We're now just hours away from the 4 pm eastern deadline mandated by the league for teams to have their roster down to 53 players. So let's try to predict what the Dolphins roster might look like come Saturday night. And when doing so, keep in mind that the Dolphins do have first dibs on any player that gets placed on waivers (basically, any player that is cut and has 4 or fewer years of experience). But the waiver process takes about 48 hours, meaning those moves won't become official until Monday. Therefore, what the roster looks like on Saturday night likely isn't what it will look like next week. And Monday also is the day teams can begin filling out their practice squads.
So without further ado, below is my projected 53-man roster:
| QB | RB | FB | WR | TE | OL |
| Chad Pennington | Ricky Williams | Boomer Grigsby | Ted Ginn | Anthony Fasano | Jake Long |
| Chad Henne | Ronnie Brown | Derek Hagan | David Martin | Justin Smiley | |
| John Beck | Jalen Parmele | Davone Bess | Justin Peelle | Samson Satele | |
| Patrick Cobbs | Greg Camarillo | Donald Thomas | |||
| Ernest Wilford | Vernon Carey | ||||
| Ike Ndukwe | |||||
| Trey Darilek | |||||
| Shawn Murphy | |||||
| Matt Spanos | |||||
| DL | LB | CB | S | ST | |
| Vonnie Holliday | Channing Crowder | Will Allen | Yeremiah Bell | Dan Carpenter | |
| Jason Ferguson | Akin Ayodele | Andre Goodman | Jason Allen | Brandon Fields | |
| Kendall Langford | Joey Porter | Michael Lehan | Chris Crocker | John Denney | |
| Phillip Merling | Matt Roth | Nathan Jones | Renaldo Hill | ||
| Randy Starks | Charlie Anderson | Joey Thomas | |||
| Rod Wright | Reggie Torbor | ||||
| Paul Soliai | Quentin Moses | ||||
| Edmond Miles | |||||
| Rob Ninkovich |
Last 5 On: Paul Soliai, Patrick Cobbs, Joey Thomas, Edmond Miles, Rob Ninkovich
First 5 Off: Sean Ryan, Reagan Mauia, Lex Hilliard, Anthony Armstrong, Lionel Dotson
Next 5 Off: Titus Brown, Junior Glymph, Will Billingsley, Mike Byrne, Jayson Foster
You'll notice now that I have 9 linebackers making the team. And that's a product if the Dolphins not keeping 4 QBs - following the Josh McCown trade - as well as keeping only 4 safeties, which is pretty much a sure bet now with Keith Davis now gone.
Ninkovich has played well the past 2 weeks and has earned a spot on the roster. Miles, too, has been involved in some positive plays. His special teams contributions also keep him on this roster for now.
So that's how my 53-man roster prediction looks - at least until Monday. And while I'm at it, I'll take a stab at naming the possible practice squad players (from Miami's roster): Anthony Armstrong, Lex Hilliard, Lionel Dotson, Pedro Sosa, Jayson Foster, Will Billingsley, and Anthony Toribio.
So have at it. Make your picks. Who makes it? Who doesn't?