Dolphins rookie has foot surgery
Rookie WR will be ready for opener, source says
WR Parker should be ready for opener.
Dolphins rookie wide receiver DeVante Parker, who has dazzled so far in offseason workouts, had foot surgery Friday, the team announced.
Parker, the first-round pick from Louisville, had a screw replaced in his left foot, according to a league source. It’s the same foot he had surgically repaired before his senior season of college.
The source said this surgery went well and that Parker should be ready in time to play in the Sept. 13 season opener at Washington. What isn’t known yet is how much of training camp Parker might miss, and whether that will be a setback to his early development.
At some point recently, Parker “landed and felt some pain” in the foot, the source said. The Dolphins had a choice between putting Parker’s foot in a boot or doing the surgery, and the latter was elected because all parties wanted to take care of the problem now, while the calendar works in their favor.
Parker had his surgery at Doctors Hospital at Baptist Health South in Coral Gables.
At 6-foot-3, Parker provides the size and physicality the Dolphins have sought at wide receiver for years. During the two rookie camp workouts and two organized team activities practices that the media has been allowed to observe, Parker has been a standout, showing excellent hands and runafter-catch ability.
Parker, who was among the group of players catching passes from quarterback Ryan Tannehill before OTAs began, earned praise from Tannehill after the May 26 session.
“DeVante was great today,” Tannehill
said. “You’ve been seeing it the past few weeks, just working on air. But today you got to see him make some tough catches with defenders on his back, in traffic, and that’s what you want to see, that a guy with a big body is able to make strong catches with his hands in traffic.”
If Parker is sidelined for any of training camp, the Dolphins would still have a wide receiver crew that includes Jarvis Landry, Greg Jennings, and Kenny Stills, as well as tight end Jordan Cameron, as primary targets.
But missing any amount of training camp might put Parker at a disadvantage early in the season, considering he’s the only rookie expected to get significant playing time. The other receivers would have an opportunity to gain more familiarity with Tannehill and the offense during camp.
Parker, the first wide receiver the Dolphins selected in the first round since Ted Ginn Jr. in 2007, missed the first seven games of his senior season at Louisville while recovering from foot surgery.
During his draft night teleconference, he said his foot wasn’t an issue by the end of the year. Parker had 43 receptions for 855 yards and five touchdowns in his senior season, and his 33 career touchdown catches tied a school record.
“When I first came back it bothered me a little bit,” he said, “but as I went on later in the season my foot felt100 percent, so there were no problems with that.”
When asked about Parker after the draft, Dolphins general manager Dennis Hickey gave him a clean bill of health.
“He’s ready to go,” Hickey said. “Obviously he was cleared by our doctors and should hit it full throttle.”
Hickey later said the team relied “on our medical staff as they do the orthopedic exams and all those things” when assessing Parker and all prospective draftees. He said the Dolphins were convinced Parker was healthy.
“If you watch those games, you know Florida State, Kentucky,” Hickey said, “if you watch Georgia, the bowl game, you see him after the injury, after the foot injury, you saw how he could perform. You saw the talent. You saw the resilience that DeVante has.”
Linebacker Knott waived
The Dolphins have waived linebacker Jake Knott, the team announced Friday. Knott, undrafted out of Iowa State in 2013, signed with the Dolphins on Dec. 9 and appeared in one game.
Knott spent the 2013 season with the Philadelphia Eagles and totaled eight tackles in 12 games. He said on Twitter he needs knee surgery to repair a meniscus and will be sidelined four to five months.