Dolphins make five roster moves, including with two Canes. And McDaniel addresses issues

The Dolphins reached Tuesday’s 80-man roster limit by releasing two former Miami Hurricanes and placing two players on injured reserve.

Former Hurricanes Sheldrick Redwine and Deandre Johnson were among three players waived, along with punter Sterling Hofrichter, who was beaten out by veteran Thomas Morstead.

Meanwhile, the Dolphins placed veteran cornerback Mackensie Alexander on injured reserve, meaning he cannot play for the Dolphins this season unless he and team reach an injury settlement, he goes on waivers and then re-signs with Miami.

Alexander was signed last week to bolster cornerback depth in the wake of Trill Williams’ season-ending ACL injury.

Cornerbacks Alexander, Nik Needham and Keion Crossen all sustained injuries in Saturday’s preseason loss to Las Vegas.

Coach Mike McDaniel said Needham is fine and will practice this week. Crossen “is day-to--day”; the team will be cautious with his undisclosed injury.

Asked if the team might pursue another veteran cornerback after losing Alexander, McDaniel said: “I would be a lot more concerned if I didn’t really like the guys on our roster. [General manager] Chris [Grier] and his staff are preparing for who is going to be out there in a week” during final roster cutdowns.

McDaniel said the Alexander news “was unfortunate for him. We feel like we just got him and he was doing some good work.”

The Dolphins also placed fullback John Lovett on season-ending injured reserve. Alec Ingold is expected to be the Dolphins’ fullback.

Redwine was released after battling Clayton Fejedelem, Elijah Campbell, Verone McKinley III and others for the No. 4 safety job behind Jevon Holland, Brandon Jones and Eric Rowe.

Redwine — who has appeared in 33 NFL games, mostly for Cleveland — appeared as a backup in four games for the Dolphins last season.

Meanwhile, Johnson was the first edge player cut in a highly competitive battle for backup jobs. Undrafted rookie edge player Owen Carney Jr. survived this round of cuts. The Dolphins moved him from defensive end (his college position) to linebacker in the spring.

Johnson had 4.5 sacks in his one season at UM last year after producing 10 sacks in four years at Tennessee.

NFL teams must trim from 80 players to 53 by 4 p.m. next Tuesday Aug. 30.

THIS AND THAT

▪ McDaniel expressed only mild concern for the mostly unproductive preseason running game. Miami is running vanilla offensive plays.

Also, Raheem Mostert hasn’t taken a carry in preseason, and likely starter Chase Edmonds has only three carries in preseason. Miami also played both preseason games so far without fullback Ingold and left tackle Terron Armstead, who should be fine for the Sept. 11 opener against visiting New England.

McDaniel said the running game has been torpedoed at times by “one or two things....I want stuff better than that Raiders game. I want us to run the ball well. We’re going to be fine moving forward. We have to get better from stuff. That’s what I’m concerned about.”

McDaniel said “I’m firmly believe” a fullback will help. “Alec will get some time Saturday [against the Eagles]” and in joint practices this week.

Ingold sustained an ACL injury for the Raiders in Week 10 last season and has been limited at times in camp. He said he will be fine for the opener.

▪ The Dolphins will conclude training camp with joint practices with the Philadelphia Eagles on Wednesday and Thursday at 10:15 a.m. Both are open to the public. The teams then will play at 7 p.m. Saturday at Hard Rock Stadium in the preseason finale for both teams.

“Joint practices are my favorite part of the preseason,” McDaniel said. “It’s such a great opportunity for both sides to defend against and run your offense against different techniques, coverages, alignments. Training camp does become monotonous to guys. It’s a great way to break stuff up.”

▪ McDaniel said he has not decided if starters will play Saturday. If starters don’t play, they would go three weeks without playing in a game.

Would McDaniel be comfortable going three weeks without his starters playing in a game? He said that decision will be made individually.

“Some guys that’s not as big a deal for because they’re vested veterans,” McDaniel said. “You’re also trying to weigh the risk” of injury.

▪ McDaniel said tight end Hunter Long “had his best week of practice last week and played very good [against the Raiders]. He started off really, really good in OTAs. Then there was a time when he wasn’t making that many plays in the run and pass game.

“His position coach, Jon Embree, had a heart-to-heart with him a week ago. And he really turned it up.”