The Miami Dolphins are off to a brutal start to the 2026 NFL season, and they’ve decided that they need some reinforcements.
They’ve looked elsewhere in the AFC East Division for them — specifically, up to the Buffalo Bills.
On Monday afternoon, NFL insider Mike Garafolo reported that the Dolphins are signing Andre Jones Jr. off the Bills’ practice squad.
Garafolo notes that Jones will play for a familiar special teams coordinator, Chris Tabor:
The #Dolphins are signing LB Andre Jones Jr. off the #Bills’ practice squad. He reunites with Miami ST coordinator Chris Tabor, who coached Jones in Buffalo last year. pic.twitter.com/OGn51xI2L8
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) September 21, 2026
The Dolphins are 0-2, with a 27-13 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders and a 35-13 loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
Jones certainly won’t be able to turn the whole thing around, but bringing in some fresh energy could be helpful.
How This Works
The reason the Dolphins are able to sign Jones directly from the Bills is because he was on the practice squad.
Practice squad players can be signed by other clubs, with a catch — they have to be signed directly to the 53-man roster of the new team.
A second team, like the Dolphins, couldn’t sign a Bills practice squad player like Jones to their own practice squad. It has to essentially amount to a promotion.
That’s partly why teams won’t put certain young players on the practice squad, because it leaves them exposed to being picked up by other teams.
Jones hadn’t been in uniform for a regular season game through a 2-0 start for the Bills, so he evidently wasn’t a huge part of their plans.
What To Know About Andre Jones
Jones is officially named Gerald Jones Jr., but he goes by Andre.
He’s 27 years old and originally from the state of Louisiana. He played his college football at Louisiana-Lafayette.
Jones was enough of a college playmaker at outside linebacker to earn himself a selection as a seventh-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft by the Washington Commanders at No. 233 overall.
His size, at 6-foot-5 and 258 pounds, is certainly impressive.
Jones played in 14 games as a rookie for Washington and had four total tackles as well as three passes defensed.
He got into just two games with the Commanders in 2024 and made two tackles.
Jones had three games worth of action for the Bills in the 2025 regular season and made five tackles. He also made a tackle in the playoffs for the Bills against the Jaguars in January, which can be seen in the photo at the top of his article as his teammates celebrate the play he made.
In the pre-draft process, Jones didn’t run the 40-yard dash but he did have a 31-inch vertical leap and a 9-foot-10 broad jump, as well as an imposing 6-foot-9 wingspan.
He was in camp with the Commanders last summer before being cut ahead of Week 1, which is when he latched on with the Bills.
Buffalo waived Jones on cut day this year, then put him on the practice squad, where he remained for the season’s first two weeks until the Dolphins snatched him up.
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