Patterson Out, Gonzalez In — Another Piece of Miami's Roster Falls Apart

The Dolphins released kicker Riley Patterson this week, with ESPN reporting the move was aimed at fixing one of the NFL's worst special teams units. Zane Gonzalez, who is now active on the roster, steps in ahead of Sunday's game against the Jets. It is a clean transaction on paper. In the context of a 0–5 season, it is one more thing that wasn't working.

Patterson's struggles on kickoff coverage were apparently the breaking point. The timing matters — Miami is already cycling through roster spots at a pace that reflects how broadly this rebuild has gone wrong. Storm Duck was released off the PUP list the same day without having played a snap in 2026. Two roster moves, one afternoon, neither one moving the needle on the actual problems.

Gonzalez is a veteran who has been around the league long enough to handle the job. Whether he steadies the coverage unit is a real question, but it is a smaller question than the ones surrounding the offense and the linebacker room, which I've been writing about for weeks now. Special teams was just the latest thing to crack.

At 0–5 and losing by double digits on average, Miami doesn't have the margin for any unit to be a liability. Fixing the kicker is the right call. It just says something about where this season stands that it barely registers.