The Miami Dolphins waived running back Carlos Washington Jr. on Monday, closing a brief stay on the active roster that never produced a snap in a regular-season game, the team announced.
Washington, 27, had been promoted from the practice squad over the weekend to give Miami a third tailback for Sunday’s game against the Minnesota Vikings. He was active, but he did not play.
The move returns the Dolphins to a thinner backfield at a moment when the position is already short of its most important piece.
De’Von Achane is on injured reserve after tearing an ACL in the loss to Kansas City and is out for the season, leaving Jaylen Wright and Ollie Gordon II as the backs still on the 53-man roster.
Washington’s path to Miami was the familiar one for an undrafted runner who has stayed close enough to a roster to keep getting chances. Atlanta signed him out of Southeastern Louisiana after the 2023 draft.
He had spent most of his college career at New Hampshire before transferring for a final season in which he ran for 715 yards and 15 touchdowns. With the Falcons he never stuck on the active roster for long.
Washington spent his first two seasons on the practice squad, signed futures contracts after each year, and appeared in one game in 2025. Across two career regular-season appearances he has no offensive snaps. Atlanta released him in May.
Miami signed him about ten days later. He made the training-camp roster, was waived at final cutdowns in late August, cleared waivers, and returned to the practice squad.
In three preseason games, he carried 18 times for 41 yards, enough to stay in the building and, when the Dolphins needed depth behind Wright and Gordon, enough to beat out the other practice-squad back for a weekend call-up. That promotion lasted one inactive afternoon in Minnesota.
Waivers do not necessarily end the relationship. If Washington clears, the Dolphins can bring him back to the practice squad, which is where he spent the first three weeks of the season and most of his NFL career before that.
For a player whose value has been availability and special-teams flexibility rather than a defined offensive role, that remains the realistic landing spot.
Monday’s transaction simply confirmed that Miami was not prepared to keep him on the 53 after a game in which he never entered.
The timing fits a roster that is still sorting itself out under general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan. Miami has churned the margins all year, and the running-back room is one of the places where that churn shows.
Achane’s injury forced a short-term addition. Washington’s waiver shows how quickly that addition can be reversed when the game itself does not require him.
