Dolfan Radio | Roster
By Brad Michaels • September 2, 2026
Sunday’s 53 was an opening bid. Monday they collected. Seven waiver claims — most in the league — plus Malik Herring as a free agent. Eight names from the first list are already gone. That is not chaos. That is how a dead-cap team builds a roster when it cannot shop in March.
We said it on cutdown night. The first 53 was not a finished painting. It was a sketch. Twenty-four hours later Jon-Eric Sullivan proved the sentence.
Miami claimed Brady Cook, Justin Joly, Reese Taylor, Marcellas Dial Jr., Julius Wood, Jarrett Kingston, and Chukwuebuka Godrick. Then they signed Herring, a 275-pound edge who spent four years in Kansas City and two Super Bowl rings on the bench. To make the math work they released Clelin Ferrell and A.J. Green III, waived Ethan Bonner, Marques Cox, A.J. Henning, Max Llewellyn, and Josh Priebe, and waived/injured Ben Sims.
Eight in. Eight out. The youngest roster in the league got younger in some rooms and older in one. The quarterback room went from two to three. The edge room swapped a former No. 4 overall pick for a Chiefs reserve who can set an edge. That is the whole week in one paragraph.
Waiver order is last year’s standings with a hangover. Miami sat 11th. You do not get seven awards from 11th unless you put a lot of cards on the table and other buildings passed. Sullivan put the cards down.
| In | From | Why he is here |
|---|---|---|
| Brady Cook, QB | Jets | A third arm who has started NFL games. McCord is still the No. 2. Cook is the insurance policy while McCord learns Slowik’s language in two weeks. |
| Justin Joly, TE | Broncos | Fifth-round rookie. Replaces Sims, who is hurt. Developmental tight end on a roster that is already asking Dulcich to stay healthy. |
| Reese Taylor, CB | Broncos | Secondary was the soft spot before cutdown. Still is. They claimed two corners and a safety instead of pretending Sunday’s five were enough. |
| Marcellas Dial Jr., CB | Patriots | Same room. Same problem. Chris Johnson will play inside and outside. Everybody else is a competition. |
| Julius Wood, S | Cowboys | Fourth safety. Trader, Anderson, and Taaffe are still competing to start. Kyle Louis can slide back there too. They are not locking a name to a sticker. |
| Jarrett Kingston, OT | Texans | Cox and Priebe made Sunday. They did not make Monday. The line is still the season. |
| Chukwuebuka Godrick, OT | Chiefs | Ankle. Claimed anyway. That is a bet on the medical and a bet that the tackle room needed bodies more than it needed comfort. |
| Malik Herring, EDGE | Titans (FA) | Not a waiver claim. A vested veteran. Hafley wanted a bigger end who can set the edge. Ferrell was the name. Herring is the type. |
Sources: club transactions posted August 31, and the league waiver-award list. Practice-squad names can still move if another team poaches.
Ferrell is the headline because he was the fourth pick in 2019. Headlines lie. He was a July signing on a one-year deal in a room that already had Chop Robinson, Josh Uche, and Robert Beal Jr. He did not separate. Herring is 6-3, 275, and the staff used the word physical. That is the identity sentence again. They picked the type over the name.
Bonner making the first 53 and getting waived Monday is the other tell. Camp tape got him on the list. The wire offered two corners they liked better. Green went with him. The first-rounder stays. JuJu Brents and Jason Marshall Jr. stay. Everybody after that was a placeholder.
Henning is the one that will bother people who watched August. He caught the ball in all three preseason games. They kept Ryan Miller as the sixth receiver instead. No wideout came off the wire. Sullivan decided six was enough if one of them was Miller and none of them was a claim. Fair or not, that is the vote.
Llewellyn is a seventh-round kid they just drafted. He is gone from the 53 after one camp. That will look cold until you remember the practice squad exists so seventh-rounders can keep learning without eating a roster spot the week you can claim a veteran.
Nine names agreed to the 16-man squad on Monday: Mark Gronowski, Rodney McGraw, Major Burns, Carlos Washington Jr., Jarquez Hunter, Gottlieb Ayedze, Jeremiah Franklin, Jalen Reagor, Cam Riley. Hunter lasted three days on the 53 last week, got waived Sunday, and is already back in the building. That is the job. The practice squad is where this regime is going to live all year.
Gronowski is the quarterback who lost the room to McCord and Cook. He is still here. If Willis goes down and McCord is not ready, the next phone call is in-house before it is the street.
Monday’s transactions applied to Sunday’s list. This can still move before Las Vegas.
| Pos | On the 53 |
|---|---|
| QB | Malik Willis, Kyle McCord, Brady Cook |
| RB | De’Von Achane, Jaylen Wright, Ollie Gordon II, D.J. Herman |
| WR | Malik Washington, Jalen Tolbert, Caleb Douglas, Chris Bell, Kevin Coleman Jr., Ryan Miller |
| TE | Greg Dulcich, Will Kacmarek, Seydou Traore, Justin Joly |
| OL | Patrick Paul, Austin Jackson, Aaron Brewer, Jonah Savaiinaea, Kadyn Proctor, Caedan Wallace, D.J. Campbell, Andrew Meyer, Jarrett Kingston, Chukwuebuka Godrick |
| DL | Zach Sieler, Jordan Phillips, Zeek Biggers, Keith Cooper Jr. |
| EDGE | Chop Robinson, Josh Uche, Robert Beal Jr., Malik Herring |
| LB | Jordyn Brooks, Jacob Rodriguez, Kyle Louis, Willie Gay Jr., Ronnie Harrison Jr., Jackson Woodard |
| CB | Chris Johnson, JuJu Brents, Jason Marshall Jr., Reese Taylor, Marcellas Dial Jr. |
| S | Dante Trader Jr., Zayne Anderson, Michael Taaffe, Julius Wood |
| ST | Riley Patterson (K), Bradley Pinion (P), Tucker Addington (LS) |
Week 1 is still at Allegiant. Willis is still the starter. McCord has been in the building for a handful of practices. Cook just arrived. Hafley said Tuesday they have a bunch of guys to get up to speed and that the three safeties on the first 53 are still competing. The secondary he is taking to Las Vegas is not the secondary on the Sunday list.
That is the point of the wire. You do not wait for a bye to fix a room that cannot cover. You spend the first waiver cycle like it is free agency for poor teams — because with $180 million in dead cap, it is.
Sullivan told you he would churn the bottom. He churned it before the first Wednesday practice of the regular-season calendar. Believe the next sentence too: this list will move again. A claim in October will not mean Monday failed. It will mean Monday was the start of the job.
Who on this second 53 is a real keeper — and who is already a November cut? Leave it in the comments.