The Miami Dolphins still haven’t seen Odell Beckham Jr. on the practice field and neither Tyreek Hill nor Jaylen Waddle have played in a preseason game yet. To make matters more challenging, River Cracraft went down with an injury Saturday and Willie Snead IV joined Tahj Washington on IR on Monday.
While there’s no reason to think Hill and Waddle won’t be available Week 1, the Dolphins have been forced to dig pretty deep into the depth chart in practices and preseason. Head coach Mike McDaniel hasn’t hated that, though.
“We’ve had a couple lineup changes — I think would be a conservative way to say it — but we’re also getting a very clear picture of some very strong battles and giving guys opportunities,” McDaniel said Monday. “How cool is it, from my vantage point, some of the opportunities that Erik Ezukanma was able to really showcase his talents?
“Some of the younger receivers got a lot of involvement, whether they were getting targeted or not, we got to see really who we’re working with. … There’s so many people to evaluate and this is such a tough roster to make. You do appreciate some clarity with some of those battles when you do have injuries in positions really.”
Ezukanma made the most of his reps Saturday night against the Washington Commanders, finishing with five receptions for 65 yards. No other player on either team finished with more than 34 receiving yards.
Sixth-round rookie Malik Washington is another player who has received additional reps due to the wave of wide receiver injuries. Through two preseason games, he has two receptions for nine yards, 21 rushing yards, and 122 return yards.
With cut day now just a week away, Dolphins coaches have all the info they need to whittle their receiver room down. While it’d probably be better to have the full complement of receivers working together in camp, there’s a silver lining, at least.
