As trade deadline looms, here’s what Wilson says. And an interesting McDaniel comparison

A six-pack of Miami Dolphins notes on a Wednesday:

▪ Though his role isn’t what anyone could have expected, Dolphins receiver Cedrick Wilson Jr. said he hasn’t given any consideration to asking for a trade in advance of next Tuesday’s NFL trade deadline.

But a trade cannot be ruled out, considering that Wilson’s playing time continues to diminish, and he would have value in the league after a breakout season for Dallas last year (45 catches, 602 yards, six touchdowns).

The Dolphins acquired Tyreek Hll just 11 days after giving Wilson a four-year, $23 million contract.

He logged just four offensive snaps against Pittsburgh and has played just 90 snaps all season.

Wilson has just four catches for 40 yards, a byproduct of lack of playing time and targets (just seven).

He took over return duties for the first time last weekend, fair-caught three of them and gained 1 yard on one other return.

He returned 18 punts for 69 yards (3.8 per return) in three seasons for Dallas.

As for whether he has considered asking for a trade, Wilson said: “That hasn’t crossed my mind. When I signed here, this is where I wanted to play at. It’s still that way. A trade is not on my mind. That would be left up to people above my pay grade.”

When it was mentioned that he couldn’t have envisioned this season playing out this way for him personally, he said:

“Not necessarily. Every time you come into a situation, you definitely have a vision of what you think is going to happen. But it’s the game of football. I waited four years to get my shot at Dallas, so a couple weeks can’t hurt me until it’s time. When it’s time for me to get the ball, that’s when my job takes over…

“My spirits are always good. I’m playing football for a livelihood. It doesn’t get much easier than that.”

Coach Mike McDaniel said Wednesday that Wilson is “progressing in the offense” after dealing with a rib injury earlier in the season. “It’s less about what he hasn’t done — he’s getting better every week — and more about what a guy like Trent Sherfield has done. You should expect to see more from him as the season progresses.”

▪ What was especially impressive about linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel’s strong work against Pittsburgh is that he had eight tackles on 24 defensive snaps and six on the 19 when he didn’t rush the quarterback.

“I saw Van Ginkel really stop pressing to make plays and played full tilt within the scheme,” McDaniel said. “And as a result, made a ton of plays — strained a ton.”

Van Ginkel said he feels fully back to himself after having his appendix removed in August.

“The worst part was getting my weight back [up],” he said. “I lost 10 pounds [during the appendix ordeal].”

He’s still not getting as many defensive snaps as Jaelan Phillips or Melvin Ingram, but his playing time has increased in recent weeks.

“It’s hard to get a rhythm when you’re playing only special teams,” he said. “I have to take advantage of opportunities they give me.”

He will be a free agent in March.

▪ Brandon Jones will miss the season with a torn ACL, McDaniel said Wednesday. In the process, they lose one of the NFL’s best tackling and blitzing safeties.

With Jones out, the Dolphins could use three or four safeties opposite Jevon Holland. Here’s how the Dolphins safeties did in coverage against Pittsburgh, per Pro Football Focus:

Holland allowed one of two targets to be caught for 8 yards, a 20.8 passer rating in his coverage area.

Rookie practice squad player Verone McKinley III allowed one catch in one target for 7 yards.

Eric Rowe permitted one catch in one target for 21 yards.

Clayton Fejedelem allowed two of four targets to be caught for 18 yards and made a key third-and-1 run stop on Najee Harris.

Jones permitted two of three to be caught for 16 yards before leaving with the injury.

Asked if the Dolphins will have Rowe replace Jones or alternate safeties, McDaniel said: “Packages are ever-changing week by week.”

▪ In the past four weeks, the Dolphins have allowed just 67 first downs. It’s the second fewest allowed by any NFL team that has played every week.

Washington has permitted the fewest with 66.

▪ Former Dolphins linebacker A.J. Duhe — who intercepted Jets quarterback Richard Todd three times during the 1982 AFC Championship Game — made an interesting comparison about McDaniel before the Dolphins’ 50th anniversary celebration on Saturday night.

“Early in the year, when they were 3-0, I was kind of thinking about Mike and saying, ‘Damn man, he may turn out to be an offensive Bill Arnsparger,’” Duhe said of the highly regarded defensive coordinator for the Dolphins’ undefeated team in 1972.

“Kind of like a guy that doesn’t fit the mold of what you think as a coach. Because Arnsparger didn’t fit the mold as a guy you think would be in college, played a little in college as Mike did. I want to give it a few more years [to see if that’s true]. I’m glad to see the team plays with a lot of emotion. That’s something we did back in our day. Playing the game with tons of emotion, being excited about being in there.”

Duhe, who made the 1984 Pro Bowl, didn’t play on the ‘72 team but was among many Dolphins alumni who attended the 50th anniversary event. Dan Marino, Jason Taylor, Mark Clayton, Mark Duper, John Offerdahl, Jeff Cross and Mark Higgs were among many other Dolphins of different eras in attendance.

Duhe worries about violence in the game now, even though the NFL has made helmets safer. “The game is played pretty damn rough today,” Duhe said. “Why do you have to try to hurt somebody? If I had a clean shot at somebody, I would try to tackle them correctly. I would knock the hell out of them, but I wouldn’t try to concuss them or break a bone. I think guys need to have more respect for each other.”

▪ Dolphins-Steelers on NBC drew 16.5 million viewers nationally, making it the most watched of the Dolphins’ past 15 prime-time games. That compares with 25.1 million viewers for the Dallas-Tampa Bay Sunday night opener.

Locally, Dolphins-Steelers was seen in 13.3 percent of Miami-Fort Lauderdale homes with TV sets. Most Dolphins games this season have drawn local ratings in the 10 to 12 range.

CBS assigned No. 5 team Andrew Catalon and James Lofton to Sunday’s Dolphins game at Detroit at 1 p.m. Here are regionalization maps.