Richard Marshall's days with the Miami Dolphins came to an end this evening, a league source has confirmed.
Profootballtalk.com was the first to report the news.
Marshall, locked in a competition for a starting cornerback job, apparently didn't fit the team's plans because he wasn't going to win the competition and the club decided to go a different direction with its slot corner situation as well.
Today in practice the club used Jimmy Wilson as a first-team player on nickel situations ahead of Marshall. Marshall was curiously used as a safety in that situation.
Interestingly, coach Joe Philbin told the media not to read too much into that.
“It’s just a preparation type of thing covering different potential things that may happen from a depth standpoint," he said.
Hours later, Marshall was gone.
Marshall, by the way, was not having a great preseason. Although he was working hard in practice, he gave up a handful of catches in the last three games. It seemed, frankly, no better than last preseason when Marshall was beaten numerous times but eventually the team found it was perhaps because he was nursing a bad back.
Marshall had surgery on that back and said he was 100 percent this training camp. But the results on the field were no better.
The Dolphins were scheduled to pay Marshall $4.55 million in base salary this year. It's clear the team was going to pay that only if Marshall won the starting job. By cutting Marshall the team saves $4.6 million against the cap.
But Marshall will nonetheless cost the Dolphins $1,166,667 in dead money this year and another $1,166,667 next year. That's a total of $2.333 million in dead money for this player through 2014.
Marshall, who signed a three-year $16 million deal in the spring of 2012, played four games for Miami. He had 17 total tackles and one interception.
This moves strongly suggests Dimitri Patterson has won the starting cornerback job opposite Brent Grimes. At least for now.
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