwine was a bit of a surprise given the fact he has been around the team as much as he has. The Dolphins are likely to carry four safeties with Eric Rowe, Jevon Holland, and Brandon Jones locks for the team.

To round out the moves, Miami placed newly acquired CB Mackensie Alexander on injured reserve and did the same with backup fullback John Lovett.

Lovett has not played in preseason and Alexander apparently was injured on Saturday night against the Raiders.

The loss of Alexander is tough given the lack of depth at the position. Miami may have to look at making a trade for another cornerback who could potentially start. Miami has sat out Xavien Howard and run Nik Needham outside in place of Byron Jones who may not be ready for week one. Needless to say, the team is extremely thin.

With the team entering the final week of exhibition football and then a week break before the start of the regular season, they are running out of time to find options to fill needed holes. Regardless, aside from Lovett going on IR, there were no surprises with today’s cuts.