The Dolphins' Plan for the Kicker Spot

When the Miami Dolphins face the Indianapolis Colts in their 2025 season opener, they'll have someone other than Jason Sanders handling their placekicking chores for the first time in eight years — but that player will not be on the active roster.

Riley Patterson will be the Dolphins' kicker at the start of the season, but he'll be doing so as a practice squad elevation as part of the plan revealed by GM Chris Grier on Wednesday morning.

Patterson was among four kickers who worked out for Miami on Tuesday, along with Greg Joseph, Eddy Pineiro and Zane Gonzalez.

Patterson has spent time with eight teams since going undrafted in 2021 out of Memphis. He kicked for the New York Jets, Atlanta Falcons and Browns last season and was perfect on his three attempts under 40 yards, but struggled from longer distances, converting only 1 of 4 attempts beyond 40 yards.

The Dolphins putting Sanders on IR on Tuesday meant he would miss a game for the first time since he arrived as a seventh-round pick out of New Mexico in the 2018 NFL draft.

The last non-Sanders kicker the Dolphins employed was Cody Parkey, who served in that capacity in 2017 before leaving as a free agent.

Sanders sustained a hip injury during pregame warmups at the preseason finale against the Jacksonville Jaguars, but head coach Mike McDaniel relayed to the media after the game that Sanders wasn't concerned about it.

As McDaniel remarked Monday, Sanders clearly is a better kicker than doctor.

And now the Dolphins will have to be without a kicker who finished the 2024 season by making his last 27 field goal attempts, setting a franchise record in the process.

The question is how long they'll have to be without him.

"Just in terms of Jason, we're so early in the process that with him, we're just going to let him, he started his rehab, let it go and then we'll update you throughout the season," Grier said. "But it's way too early to say right now when he would return."

THE PRACTICE SQUAD PLAN

Grier's approach to use a kicker through practice squad elevations is what the Dolphins did last year with their long-snappers after Blake Ferguson was placed on the Non-Football Injury list.

The Dolphins signed Matt Overton Addington to the practice squad, he was elevated for three games, then replaced by Tucker Addington and after three more games by Zach Triner and then Jake McQuaide.

Grier said the Dolphins would elevate Patterson from the practice squad — saving them a roster spot in the process — three times before taking stock of where things stand, both with Patterson's performance and Sanders' recovery.

If, for example, Sanders isn't close to being ready after those three games and Patterson has been very good, then the Dolphins just might decide to sign him to the active roster so he can continue serving as the kicker.

Grier also indicated the Dolphins likely would use the same approach at running back while Jaylen Wright deals with his leg injury, in part because De'Von Achane is expected back for the regular season opener after missing time with a calf injury.

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