The Miami Dolphins began the process of restocking their 53-man roster Wednesday morning by bringing back a familiar face.

The team announced it had signed defensive tackle Keith Cooper Jr. off the Carolina Panthers practice squad, filling one of the three roster vacancies created Tuesday with the moves involving Malik Willis, Zach Sieler and Reese Taylor.

Cooper played the first three games for the Dolphins this season after (perhaps surprisingly) earning a spot on the 53-man roster, but then was waived, re-signed to the practice squad and then released before he joined the Panthers.

Cooper will become the fourth defensive tackle on the roster along with Jordan Phillips, Zeek Biggers and Kenneth Grant, though it's not quite accurate to suggest he's replacing Sieler, who was placed on IR with a season-ending biceps injury.

WHAT'S NEXT FOR THE DOLPHINS?

The other two moves likely to come involve the quarterback and kicker positions because the Dolphins aren't likely to carry only Kyle McCord on the 53 at quarterback and because veteran Zane Gonzalez is out of practice squad elevations and the Dolphins either have to sign him to the 53 or find another kicker.

At quarterback, the logical move would be to simply sign Brady Cook from the practice squad to the 53-man roster, where he began the season before he was waived the day before the Week 5 game against the Cincinnati Bengals.

Cook served as the emergency third quarterback when he was on the active roster, but didn't appear in any game, with Willis taking every snap at quarterback before he was placed on IR on Tuesday.

The Dolphins aren't going to leave themselves with only two QBs, so somebody else will be added and logic suggests that player will be signed to the practice squad as opposed to jumping over Cook straight onto the 53.

As for who that quarterback might be, this is where it's good to take note of the players the Dolphins have tried out over, say, the past month.

That group includes five quarterbacks, the most notable before former New England Patriots draft pick Bailey Zappe.

The others were Connor Bazelak, who played at Missouri, Indiana and Bowling Green; Austin Reed from Southern Illinois, West Florida and Western Kentucky; Derek Robertson from Maine and Monmouth; and Jacob Clark from Minnesota and Missouri State.

None of the four in the last group has ever thrown an NFL regular season pass, but Reed did play in the UFL this spring and led the league in touchdown passes with 21.

The Dolphins' tryouts this week included two kickers, including nine-year veteran Daniel Carlson. He kicked seven games for the New Orleans Saints this year but was only 8-for-12 on field goal attempts, all the misses from 50 yards and beyond. He spent seven-plus seasons with the Raiders, where he converted over 90 percent of his field goal attempts three consecutive years (from 2020-22). He earned AP All-Pro honors in both 2021 and 2022.

The Dolphins currently rank 28th in field goal percentage at 75 percent, which is Carlson's exact mark for this season, but three of the four misses have come from inside 50 yards.

Along with Ben Sauls (from Pitt) working out Tuesday, the Dolphins also had four other kickers in for a tryout the day they signed Gonzalez to the practice squad — former Chargers kicker Michael Badgley, former Rams kicker Joshua Karty, Will Fern from BYU and, of course, the controversial Justin Tucker, who has been on the KC Chiefs practice squad the past two weeks but has yet to be elevated for a game.

From here, it would seem Carlson would be the logical choice based on his track record, though another possibility maybe could be Lucas Havrisik, who tried out for the Dolphins earlier this year and was 4-for-4 for the Packers in 2025 with a long of 60 yards.