Updating the Dolphins IR List and What's To Come

The Miami Dolphins now are up to half a dozen players on their injured reserve list.

The latest such move involved wide receiver Anthony Schwartz, who sustained a knee injury during the preseason finale against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Schwartz, who was born in the South Florida town of Pembroke Pines and played two seasons for the Cleveland Browns, was hoping to make the 53-man roster as a long shot or at the very least earn a spot on the practice squad.

Instead, Schwartz joined on IR the following players: WR Tahj Washington, OL Kion Smith, LB Cam Brown, LB Grayson Murphy and OL Sean Harlow. Veteran Willie Snead IV also had been placed on injured reserve but he was released with an injury settlement.

The six players on IR are done for the season unless, like Snead, they get an injury settlement. They can sign with another team immediately after a settlement, but have to wait at least four games to be able to re-sign with the Dolphins.

Along with the players on IR, the Dolphins still have four players on the Active/Physically Unable to Perform list: WR Odell Beckham Jr., LB Bradley Chubb, OL Isaiah Wynn and LB Cameron Goode.

WHAT'S NEXT FOR THE DOLPHINS IR AND PUP LISTS

The Dolphins must trim their active roster to 53 players by 4 p.m. on Tuesday and will have to make a decision on the four PUP players, choosing between moving them to Reserve/PUP or putting them on the active roster.

Any player who starts the season on Reserve/PUP has to miss at least the first four games.

As in years past, the Dolphins will be allowed to designate eight players to return from injured reserve during the regular season, and a designation can be used on the same player twice (counts for one each time).

In a new twist, though, two of those designations can occur Tuesday. In the past, a player had to be on the initial 53-man roster to be eligible to be designated for return, which meant a player had to be cut to make room for the injured player until he could be placed on IR the next day — as was the case with Jalen Ramsey last year, for example.

Based on the outlook of his injury, maybe the most logical candidate to be placed on IR on Tuesday is wide receiver River Cracraft, who sustained an upper-body injury while catching a touchdown pass from Tua Tagovailoa in the preseason victory against the Washington Commanders.

Another part of the IR rule is that each playoff team gets to carry over any IR return designations not used during the regular season and also gets two additional return designations.

The Dolphins used their eight IR return designations last season on Cracraft, Ramsey, Terron Armstead, Robert Jones, Jeff Wilson Jr., Chris Brooks, De'Von Achane and Jerome Baker.