Dolphins sign three tryout performers from rookie camp
Rookie camp tryouts were apparently quite fruitful for the Miami Dolphins.
The Dolphins were so impressed with a few of the undrafted talent participating in camp they signed three tryout performers.
Miami added Rutgers center Ireland Brown, Wisconsin cornerback Jason Maitre, and Virginia Tech defensive tackle Mario Kendricks to the team’s 90-player training camp roster.
Their signings bring the team’s total of rookies on the roster to 22, which includes the seven drafted players.
Maitre played five years at Boston College before transferring to Wisconsin for his final season last year. He started nine games for the Badgers, and had an interception and three passes defended, and produced a solid 85.6 passer rating in his coverage area, with 36 completions in 51 targets for 402 yards (11.2 per catch), per Pro Football Focus.
Maitre has experience playing the nickel spot, so it’s possible his addition was a byproduct of Nik Needham training to become a safety full-time. Coincidentally, he’ll be filling the same role as Needham in Miami’s defense.
Brown, who’s 6-3 and 300 pounds, began his career as a defensive tackle at Boston College, playing 14 games over two seasons, before transferring to Rutgers in the months before the 2021 season.
Rutgers moved him to the offensive line, where he started six games at left guard in 2021, and started 11 games at center in 2022. Last season, he appeared in eight games, but lost his starting job. According to Pro Football Focus, Brown played only 62 snaps on offense all year.
Brown will compete with Andrew Meyer, an undrafted center from UTEP, and Chasen Hines, who spent all last season on Miami’s practice squad, to determine who will serve as Aaron Brewer’s primary backup.
Kendricks played in 56 games in his collegiate career, and made 20 starts. During his playing career the 6-foot, 294 pounder recorded 67 tackles, seven sacks and broke up three passes.
He joins Leonard Payne Jr as the only rookie defensive lineman added to the team this offseason. But the Dolphins did sign seven veteran defensive lineman to help address the free agent defection that Christian Wilkins and Raekwon Davis made when Wilkins signed with the Las Vegas Raiders and Davis signed with the Indianapolis Colts.
Even though undrafted rookies have consistently made it onto the Dolphins’ initial 53-man roster, and even blossomed into immediate starters like Needham and Kader Kohou for the team over the year, it is more realistic that all three of the recent additions are competing for one of the team’s 16 practice squad spots, which typically go to developmental players.
