Dolphins’ Walt Aikens benched after arriving late for a meeting
Walt Aikens is one of the Dolphins’ best special teams players, but was a healthy scratch Sunday.
Why?
Because Adam Gase practices what he preaches when it comes to accountability.
Aikens was late for a team meeting this week, according to a league source, and so Gase made him one of the Dolphins’ seven inactives.
The Dolphins didn’t particularly miss him; they dominated the Steelers 30-15, and other than a blocked field goal, had no major special-teams breakdowns.
Aikens was benched just three days after Gase said this about him:
“I mean for as good of a special teams players as he was, I think he’s really, really made some strides [on defense],” Gase said. “It seems like he had some nagging injuries early in training camp and early in the season, and now I feel like he looks as close to 100 percent as possible.”
This isn’t the first time Aikens has been punished in this fashion. Joe Philbin made him inactive on the last week of the 2014 season for violating a team rule.
Adam H. Beasley: 305-376-3565, @AdamHBeasley
This story was originally published October 16, 2016 at 5:18 PM with the headline "Dolphins’ Walt Aikens benched after arriving late for a meeting."