Trey Moore had just made the most significant play of his preseason as a rookie.
The Miami Dolphins rookie had shed his block and began pursuing Jameis Winston, reaching the New York Giants’ backup quarterback in time to whack him good with a legal hit.
The play ended up being an incomplete pass that left the end zone, but it also led to a troublesome injury for Moore, the Dolphins’ 2026 fourth-round pick who was in the driver’s seat to become Miami’s starting strong-side linebacker for game 1.
In the snap of a finger all the progress he had made, all the potential he had shown, was gone.
How long the promising rookie will be sidelined is unknown.
His injury was the third Miami’s linebacker unit had suffered since training camp opened. As a result, what was perceived as the Dolphins’ deepest position unit (linebackers) quickly becomes the thinnest.
Jordyn Brooks, the NFL’s leading tackler in 2025, has been shelved by what appears to be a lower extremity injury since Miami’s joint practice against the Washington Commanders, which took place 12 days ago.
Then during Thursday’s joint practice against the New York Giants, Tyrel Dodson, last year’s starting inside linebacker, seemingly sustained an undisclosed injury before Miami and the Giants began their 11-on-11 work.
If the injuries to Moore and Dodson are serious, all three of Miami’s projected starting linebackers aren’t available for next Friday’s preseason finale against the Atlanta Falcons, and their availability for Miami’s Sept. 14 regular-season opener against the Las Vegas Raiders deserves a question mark.
Their injuries, and possible absence will likely lead the elevation of rookies who might not be ready for playing time (Kyle Louis), or starting roles (Jacob Rodriguez), and should prompt Miami’s talent evaluators to add linebacker to the lengthy list of positions that should be targeted for player poaching when NFL teams trim their 90-player training camp roster down to 53 players on Aug. 30.
That’s at least 1,184 football players and NFL hopefuls up for grabs.
The individuals who put this rebuilding team together aren’t going to openly say it, but this roster isn’t talented enough to be competitive for a 17 game season.
This roster lacks a lot of things, but atop the list is depth.
If general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and his staff are doing their job properly they will view cut-down day as a supplemental draft because it provides the Dolphins an opportunity to add young, and cheap talent to this talent-starved squad.
Most teams will waive a dozen-plus players with the intent of signing them to their 16 practice squad.
Considering Dolphins have roughly 40 players on this training camp roster who legitimately belong on a 53-man roster, Sullivan should be aggressive with claiming players or poaching them off practice squads.
That’s how the Dolphins landed Zach Sieler in 2019, and he has become an established starter since then. Miami also claimed NFL starting receiver Mack Hollins off the waiver wire that season, and he helped that team win five games.
Rummaging the waiver wire, or poaching from the practice squad is how the Dolphins got cornerback JuJu Brents and tight end Greg Dulcich last time this year.
Both are viewed as top talents on this year’s team and projected starters.
The past two preseason games should prove that this Dolphins team needs reinforcements.
Miami should be searching for a better backup quarterback, more depth at receiver, tight end and offensive line help, which this organization already traded away a future draft pick to get last week (Caedan Wallace).
On defense the Dolphins seemingly need to upgrade the edge rusher position, cornerback and safety, and that doesn’t even include players Miami needed to address the numerous injuries that have watered down the defensive line and linebacker unit.
If a player was high on Miami’s 2026 draft board, or Sullivan and his scouts coveted [insert name here] in the 2024 or 2025 draft, and they’re available on Aug. 30 (or the next two days) for whatever reason, this is Miami’s chance to give that talent a test drive.
All it would mean is Miami would expose one or 10 of their own bubble players (defensive lineman Matthew Butler, rookie tight end Seydou Traore, cornerback Marco Wilson) to the waiver wire.
It’s not as if teams will be salivating for much of the Dolphins’ leftovers, so be aggressive.
In 2019 the Dolphins added 20 waiver-wire claims, or practice squad call-ups that season, and the bulk of the newcomers came in the opening week of the regular season.
The running joke from players on that Brian Flores-led team was that the established players had not learned some of the newcomers’ names before the season opening beatdown Miami took from the Baltimore Ravens in that game, so they had to call players by their number when communication on the field.
It’s about time for another infusion of strangers.
This story was originally published August 22, 2026 at 6:27 PM with the headline “Kelly: Preseason exposed how talent-starved Dolphins 2026 roster is | Opinion.”
