Laird Lands on IR and the RB Room

In a move that really shouldn't have been a surprise, the Miami Dolphins placed running back Patrick Laird on injured reserve Wednesday, three days after he sustained a knee injury in the 20-9 victory against the New York Giants.

The news came after NFL Network's Tom Pelissero reported Monday that Laird had sustained a sprained MCL when Giants edge defender Quincy Roche fell on him while sacking Tua Tagovailoa inn the first quarter.

Laird's injury is the latest setback for the Dolphins running room, as he will join Malcolm Brown on IR.

Brown already has missed six games because of a quad injury and even though he's been eligible to return for the past three weeks, there's no indication yet that he's close to being back in the lineup.

With the Dolphins in their bye week, it certainly didn't make any sense for him to be designated for return and to waste a week of practice evaluation considering the team will be off until next Monday following its walk-through Wednesday.

Newcomer Phillip Lindsay also is injured, though there's reason to hope he could be back for the game against the New York Jets on Dec. 19 considering he practiced last week before being inactive against the Giants.

THE DOLPHINS PRACTICE SQUAD RUNNING BACKS

The Dolphins certainly aren't without options if they need to beef up the running back position for a game or two because they also have veteran Duke Johnson and rookie seventh-round pick Gerrid Doaks on the practice squad.

Doaks really flashed in the preseason finale against the Cincinnati Bengals back in October and the Dolphins have protected him from practice squad poaching on a weekly basis, so they clearly like his potential — though not enough yet to have used him in a regular season game.

Johnson was elevated for the first game against the Jets on Nov. 21 and gained 18 yards on four rushing attempts.

That's, of course, in addition to starter Myles Gaskin and Salvon Ahmed, who shared running back reps after Laird.

Whether the Dolphins decided to make a move at running back for the Jets rematch likely will come down to whether Lindsay can play.

THE DOLPHINS INJURED RESERVE LIST

Laird becomes the 12th player on the Dolphins' injured reserve list, joining WR Lynn Bowden Jr., Brown, CB Elijah Campbell, T Larnel Coleman, WR Will Fuller V, WR Allen Hurns, T Greg Little, OL Greg Mancz, DB Jason McCourty, CB Jamal Perry and LB Brennan Scarlett.

Of those, Bowden, Coleman and Hurns were placed on IR before the cuts to the 53-player limit, which means they're out for the season.

Head coach Brian Flores has said that McCourty and Perry both sustained season-ending injuries.