MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — For the second time in nine days, the Miami Dolphins ran out of players before the end of their preseason game.
Poor Mike White is trying to save his job, but the Dolphins’ backup quarterback has been mostly playing with a bunch of guys this preseason who won’t have a job in two weeks.
Miami Dolphins Injuries Pile Up In Preseason Game 2
When Chris Brooks got hurt in the second half of Saturday’s 13-6 win over the Washington Commanders in exhibition game No. 2, the Dolphins were literally out of running backs.
Jaylen Wright and Jeff Wilson Jr. didn’t even dress for Saturday’s game because of injury. And Mike McDaniel wasn’t about to put Raheem Mostert and De’Von Achane back on the field for a game that was the definition of meaningless.
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So it was up to undrafted rookie wide receiver Je’Quan Burton to finish out the game at halfback. Burton was literally learning his assignment on the fly. Credit him for hanging in there, but who was it serving for the Dolphins to even be in that position?
Certainly not White, who has had to play sandlot football in each of the last two weeks.
Certainly not Burton, a longshot who didn’t have the opportunity to do the things he does well — run wide receiver routes and catch passes — ahead of cutdown day.
And certainly not the Dolphins’ paying customers and those watching on TV.
The preseason’s primary purpose is to make money for the NFL, and owners have been loath to part with the extra revenue those games bring in.
But those teams that prioritize winning over profits should speak up and say, “Enough is enough.”
Three preseason games is one too many. We’ll say it — even if Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel was reluctant to do so here late Saturday.
“That’s a tricky, tricky question because I think for me, the injuries are part of the game,” McDaniel said.
“You do have to create some competitive environments to really assess who those 53 and 69 are. There’s several years that stand out that the third and fourth preseason games were the reason why long-tenured players in an organization were there to stay. That being said, there was the same resistance to changing the fourth preseason game. For me, I’m just making sure that I have all of my attention on things that I can control.
“I think that guys need the opportunity. How much or how many opportunities we get in the preseason, that’s up for debate. I know there’s a lot of good competitions being settled right now in the NFL and there are also a lot of good amount of injuries.”
The Dolphins had at least five of them Saturday. Brooks, linebacker David Long Jr., wide receiver River Cracraft, cornerback Cam Smith, and offensive lineman Sean Harlow all left the game and did not return.
Asked if any of those injuries were particularly concerning or alarming, McDaniel replied:
“I haven’t gotten wind of anything that’s majorly extensive, but that doesn’t mean that there wasn’t one. It’s just the communication as you’re going through one of those games and, you know, there was a good amount of injuries on both sides.
“It’d be inaccurate if I said there was nothing. However, during the game, I didn’t have any updates of things that were what you hate to hear in games like that. But you don’t like to see anybody go down. We had a couple of guys go down so we’ll, we’ll have to assess that. Probably all day long.”
Time is short. The Dolphins will be back on the field for yet another meaningless game in six days.
