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Miami Dolphins vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers Preseason Week 4 Preview: The Buc Stops Here

Rishard Matthews Brendan Fitterer / Tampa Bay Times

(Miami, FL) — With their active roster trimmed down to 75 players, the Miami Dolphins (1-2) will host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1-2) in the Week 4 preseason finale at Sun Life Stadium. The contest, which is scheduled to kick off shortly after 7:00 pm ET on Thursday night, will be broadcast nationally on NFL Network and live locally on CBS4 Miami.

Since there is roster competition and uncertainty at offensive guard and in the secondary, these preseason reps are very much needed before Miami’s regular season opener against the Washington Redskins on September 13th.

As of right now, guard Jamil Douglas, a rookie drafted in the fourth round out of Arizona State University, surpassed guard Billy Turner on the depth chart as the starting right tackle. However, the move is far from permanent and Turner can earn the job back if he improves.

In the secondary, cornerback Brent Grimes and strong safety Reshad Jones are the only safe bets as far as depth is concerned. With free safety Louis Delmas lost for the season with a torn ACL suffered last month, safety Michael Thomas has been handed the starting job in front of Walt Aikens for now.

Thomas, a 2012 undrafted free agent from Stanford University, has 21 career tackles and two pass deflections in two seasons with the Dolphins. His first and only career interception, which was during December of the 2013 season, was off quarterback Tom Brady in Miami’s 24-20 over the New England Patriots.

As expected, many of the starters for the Dolphins tonight will play very little or not at all, so the rookies and backups must make a splash when the opportunities are there.