Breaking Down the Christmas Eve Roster Moves

The Miami Dolphins elevated return specialist Tommylee Lewis from the practice squad ahead of the matchup against his former team

Even though Jaylen Waddle and Jevon Holland will be back against the New Orleans Saints on Monday, the Miami Dolphins have decided to once again use veteran Tommylee Lewis as their return specialist for the game at the Superdome.

In one of the four moves the team announced Friday afternoon, the Dolphins elevated Lewis from the practice squad as a COVID-19 replacement.

The Dolphins did the same with center Cameron Tom, while activating running back Gerrid Doaks off the COVID-19 list and restoring him to the practice squad and also signing center Spencer Pulley to the practice squad.

The most noteworthy move involved Lewis, who was a regular standard elevation for the game against the New York Jets last Sunday. Lewis only got a shot at one punt return in the 31-24 victory and it went for 5 yards. Lewis also had two fair catches and all five of the Jets' kickoffs resulted in touchbacks.

The game against the Saints will represent a homecoming for Lewis, who played 49 games for the Saints from 2016-20. Lewis scored four touchdowns during his time with New Orleans, two receiving and two rushing.

His role with the Dolphins, though, should be limited to kick returns, allowed Waddle and Holland to focus on their roles on offense and defense in their return to action after sitting out the Jets game while on the COVID-19 list.

Tom provides insurance at center with Greg Mancz put on the COVID-19 list this week. Tom, who played one game for Miami this season, also is a former Saints player, with 11 games in 2018 and one game in 2020.

Pulley has played 49 games with 26 starts in the NFL, but hasn't appeared in a regular season game since 2019. He started every game for the Chargers in 2017.

Doaks being taken off the COVID-19 list obviously is good news, but it comes at a time when the Dolphins actually have an overabundance of running backs with four on the active roster along with Malcolm Brown having been designated to return and ready to be activated off IR.

So Doaks making his NFL regular season debut still might have to wait.

INJURY REPORT

It was nothing but good news on the Friday injury report because every player on the active roster was a full participant.

That includes both tight end Adam Shaheen (knee) and Phillip Lindsay (ankle), who were listed as limited participants based on the walk-through estimation Thursday.

This means the Dolphins currently have no injury issues outside of the players dealing with COVID-19.

Based on their Friday injury report, it sure looks like the Saints again will be without their two starting tackles, Terron Armstead and Ryan Ramczyk. Armstead was listed as not practicing for a second consecutive day, while Ramczyk (who hasn't played since Nov. 14 because of a knee injury) simply was not included on the injury report (his name disappearing from the report suggests he's no longer on the active roster).