Ask Miami Dolphins tailback Aaron Shampklin how he spent the final quarter of 2023 and the answer might be a surprise.
After the Los Angeles Chargers released the former Harvard University standout in late Aug. 2023, Shampklin accepted a substitute job at Perry Lindsey Academy in his hometown of Long Beach, Calif. The stint was short-lived – the then-math teacher quickly traded his calculator for cleats once the Pittsburgh Steelers signed him in Jan. 2024 – yet the experience illustrates the ups and downs of the NFL.
“It’s the best job for me to be able to train, work out, make my own hours and then also be able to help inner city kids at a public,” Shampklin said, adding that the experience “was a great opportunity to be able to help give back.”
Shampklin will be one of the many Dolphins whose anxiety will be heightened as all teams must cut nearly half of their roster to 53 players by 4 p.m. Tuesday. The former Harvard standout does have a chance to make it – especially after Jaylen Wright’s early exit from Thursday’s joint practice with the Jacksonville Jaguars cuts the number of healthy tailbacks to three – yet the franchise could always decide to go in a different direction.
In the past, Shampklin would get nervous. This time around, however, he intends to take a different approach.
Steelers running backs coach Eddie Faulkner “told me not everybody is going to buy what you’re selling,” Shampklin recalled. That piece of advice, the 25-year-old continued, gave him a better understanding of the phrase “control what you can control.”
“I can’t control if they like what I have to offer but at the end of the day, that’s not going to take away from me and I can’t make them like me,” Shampklin said. “So I just got to go out there and do what I can do. Show what I can show. If they like it, cool. If they don’t, it’s alright. Keep it pushing. It’s life – there’s harder things going on.”
This period is widely considered arguably the worst in a NFL season. Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel called it “one of my least favorite days.” Star safety Minkah Fitzpatrick called it “a very difficult part of the game.“ And edge rusher Quinton Bell simply called it “a lot.”
Whether a star or a player on the fringe of the roster, it’s clear this part of the process is absolutely dreadful. Even Fitzpatrick, who returned to Miami in late June after the Pittsburgh Steelers dealt him in exchange for Jonnu Smith, Jalen Ramsey and a pick swap, can feel the weight of what was about to happen.
“If I came during OTAs, we’re going to dinner together, we’re breaking bread together, hanging out with each other’s families then one day you go into the locker room and there is a black bag in that guy’s locker and that relationship that you formed on a day-to-day basis is out the window,” Fitzpatrick said, later adding that “you meet some great men who you know could be great friends in the future, and for the now, having to part ways with them because what happens on the grass is frustrating.”
There could be a happy ending for some. Just ask receiver Nick Westbrook-Ikhine.
“I remember a lot of anxiousness, a lot of nerves those last few practices,” Westbrook-Ikhine recalled. “You’re seeing that grim reaper walk around after practice. You see guys the last day of practice and all the scouts are outside and you’re getting picked off left and right.”
A standout receiver at the University of Indiana, Westbrook-Ikhine initially signed an undrafted free agent deal with the Tennessee Titans in 2020. The then-rookie unfortunately didn’t survive the first wave of roster cuts.
“It was a real weird experience,” Westbrook-Ikhine recalled, pointing out that the COVID-19 pandemic only worsened everything. “There was no preseason games. There was none of that so I was real nervous getting cut.”
That’s when the fear began.
“Would I even have a chance because my tape isn’t going out to any other teams?” he remembered thinking.
The Titans luckily signed Westbrook-Ikhine to the practice squad within 24 hours of being waived. Two days after the season opener, he was added to the active roster where he remained for five seasons before signing with the Dolphins in the 2025 offseason.
Although Westbrook-Ikhine’s experience remains unique, his words of wisdom is something that will ring true as NFL training camps come to an end.
“There’s nothing you can do to control that other than just my advice to those guys is just keep going, keep attacking each day the same way that they did at the start of camp because you can’t really change what’s going to happen but you can put good tape on film,” Westbrook-Ikhine said. “That might leave a lasting impression when somebody goes down and they need a body in the middle of the season to get that opportunity.”