Starting center Deiter headed to IR
MIAMI GARDENS — The Miami Dolphins’ most troublesome unit will be forced to play Sunday’s game against the Indianapolis Colts and beyond without one of its most important players.
Michael Deiter, the starting center, and player responsible for making the majority of the pre-snap line calls and adjustments, is headed to injured reserve after sustaining a foot and quadriceps injury during Wednesday’s practice.
“It’s unfortunate, but we have to move on to the next player, next man on the offensive line,” coach Brian Flores said.
It is possible that Deiter, a former Wisconsin standout the Dolphins selected with a 2018 third-round pick, could return
after three weeks, which is the earliest window allowed for NFL players to be removed from injured reserve because of the league’s new COVID-19 rules.
However, Flores wouldn’t specify the timetable for Deiter’s rehabilitation or indicate if he could return in 2021.
Greg Mancz, a seventh-year veteran the Dolphins traded for in August, will replace Deiter as Miami’s starting center. It’s possible that Jesse Davis would serve as the backup center for Sunday’s game, but Flores admitted that the team is considering promoting Cameron Tom, who has been with the team since the offseason program, up from the practice squad.
Mancz started 28 of the 58 games he’s played in during his previous six NFL seasons, all of which came with the Texans. The 29-year-old spent last year with the Baltimore Ravens on their practice squad, and re-signed with Baltimore in the offseason.
The Dolphins traded for the former Toledo standout, swapping a 2022 sixth-round pick for a seventh-round selection in the same draft, before the NFL’s cut-down day this preseason, hoping he’d become a capable interior lineman and backup center. Bringing Mancz in led Miami to cut Matt Skura, its offseason free-agent center acquisition.
“Smart, tough, competes, picks up the offense quickly and is vocal,” Flores said about Mancz.
Pouncey helping out Dolphins O-line: A slim and trim Mike Pouncey, the former Dolphins Pro Bowl center who retired from the NFL after 10 seasons this spring, attended his second week of Dolphins practices to help out with the offensive line as a volunteer.
Pouncey, who befriended Flores recently because their children play youth football on the same team, was given an open invite from Flores to attend Miami’s practice and provide some guidance, and he’s taken it.
Considering the former first-round pick has lost roughly 60 pounds since retiring, and underwent hip replacement surgery this year, those who want Pouncey to come out of retirement to play again are barking up the wrong tree.
Pouncey said he’s moved onto the next phase of his life, which is the numerous business ventures he and his twin brother, Maurkice Pouncey, a former Steelers standout who also retired this spring, have together.
Flores says Fuller’s “gameready”: Will Fuller practiced without limitations on Friday despite the elbow and chest injury he suffered in last week’s loss to the Raiders, and is expected to play his second game for Miami on Sunday.
Fuller, who did not practice on Wednesday and was limited on Thursday, caught three of the six passes thrown his way last week, and turned them into 20 yards. But he also caught a 2-point conversation that allowed Miami to tie the game and take it to overtime.
“I think Will is gameready,” Flores said Friday. “When he’s been at practices you see some of those things. You use practice, you use the game, and you make that determination. We wouldn’t play someone we didn’t feel confident was ready to play.”