Dolphins lose a rotation player to injury. Brewer on his status, more on Ewers
The Dolphins will be without several veterans on Sunday, including Minkah Fitzpatrick and defensive tackle Benito Jones. Both were ruled out for the home game against Tampa Bay (1 p.m., WSVN 7) because of calf and back injuries, respectively.
Jones was a limited participant in practice earlier this week and did not practice at all Friday. He has played 261 defensive snaps in 14 games, including eight starts.
Meanwhile, Dolphins center Aaron Brewer, who has been dealing with a neck injury, said his availability for Sunday’s game likely would be decided in the hours before kickoff.
“I’m a tough guy; I live on toughness,” Brewer said Friday. “If I’m able to move around, walk and do my job efficiently, I’ll go out there and play.”
The Dolphins listed Brewer as questionable. Also listed as questionable: linebacker Tyrel Dodson (chest) and two players on injured reserve - center Andrew Meyer (triceps) and kicker Jason Sanders (hip).
Receiver Dee Eskridge (toe) is listed as doubtful.
Brewer has played every game this season despite dealing with foot, ankle, neck and knee injuries at different times over the past six weeks.
He would love to be able to extend his consecutive game streak, which stands at 58.
“It’s something I take pride in,” Brewer said. “I look forward to continuing that streak going this year. I don’t look forward to breaking that streak.”
Does the neck injury affect his peripheral vision? “I wouldn’t say me myself,” he said. “But if someone had a neck injury, it probably could affect peripheral vision.”
Brewer said he was disappointed that he wasn’t named to the Pro Bowl team this week. ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky has called him the best center in football. Pro Football Focus ranks Brewer the NFL’s second-best center, behind only Kansas City’s Creed Humphrey.
“Very much so disappointed,” he said. “Anybody who watches football sees the type of work I’ve put on tape every week. I play at a very high level and there are not too many other centers who do the things I do. I definitely feel I was snubbed on the Pro Bowl.”
McDaniel said Meyer likely will be activated from injured reserve before Sunday and will be an option if Brewer cannot play or needs to leave the game. Meyer could take cornerback Isaiah Johnson’s spot on the 53-man roster; Johnson sustained a torn ACL during Tuesday’s practice.
“I’m probably the biggest Andrew Meyer fan out of anybody since he came in last year,” Brewer said. “He’s a great guy, great teammate. I’ve always said since I met him, Andrew is a for sure starter in the NFL. One day, he will be.”
More Ewers feedback
Dolphins passing game coordinator Bobby Slowik said there’s one area, in particular, that Quinn Ewers is not yet at Tua Tagovailoa’s level: anticipation -- in other words, being able to release the pass before the receiver is in position to catch it.
But Slowik said Ewers makes up for it, suggesting that Ewers can get some passes to the receiver more quickly than Tagovailoa.
“Tua is exceptional with anticipatory throws; letting the ball go really early before receivers are out of their break,” Slowik said. “Quinn doesn’t necessarily do that as naturally as Tua but he can make up for it. He’s got a really whippy release. He might throw later, but it might get there at the same time because of how the ball just fires off his wrist.”
▪ Here was Slowik’s full report on Ewers, offered to a few reporters this week:
“He’s got a little confidence to him, a little moxie to him. Everyone saw how he worked, how much he improved…
“He handled the pocket really well. He handled progressions and reads really well. The hardest thing is to handle the operation. There’s a lot on their plate every play and he knocked that out of the park.I know he wants a couple reads back.”
Slowik said “Quinn’s composure in the pocket really stands out. Rarely do you get a guy who steps in right away with the chaos of an NFL pocket and he’s got calm feet and calm eyes. He knows when he had time to buy extra hitches. He navigates the chaos really well.
“There’s people moving everywhere before the ball is snapped, and a lot of that was on Tua. And (Ewers) almost never had an error in that regard, and I think that’s a lot to handle. I think Quinn is working to get there and is pretty dang close, but that’s probably where there’s a few minute adjustments, a little bit of the pre-snap stuff but not a lot. We’re still going to do everything that we do.”
Slowik said there were a couple of plays where he held “onto the ball a little longer than he needed to.”
▪ The Dolphins will decide by 4 p.m. Saturday whether to activate Sanders or stick with Riley Patterson, who has been the Dolphins’ kicker all season while Sanders has recovered from an August hip injury.
Does the uncertainty cause anxiety for Patterson?
“It can if you let it,” he said. “I would like to say I’m not letting it. It’s not something new or weird to me. Jason,... everyone have been great to me.”
Patterson has made 24 of 26 field goals and 31 of 32 extra points.
Here’s what Mike McDaniel said during his Friday news conference.
This story was originally published December 26, 2025 at 3:35 PM.
