It didn't take long for Ryan Miller to find a new home after being shown the door by the New York Giants on Monday. Just 24 hours after general manager Joe Schoen and the front office waived him, the Miami Dolphins swooped in on Tuesday to claim the 26-year-old wide receiver/special teams ace off waivers.
The move is a classic back-end roster switch-up. To clear a spot for Miller, Miami waived former 2025 seventh-round draft pick Tahj Washington. Ironically, Miller's last weekend with Big Blue ended right after the Giants gobsmacked those same Dolphins in a 26-3 preseason win on Saturday, apparently giving the Phins an up-close and personal look at Miller before bringing him in.
For Miller, the waiver claim offers an immediate lifeline, especially with roster-cut day right around the corner. The former Furman standout originally joined the G-Men last December, when he was claimed off waivers from Tampa Bay.
Even though he never played a regular-season snap for New York, he re-upped on a one-year deal earlier this offseason. And after he went ghost mode in the second preseason game, cutting ties with him became a no-brainer.
Giants’ crowded WR room made Ryan Miller the obvious odd man out
Miller was caught in a numbers game that he was never going to win.
When training camp opened, the uphill battle for the 6-foot-2, 221-pounder looked like Mount Everest. Dan Duggan of The Athletic rightly noted early on that Miller’s only prayer of making the 53-man roster was to absolutely dominate on special teams. And unfortunately, that rather dramatic breakout simply never materialized.
It didn’t help his case that there are about three other special teams contributors moonlighting as wideouts on the roster.
Miller initially looked like he might have a real chance to fight for a spot on the 53-man roster through the third phase, but that hope evaporated faster than acetone as the offseason progressed.
Schoen aggressively overhauled the receiver room, signing Darnell Mooney, Calvin Austin III, Odell Beckham Jr., Braxton Berrios, and JuJu Smith-Schuster, while also trading up for third-round rookie Malachi Fields.
Buried under the incoming wave of bodies, Miller quickly fell to the bottom of the depth chart. The writing was on the wall as soon as those pens hit paper, and after a quiet summer, his release became inevitable.
The fourth-year pro caught one pass for 14 yards in the preseason opener against the Minnesota Vikings and finished with a completely empty stat sheet in 38 snaps against Miami.
Like winter, more cuts are coming to the wide receiver room. The Giants already let go of JuJu Smith-Schuster, and with 11 camp bodies competing for six or seven spots and the roster deadline looming, the pruning is far from over. And with Malik Nabers nearing a Week 1 return, head coach John Harbaugh’s vision for the final receiver room is only getting clearer.
Miller was simply among the first to go, but he won't be the last casualty in this crowded room.
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