Miami Dolphins Waiver Wire Recent History
The annual exercise of NFL teams cutting their active roster from 90 to 53 players is in full swing, and it will be followed shortly thereafter by the annual claiming of players off the waiver wire.
The Miami Dolphins very well could partake of the latter exercise, as they did at this time last year with wide receiver Grant DuBose after he had been cut loose by the Green Bay Packers.
In fact, the Dolphins put in waiver claims throughout the year and already have done so twice in 2025, with cornerback Ryan Cooper Jr. from the Seattle Seahawks and defensive lineman Matthew Butler from the Las Vegas Raiders.
The Dolphins struck big on the waiver wire in 2019 when they claimed a defensive tackle from the Baltimore Ravens who would go on to become one of their most important players on defense, if not the most important, that obviously being Zach Sieler.
But the reality is that Sieler is an outlier and that getting any sort of major contribution from a waiver acquisition is the exception rather than the norm, even if the Dolphins also appear to have hit with linebacker Tyrel Dodson after claiming him from the Seattle Seahawks last season.
And it also should be pointed out those two waiver claims happened during the season, not in the aftermath of the roster cuts.
Regardless, the point is that teams and fans always should be hopeful that any player they claim off waivers can make a significant impact, whether immediate or not, but expectations should be kept at a reasonable level.
And we have the data to back this up.
Because I love to dig into statistical data — maybe I missed my calling — I went back at looked at every waiver pick-up the Dolphins have made since 2010 and the numbers are pretty revealing.
Based on my research, the Dolphins claimed a total of 74 players during that 15-years stretch (2010-24), basically an average of five per year.
Of those 74 players, only 18 wound up starting at least one game for the Dolphins: TE Mickey Shuler Jr., T Will Yeatman, CB R.J. Stanford, CB Dimitri Patterson, DE Avery Moss, CB Ken Webster, S Steven Parker, LB Trent Harris, DE Taco Charlton, G Keaton Sutherland, CB Ryan Lewis, CB Ken Crawley, WR Mack Hollins, Sieler obviously, T Adam Pankey, RB Salvon Ahmed, DB Elijah Campbell and the most recent example, Dodson.
By contrast to the 18 who started at least one game, 35 (almost double) never appeared in a regular season game for Miami.
Of those 18 players with at least one start, Sieler is the only to have started at least 10 games for Miami, though Dodson very well could join him this year.
The total number of starts among the 74 players claimed off waivers over the past 15 years is 121 and Sieler has 53.7 percent of that total with his 65 regular season starts for Miami.
The Dolphins claimed three players off waivers overall in 2024, with TE Jack Stoll joining DuBose and Dodson.
The big year for waiver wire claims, of course, was 2019 when the Dolphins were rebuilding, resetting or tanking depending on how you view it and they kept churning the roster in the hopes of finding some hidden gems.
The Dolphins claimed 20 players off waivers that year, but only two have had even moderate success in the NFL — Sieler and wide receiver Mack Hollins.
Because of their situation, though, the Dolphins wound up employing and starting a lot of those players, which skewed their overall waiver wire numbers of the past 20 years.
Take out 2019, which was an abnormal year in every sense of the word, and the 14 other years produced 54 waiver wire pick-ups and those players combined for 231 games for the Miami (an average of 4.3 per player) and only 21 starts.
So, again, hope for the best when the Dolphins get a player off waivers this week or any point this season, but don’t automatically assume the move will pay off.
The year-by-year rundown of Dolphins waiver wire pick-ups with the number of players acquired that way, the total number of games played for the Dolphins through 2024, and the number of starts also through 2024
2024 — 3 players, 15 total games, 3 starts
2023 — 1 player, 0 games
2022 — 1 player, 0 games
2021 — 5 players, 64 total games, 3 starts
2020 — 7 players, 31 total games, 4 starts
2019 — 20 players, 195 total games, 100 starts
2018 — 4 players, 2 total games, 0 starts
2017 — 5 players, 24 total games, 0 starts
2016 — 6 players, 13 total games, 0 starts
2015 — 6 players, 6 total games, 0 starts
2014 — 4 players, 6 total games, 0 starts
2013 — 5 players, 5 total games, 0 starts
2012 — 8 players, 37 total games, 7 starts
2011 — 2 players, 18 total games, 2 starts
2010 — 7 players, 10 total games, 2 starts
15-YEAR TOTAL: 74 players, 426 total games, 121 starts
