Lester Cotton poised to play for Miami Dolphins

Lester Cotton has been waived five times during his NFL career. But the former Central-Tuscaloosa and Alabama standout has persevered to the point where he might make his third NFL start on Sunday.

Miami left guard Isaiah Wynn suffered a quadriceps injury on the Dolphins’ fifth offensive snap in Sunday night’s 31-17 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, and Cotton completed the game at that spot. After playing 12 offensive snaps in Miami’s first six games this season, Cotton played 44 against the Eagles.

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The Dolphins placed Wynn on injured reserve this week, but they’re keeping their plans at left guard for Sunday’s game against the New England Patriots close to the vest.

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Miami coach Mike McDaniel also floated Robert Jones and Liam Eichenberg as candidates this week. Eichenberg was deemed the least likely for left guard because he’s started three of the past four games at center with regular Connor Williams dealing with a groin injury. Jones started seven games last season, but he hasn’t played with Miami’s offense in 2023.

“I think one of the best parts of practice this week is the way the guys have gone after executing the specifics of that position,” McDaniel said on Friday. “I’m feeling very confident in the way we finished the game. I loved Lester Cotton’s reps. It’s hard to keep Rob off the field. He’s an ascending player. We might try to find a way get him on the field at some point. Like I’ve been telling you guys, Liam has been playing — I just love how he evolves every game and gets better at certain things. So with his commitment to the center position this week, the one thing we’ve had to make sure of is, all right, we’re going to commit him to working with Connor and see how that plays out. He has the ability to play guard, but I’m very confident in Lester and Rob and just what they’ve put on tape this week.”

Cotton entered the NFL as an undrafted rookie with the Oakland Raiders after starting for two seasons at Alabama, including for the 2017 CFP national championship team. Cotton came to Alabama as a 2014 Parade All-American and an All-State selection at Central-Tuscaloosa.

Cotton played one special-teams snap as a rookie in 2019 and got on the field for 11 plays as a practice-squad callup in four games in 2021. In 2020, Cotton failed to make the regular-season roster coming out of the preseason and was not re-signed for the practice squad as he was in 2019 and 2021.

Cotton played 23 offensive snaps in the Raiders’ season-opening game in 2022, then made his first NFL start and played all 67 snaps at right guard in the second contest. After that, Cotton’s action was limited to 40 special-teams plays in eight games before he went on injured reserve on Dec. 3 and was waived on Dec. 15.

Picked up by the Dolphins on Dec. 20 for their practice squad, Cotton was pressed into duty for a postgame game when Eichenberg was unable to play at left guard. Cotton played every snap there in Miami’s 34-31 loss to the Buffalo Bills on Jan. 15.

On Sunday night against the Eagles, Cotton was called for the first two penalties of his NFL career – a holding call that nullified a first-quarter touchdown pass and a false start.

“I think Lester is a very accountable person and has come as far as really anybody that we’ve had on the roster since he joined the team last year,” McDaniel said on Monday. “I think it’s a tough spot to be in — to go out there and perform against a front like that. There’s some stuff that I know he can do better, that he would do better if he had the whole practice week as the starter. So first and foremost, I believe in the player and lost zero confidence in him, but he’ll be the first one to say that there’s some stuff that he would expect to be better at.

“And Rob has been working his tail off to get in the position that he’s in right now to be able to actively play, so like I said from the beginning, we are fortunate to have depth, and I look forward to Lester getting a lot more reps at the position during the week, because the whole operation, the success that we’ve had up front has all come down to the most minute details that relate to the exact specific techniques and fundamentals of the defensive front. So when you are locked in on that, not only are you cerebrally locked in, but you’ve bought some well-intentioned, deliberate, physical reps to kind of get that down. It’s a game of inches. That cliché is real because that’s where our production comes from.

“Lester is well-prepared for the situation, so is Rob. They’ll be their best selves starting the whole week off with first-team reps as opposed to getting them mid-second quarter or whatever it was.”

The Dolphins and Patriots square off at noon CDT Sunday at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.