After injuries and OBJ’s release, the Miami Dolphins have a hole at receiver

The Miami Dolphins might have a hole at wide receiver.

Jaylen Waddle hasn’t been seen on the field since he sustained a knee injury in the second quarter of the Houston Texans game that now has him “day-to-day” for the week, per coach Mike McDaniel. Grant DuBose’s horrific head injury against the Texans landed him on injured reserve. And Tyreek Hill, who also didn’t practice Wednesday due to veteran rest, has taken to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, to seemingly plot his next move.

The bottom line: the Dolphins had only two receivers on the active roster — River Cracraft and Malik Washington — at Wednesday’s practice, an even bigger blow considering last week’s release of Odell Beckham Jr. and Dee Eskridge’s nagging knee injury. And although the Dolphins did add Isaiah McKenzie to their practice squad, Miami will certainly have to rely more on Cracraft and Washington.

“When somebody gets hurt or somebody gets banged up, you have to prepare as if they aren’t playing to get the guys who haven’t been out there ready,” Cracraft said, later adding “It’s an extra incentive to stay extra locked and extra focused to try to make some plays at the end of the day.

Sunday, however, was far from Cracraft’s best outing. His Pro Football Focus grade — 45.8 — was the sixth worst among all Dolphins offensive players. Though he recorded his first catch of the season, he also drew a face mask penalty that was declined.

“I’m not too happy about my performance, but I was glad I got out there,” said Cracraft who injured his shoulder in the Dolphins’ Aug. 17 preseason game against the Washington Commanders. Cracraft, 30, spent several weeks on injured reserve before being activated on Nov. 11. In just his first taste of snaps since mid-August, Cracraft took solace in finally “getting in the action.”

Added Cracraft: “To come off of injury — I know it was a whole ago now for me — but that was my first catch this year so taking a hit like made me real confident about my body and that everything is holding up.”

Washington, on the other hand, is in the midst of the best stretch of his young career. The rookie receiver led the team in receiving yards (52) and was tied for third in targets (six) against the Texans. In the Week 14 matchup with the New York Jets, the rookie receiver took a kickoff return 45 yards to set up the Dolphins’ game-tying field goal.

“Just taking what happens in practice and taking it to the game,” Washington said of his recent uptick in performance. When asked about his preparation for Sunday’s game against the San Francisco 49ers, Washington explained that it was business as usual. “No different than any other week. Prepare to come in and contribute. Prepare to come in and be at my best. Be the guy that I need to be, be the guy who they drafted me to be.”

Washington’s five catch, 52-yard performance earned him the second-highest grade by PFF among all Dolphins offensive players as well as praise from his starting quarterback.

“Malik is smart,” Tua Tagovailoa said Wednesday. “He understands where he needs to be in the timing of the play. He understands what he needs to do in terms of the run game. There’s really not much you need to tell him, and that’s saying a lot especially in this offense with the verbiage being a lot. ”

Washington’s emergence comes amid a relatively down year for Hill who very well could not crack 1,000 yards this season after a rather dismal two-catch, 36-yard performance against the Texans. His seven-word tweet – “It’s time for me to go coach” — sent shockwaves throughout the NFL as many outlets speculated that he could potentially want out from Miami. A subsequent tweet roughly five hours later – “Got yall exactly how I want” — confirmed that he was trolling though it made for a rather lighthearted moment during McDaniel’s Wednesday news conference.

“I guess I read it as he’s talking about coaching,” McDaniel said. “There’s not a comma, but probably when he was typing, it was a comma. I don’t know. He was in great spirits in walk-through. So maybe he just wanted you to ask me in my press conference, but you’ll have to ask him exactly what he meant.”

Regardless of the very real injuries that have once again depleted the receiver room, it will be intriguing to see how the Dolphins handle their last three games. There could be arguments made for resting certain players as Miami’s playoff chances get slimmer and slimmer with a 6-8 record. Then again, everybody wants to finish the season strong, something Tagovailoa emphasized on Wednesday.

“Finishing with a winning record for me, for sure, is always something that I want to do,” Tagovailoa said, “but it’s also something that we’re trying to do collectively as a team to try to finish the season out the way we said we wanted to where we’re not rolling over, we’re not laying down and we’re going to put our best football out there and that’s what it’s going to be.”