Mason Reiger’s Wisconsin chapter was brief, productive, and typical of the program’s recent NFL pipeline: one year in Madison, real production on the edge, then a long shot in the league. That shot just got shorter.
The Miami Dolphins waived the former Badgers edge rusher with an injury designation and later completed an injury settlement, ending his first professional contract only months after he signed as a priority undrafted free agent.
Reiger arrived in Madison for the 2025 season as a graduate transfer from Louisville after missing all of 2024 with knee complications that once prompted a doctor to float medical retirement.
Wisconsin took the flyer. He started 11 of 12 games at outside linebacker, finished with 33 tackles, 6 tackles for loss, and a team-high 5 sacks, and earned All-Big Ten honorable mention. Pro Football Focus graded him 82.4 overall.
He then won East-West Shrine Bowl defensive MVP honors with a three-sack game, the kind of late-cycle tape that usually keeps a player in the Day 3 conversation.
Wisconsin still went without a drafted player for the first time since 1978. Reiger signed with Miami days later. The deal included a $25,000 signing bonus and roughly $150,000–$175,000 guaranteed—real money for an undrafted edge.
In South Florida he generated the expected camp buzz: length, motor, pass-rush juice on a roster hungry for young edge help. He even posted a sack in the preseason opener against Washington.
Days later the injury that has followed him since Louisville resurfaced. The Dolphins signed Seth Coleman-Lyles in his place.
If unclaimed, Reiger was headed for injured reserve and a lost 2026; the settlement instead made him a free agent, with the guaranteed cash already in hand.
For Badger fans, the story is familiar and unfinished. Reiger was one of a dozen former Wisconsin players fighting for first-year NFL roster spots this summer. His Madison year was the proof-of-concept after years of walking on, surviving surgeries, and transferring.
The NFL still saw the medical file more clearly than the Shrine Bowl tape. That does not close the door—undrafted edges with his frame and production history often land elsewhere after a settlement—but it does reset a path that looked promising in June.
Reiger has spent six years proving people wrong. Madison was the latest stop that worked. Miami was the first that did not last. The next team that calls will get a player who already knows how the long way looks.
