Just guessin’ on Preston
WR Williams is day-to-day with a right foot injury, but Dolphins preparing to play without starting receiver
The right foot injury starting receiver Preston Williams suffered in the Miami Dolphins’ 34-31 win over the Arizona Cardinals wasn’t as serious as it looked after the second-year player was carted off the field.
A day after the injury coach Brian Flores said Williams is considered to be day-to-day.
While Flores acknowledged it’s too early to determine if Williams will be able to practice this week, or healthy enough to play in this Sunday’s home game against the Los Angeles Chargers, the injury doesn’t appear to be serious enough to end the receiver’s season.
“We’re evaluating the situation. He’s a tough kid and he’ll try to fight through it,” Flores said Monday evening when asked for an update on Williams, who suffered the foot injury while catching a 9-yard touchdown. “We’ll see how it goes.
“Hopefully he’ll do everything he can to get back and we’ll evaluate [how he looks],” Flores continued on Williams, who has contributed 288 yards and four touchdowns on his 18 receptions this season.
Without Williams on the field last Sunday quarterback Tua Tagovailoa leaned heavily on DeVante Parker, who caught six of the seven passes thrown his way, turning them into 64 receiving yards.
And Mack Hollins, who caught an 11-yard touchdown on his first and only catch of the season, Jakeem Grant, and Malcolm Perry handled the bulk of the receiver reps the rest of the game.
Hollins, who serves as Miami’s top gunner on punt coverage, and Grant, the Dolphins’ top kickoff and punt returner, are major special teams contributors, so expanding their roles on offense could impact their performance in the third phase of the game.
“Mack has done a good job in the kicking game and practices hard,” Flores said of Hollins, who has started three of the 40 games he’s played the past four seasons. “He makes a few plays in practices every week.”
The Dolphins do have some young receivers that could potentially enter the playing-time equation — possibly in a platoon role — if they show they’re worthy this week in practice.
The Dolphins have been investing playing time in Perry, the former Navy quarterback Miami selected in the seventh round of the 2020 draft, the past two games. But those snaps haven’t exactly produced favorable results yet.
Lynn Bowden Jr., a rookie receiver the Dolphins acquired from the Las Vegas Raiders before the season began after convincing the Raiders brass to part with their 2020 third-round pick and a 2021 sixth-round selection for a 2021 fourth-round pick, is one of the more talent weapons in Miami’s arsenal. However, the former Kentucky quarterback making the transition to receiver is on the NFL’s COVID-19 reserve list.
It’s unclear if Bowden tested positive for the coronavirus, or if he came into contact with someone who was COVID-19 positive, and needed to be quarantined from the team. His status will likely be clarified later this week.
Kirk Merritt, a rookie receiver from Arkansas State, was called up from the practice squad last weekend and put on Miami’s game-day roster. But he didn’t get any offensive snaps.
The Dolphins also have rookie Matt Cole and former NFL starter Antonio Callaway on the team’s practice squad. Callaway is coming off his first week of practice with Miami after an eightgame suspension for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy, which concluded last week.
Callaway, a former University of Florida standout, started 13 of the 20 games he played in two seasons with the Cleveland Browns before getting into legal trouble that led to his release and the suspension. In those 20 games he caught 51 of the 94 passes thrown his way, turning those receptions into 675 receiving yards and five touchdowns.
But there is concern about how much of Miami’s offense Callaway knows, and can properly execute. Miami would have to call Callaway up from the practice squad for him to play in a game.
Fortunately for Tagovailoa, he has extensive experience working with some of these young receivers from his time as Ryan Fitzpatrick’s backup earlier this season, which put him in position to run the scout team offense that got the first-team defense prepared for each week’s opponent.
“We have a lot of young guys and hopefully if they happen to play they’ll go in and play well,” Flores said. “We got to practice well, prepare well and hopefully execute in the game.”