Miami Dolphins Complete Roster Cuts

The Miami Dolphins completed their roster cuts on Saturday, meeting the NFL's deadline for submission of the 53-man roster.  The team came out of the Dallas Cowboys game with 79 players on the roster.  They began the purge with the waiving of wide receiver John Matthews and the terminating of safety Gerald Alexander's contract last night.

Today, the news slowly leaked out of Miami about who the Dolphins were keeping and who they were cutting.  In the end, the Dolphins terminated the contracts of six players, waived another twenty, and placed on on injured reserve.

Some of those cut from the 2011 roster could be considered mild surprises, such as fullback Lousaka Polite, cornerback Will Allen, and running back Larry Johnson, not necessarily because the moves came out of nowhere, but more because they had played well in the preseason, previously in Miami, or were in a position with limited depth.  Several Phinsider members had commented on all three of these guys, expressing their belief that they would be gone, but still, once it's happened, it is a little surprising.

Another group of the cuts came from players who could have been seen as guys making the roster.  These include backup quarterback Pat Devlin and cornerback Nate Ness.

Overall, however, of all the Dolphins' cuts, none of them could be seen as shocking moves.  Perhaps the most unexpected was the naming of tackle Lydon Murtha to the injured reserve.  Murtha had seen success during the preseason in his role as the team's starting left tackle while Pro Bowler Jake Long recovered from injury.

Murtha's performance led many to speculate that he would eventually be moved over to the right tackle position to take over from the struggling Marc Colombo.  Now, Murtha will not be able to see the field again until 2012.

The complete list of the Dolphins' roster moves is below: