Dolphins first-year coach Joe Philbin is starting to shape the team’s roster. (AP Images)

Nine former Miami Dolphins players were looking for new employment on Saturday.

Miami made its biggest wave of cuts so far during the preseason, releasing nine players and putting another on the physically-unable-to-perform list this weekend. The moves put the team’s roster at 78 players. The Dolphins must be down to 75 players by Monday’s 4 p.m. ET deadline.

Players cut on Saturday were DE Jacquies Smith, DT Chas Alecxih, TE Les Brown, CBs Marcus Brown, Trenton Hughes and Jonathan Wade, S Tyrell Johnson, LB Josh Linam and RB Jerome Messam. RB Jonas Gray was put on the PUP list.

“We do have to make a couple more,” coach Joe Philbin said. “We’re just going to let some things, hopefully let the dust settle a little bit and then make those decisions at the appropriate time.”

Wade is the biggest surprise cut from the group. The five-year veteran has 111 career tackles with two interceptions but was having a poor training camp and was burned for a pair of touchdowns in Friday’s 23-6 loss to the Falcons.

Brown, who had little shot of making the roster, had emerged as a fan favorite on HBO’s “Hard Knocks.”

Bobbled balls: Expect the Dolphins receivers to spend some extra time working on their hands after practice this week.

The unit, combined with the tight ends, totaled seven drops against Atlanta and failed to make a handful more plays in the passing game. Tight end Anthony Fasano was the worst culprit, dropping three balls, but there was plenty of blame to go around after Friday’s loss.

"The coaches told us that coming in, they want someone who is going to start it off for us," Dolphins receiver Legedu Naanee said. "Nobody grabbed that tonight. We need to get back to work and make sure the next time we have the opportunity to make plays."

Getting defensive: It wasn’t perfect, but the Dolphins defense looked better against Atlanta.

The first team allowed three field goals in the first half against the Falcons and held a team out of the end zone for the first time in the first half this preseason. Former Pro Bowl defensive end Cameron Wake, who missed last week’s game against Carolina with an injury, had 1.5 sacks, while rookie Olivier Vernon notched the other half a sack.

“We've still got some corrections and mistakes that we got to get corrected,” cornerback Richard Marshall said. “We will watch that tonight when we go in and just correct our mistakes, but I feel like we came out and played with a lot of intensity and played a lot harder than we have the past two games.”

For more up-to-the-minute news and analysis on the Miami Dolphins from blogger Dave Carey, follow @CBSSportsNFLMIA.