Except for safety Elijah Campbell, every player on the Dolphins’ 53-man roster will be available to play on Monday night at the Steelers, the team revealed after an evening practice in frigid Pittsburgh on Saturday night.
Among players on the 53-man roster, only Elijah Campbell has an injury designation; he is listed as doubtful with knee and ankle injuries.
Running back De’Von Achane, who missed the second half of the Jets game with injuries to multiple ribs, will play in Monday’s 8:15 p.m. game, which will air on ESPN and CBS-4 in South Florida.
Seven Dolphins players who were limited during Friday’s practice were able to practice fully on Saturday evening and are all set to play on Monday: Achane, center Aaron Brewer (ankle), cornerback Rasul Douglas (foot), safety Ifeatu Melifonwu (thumb/two groin muscles), outside linebacker Chop Robinson (oblique), tight end Darren Waller (rest), and long snapper Joe Cardona (hamstring).
Coach Mike McDaniel said center Andrew Meyer likely will not be activated before Monday’s game, though the team listed him as a questionable for the game. In order for Meyer to be eligible to play this season, the Dolphins must activate him by the Wednesday before the season finale at New England. He has been sidelined since the end of preseason with a triceps injury.
Meanwhile, Steelers star T.J. Watt is out after surgery on a partially collapsed lung.
Also out Monday: Steelers offensive lineman Adrus Peat (concussion) and cornerback James Pierre (calf).
Defensive tackle Derrick Harmon (knee) and tight end Darnell Washington (concussion) are questionable.
Night practice
Temperatures at kickoff are expected to be in the teens, but McDaniel said that wasn’t the driving force behind the decision to practice in Pittsburgh on Saturday evening.
“That’s something that we kind of considered in the offseason,” McDaniel said. “The odd part of a schedule is a Monday night on the road. It always feels like you’re so far removed from the last time you were on a football field. Doing it this way allows us our final full-speed practice about 48 hours from kickoff.”
He said acclimating to the weather is “an added bonus that we get to get ourselves into the environment. But realistically, that’s something we’ve been thinking about for a while to keep consistency 48 hours from kickoff having their last activity.”
League fines
The NFL fined Achane and Jaylen Wright for what it deemed a “violent gesture” in their celebration after Achane’s 13-yard touchdown run last Sunday against the Jets.
Achane was fined $8,238, while Wright was fined $6,388.
The Dolphins running backs become the latest among a handful of players who have been fined for a “nose wipe” gesture.
That gesture “has gang connotations; it’s disrespectful,” Troy Vincent, the NFL’s executive vice president of football operations, said in late March when the gesture was banned.
“It’s just where we are in society. Young men, they come from that era, from that age, and they’ve grown up on social media. If anybody Goggled ‘nose wipe,’ you’ll see the language that is used and where that’s affiliated. I think the players know better. I know they know better.”
Defensive line news
The Dolphins’ three rookie defense tackles – Kenneth Grant, Jordan Phillips and Zeek Biggers – have become competent NFL rotation players.
The question is whether more impact plays will follow. Grant has two tackles for loss all season and Phillips has just one. Do they need more of those to become very good defensive linemen?
No, defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver said.
“I don’t measure their success in tackles for loss,” Weaver said. “So much of what they do is unheralded and not on the stat sheet. A lot of the positive plays they have create positive plays for guys around them. A lot of people that benefit from selfless acts they do.”
Brooks and Dodson are so appreciative of the work of the defensive line that they’ve taken out the linemen for dinner on multiple occasions, Grant said.
They enjoy going to Capricco, an Italian restaurant in Pembroke Pines.
Grant says one goal is to generate more negative plays.
Weaver said the rookie defensive linemen are “absolutely” capable of that:
“That comes with football intelligence, gathering football information. You can actively see them calling out plays. Negative plays will come.”
Weaver said Phillips “has been pretty solid for the bulk of the year. Early on he was hanging on blocks too long when there was opportunity to make plays. He remedied that.
“Kenneth turned the page that Cleveland game. Once we got to that Cleveland week and that week of practice, I was like, ‘All right, I think the light switch might have gone off,’ and I don’t ever see that going backwards.”
Grant said he has improved in the area of watching film – and knowing what to look for – by watching Zach Sieler and Benito Jones and taking coaching from Austin Clark.
“I’ve become a better film studier,” he said. “In college, you watch film, but there’s a different way you watch film in the league. Watching how Zach watches film, I try to create that for myself.”
It has helped him learn “a team’s favorite runs and their tendencies.”
This and that
McDaniel on Saturday raved about tight end Greg Dulcich, a capable blocker who has become an asset in the passing game in recent weeks. He had three receptions for 41 yards against the Jets last week.
“Greg has been a very pleasant surprise just in general because you typically don’t have a guy assimilate as fast as he has and that’s a credit to him and ‘Embo’ [Jon Embree] and Frank Smith and Bobby Slowik,” McDaniel said.
“He is very good football player with the nuances of getting leverage on defenders, how to be able to separate from them with an understanding of the timing of the play. Then he is a tough guy to tackle. I knew his hands and ball skills were good and that he had route running ability.”
▪ Dolphins practice squad receiver A.J. Henning on Monday will serve the second game of a two-game suspension for violating the league’s policy on performance enhancing substances.
This story was originally published December 13, 2025 at 9:24 PM.
Barry Jackson
Miami Herald
Barry Jackson has written for the Miami Herald since 1986 and has written the Florida Sports Buzz column since 2002.
