On Sunday afternoon, the Miami Dolphins lost 35-13 against the San Francisco 49ers.
Despite outgaining them in the first half and going into halftime down only one possession, the Dolphins were thoroughly outplayed in the second half as they were outscored 21-0 in the third quarter and did not score a touchdown until late in the fourth quarter with the game already out of hand.
In particular, Miami’s defense struggled as they allowed a touchdown on each of San Francisco’s first five drives. San Francisco did not punt until the fourth quarter. Now, one of Miami’s defenders on Sunday has been released by the team after the loss.
Miami Dolphins Cut Ties With Linebacker After 49ers Loss
The Miami Dolphins posted on X: “Roster Move | We have waived inside linebacker Liam Anderson.”
Regarding the move, Dolphins Wire’s Mike Masala wrote: “Anderson, 26, played at Holy Cross from 2018-22 and signed with the Indianapolis Colts as an undrafted free agent in 2023. After two years in Indianapolis, he spent most of the 2025 season on the Cincinnati Bengals‘ practice squad and signed with Miami’s for 2026. The team promoted him to the active roster on Saturday.
On Sunday, Anderson appeared in his fifth NFL game and played four defensive and 12 special teams snaps. He also recorded his first tackle.
It wouldn’t be surprising to see Anderson make his way back to the practice squad after this move.”
Masala also speculated that the move was made in order to make space for defensive end Andre Jones Jr., who the Dolphins reportedly signed this week off of Buffalo’s practice squad. With Miami’s top pass rusher Chop Robinson currently dealing with a concussion, perhaps adding an edge defender is currently Miami’s top priority.
Miami Dolphins Defense
Regarding Miami’s struggles on defense against the 49ers, head coach Jeff Hafley said of San Francisco’s big plays, “Some of those were communication. It was, we didn’t have a guy where they were supposed to be. We got into the wrong call or we didn’t cover our man. So all of the above. Which is the stuff that, again, it’s just kind of surprising because it hasn’t been like that. So something was off and we got to go back to work and fix it.”
Despite the result, Hafley was encouraged by the toughness the team displayed on Sunday, saying, “When you turn on the tape, there’s an element of toughness in how hard we’re playing that jumps off the tape and I hope everybody sees that. And every person I’ve talked to in this business, whether it’s a coach, whether it’s a scout, whether it’s somebody from an opposing team, a coach from another team, it jumps off the tape and that’s really important to me. We have to establish that and we have to build off of that. And when you turn on the last couple plays of the game on both sides of the ball, they’re playing just as hard as they did on the first and those are things that we can control.”
Dolphins Cut Ties With 6-Foot-3 Former Colts Linebacker After Loss vs. 49ers