The Dolphins and One-Day Contracts, Honor Roll and Retired Jerseys

With talk of the Buffalo Bills looking to sign Ryan Fitzpatrick to a one-day contract, we examine the Miami Dolphins history regarding that practice

Since Ryan Fitzpatrick's retirement became public late last week, there's been talk of the Buffalo Bills signing him to a one-day contract so he can officially retire as a member of the organization.

This comes in the aftermath of another former Dolphins player doing the same thing when Frank Gore signed a one-day contract with the San Francisco 49ers.

The Miami Dolphins were big on the idea of one-day contracts a few years ago and they certainly have a good candidate with Cameron Wake, who hasn't played in the NFL since 2019.

There currently are no plans for such a move and Wake certainly isn't someone who has sought the spotlight, but it would be a good way of honoring the team's best player of the 2010s.

Wake recorded 98 sacks during his 10 seasons with the Dolphins (2009-18) before he spent one year with the Tennessee Titans.

The offseason obviously is the time of year when such things happen, and it's when it happened with the Dolphins in 2017 and 2018 when they signed six players to one-day contracts each year.

In 2017, it was Marino, Bob Griese, Larry Little, Nat Moore, Kim Bokamper and Sam Madison, followed in 2018 by Paul Soliai, Chris Chambers, Vernon Carey, Jeff Cross, A.J. Duhe  and Brandon Fields.

The Dolphins previously had done this with Zach Thomas and Richmond Webb.

DOLPHIN HONOR ROLL

While the Dolphins haven't signed anybody to a one-day contract since 2018, they haven't added to the Dolphin Honor Roll since 2014 when Manny Fernandez was recognized — though COVID-19 made it unrealistic to add anybody the past two seasons.

But moving forward, the Honor Roll is another way the Dolphins could honor Wake. He currently stands as the only player to be selected to the Pro Bowl at least five times with the team not on the Honor Roll.

The other players with five or more Pro Bowl selections with the Dolphins: Marino (9), Zach Thomas (7), Richmond Webb (7), Griese (6), Bob Kuechenberg (6), Jim Langer (6), Jason Taylor (6), Bob Baumhower (5), Mark Clayon (5), Larry Csonka (5), John Offerdahl (5), Jake Scott (5), Dwight Stephenson (5) and Paul Warfield (5).

JERSEY NUMBERS

When it comes to recognition from a team, there's obviously nothing more significant that a jersey retirement.

The Dolphins have three of those, of course, although we almost could argue that number should be five because another season is upon us and again nobody has been assigned number 54 or number 99.

Those numbers have been out of circulation since Zach Thomas and Jason Taylor played their final game for the Dolphins — in 2007 and 2011, respectively. It's almost as though 54 and 99 are unofficially retired jersey numbers.

The Dolphins haven't officially retired a jersey number since 2002 when they did it for Larry Csonka, who followed Bob Griese in 1982 and Dan Marino in 2000.

The issue with retiring jersey numbers is it's always a tough decision in terms of selecting one player over another. For example, no one would argue about Marino's place as the greatest player in team history, but arguments could be made that the team's other Hall of Famers like Dwight Stephenson, Jim Langer, Larry Little and Nick Buoniconti, for example, are as deserving as Csonka and Griese.

INGRAM'S NUMBER OPTIONS

For those who care about such things, here's the breakdown of what number Ingram could end up with for his first season with the Dolphins.

He's listed as a linebacker on the roster, and per NFL rules now applicable he can wear anything from 1-59 or 90-99.

With 12, 13, 39, 54 and 99 out of circulation, Ingram's only option at this time would be 16 — unless there's some kind of swap with a teammate.