{"id":309212,"date":"2026-06-16T13:59:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T13:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/309212\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T13:59:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T13:59:16","slug":"dolphins-remaking-ol-room-add-former-ufl-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/309212\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolphins remaking OL room, add former UFL safety"},"content":{"rendered":"

A mainstay in the Miami Dolphins\u2019 offensive line room will have to look for work elsewhere.<\/p>\n

The Dolphins released Kion Smith on Wednesday in addition to waiving tackle Carter Warren. Miami also subsequently signed UFL safety Major Burns.<\/p>\n

Smith has been with the Dolphins since 2021<\/a>. He has made 23 appearances and started one game in 2023 as well as another in 2025. An undrafted free agent out of Fayetteville State, he initially signed with the Atlanta Falcons following the 2021 NFL Draft. Smith spent the offseason and training camp with Atlanta prior to joining Miami.<\/p>\n

Warren\u2019s time with the Dolphins was short-lived<\/a> as Miami signed him to a futures contract in early January only to subsequently release the 2023 fourth-round pick in mid-June.<\/p>\n

Burns joins the Dolphins after a successful 2026 season with the Houston Gamblers. In just nine games, he racked up 45 total tackles, four picks and eight pass deflections. Prior to his one-season stint in the UFL, Burns signed with the Chicago Bears as an undrafted free agent, spending some time in the offseason and training camp with the franchise.<\/p>\n

The former LSU standout could potentially compete for a starting safety spot. Miami\u2019s safety room has been a bit of mystery outside of Dante Trader Jr., a second-year player who appears to have taken a big leadership leap, and Burns\u2019 infusion could bread more competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spend a lot of time in the DB room,\u201d coach Jeff Hafley said. \u201cTrader has done a really good job, really kind of helping out those rookies. And even talking to him, through his experience, him having a little bit of help; he feels now like he can help the rookie guys out.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Smith and Warren no longer part of the Dolphins, the need for tackles just increased exponentially. There\u2019s no guarantee that Austin Jackson, who\u2019s played just 32 games since 2022 and wasn\u2019t a full participant in minicamp due to a nagging foot injury, lasts a full season. And while the Dolphins drafted offensive lineman Kadyn Proctor to likely eventually replace Jackson, the team has opted to keep him at left guard for the time being.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s things we can do in individual and do that, so he\u2019s working the fundamentals and the technique, whether it\u2019s pass protection, whether it\u2019s in the run game,\u201d Hafley said. \u201cBut when we\u2019re just talking about schematically learning the playbook, we believe that it\u2019s his best bet not to overload him, like we were just talking about to try to learn too much, and then when it comes down to actually having to play it, you\u2019re not ready to play anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was originally published June 16, 2026 at 6:00 AM.<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

C. Isaiah Smalls II<\/a><\/p>\n

Miami Herald<\/p>\n

C. Isaiah Smalls II is a sports and culture writer who covers the Miami Dolphins. In his previous capacity at the Miami Herald, he was the race and culture reporter who created The 44 Percent, a newsletter dedicated to the Black men who voted to incorporate the city of Miami. A graduate of both Morehouse College and Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, Smalls previously worked for ESPN\u2019s Andscape.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A mainstay in the Miami Dolphins\u2019 offensive line room will have to look for work elsewhere. The Dolphins…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-309212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}