DAVIE, Fla. -- Forget Kotter. Welcome back, Ricky.

Running back Ricky Williams rejoined the Miami Dolphins on Thursday, one day after the NFL reinstated him following a one and a half-year suspension.

First-year coach Cam Cameron decided to let Williams rejoin the Dolphins after meeting with him Thursday.

"The meeting was positive," Cameron said. "He'll be a member of this team and will start with us Monday. He's a Miami Dolphin."

For months, Cameron had been mum regarding whether he would want Williams, but outspoken linebacker Joey Porter said Wednesday he would love to have the 2002 NFL rushing champion as a teammate "just because we're 0-9."

"I don't care who you would've got," Porter said. "If you would have got (Osama) bin Laden, if he can run the ball like Ricky did, I mean, right now I'd do anything for a victory."

Other players, such as defensive end Jason Taylor, were less than revealing about having Williams rejoin the team.

"You've got to talk to Coach Cameron," last season's Defensive Player of the Year said. "He and I have talked and if he wants to tell you what we talked about, he will. If not, then sorry."

Cameron said his players supported the decision to welcome back Williams -- perhaps in large part because the Dolphins are desperate for help.

"Circumstances have changed," Cameron said. "However, you still rely on the leadership of your locker room and quality professionals like we have and you get their input, and that was the major part of the decision."

Williams, 30, could play as soon as the game at Pittsburgh on Monday, Nov. 26.

The oft-troubled running back was suspended in April 2006 after violating the NFL drug policy for the fourth time. His return was delayed when he tested positive for marijuana again last spring.

After meeting with Cameron, Williams watched the start of practice from behind a window in the players' lounge as he ate an apple. Later, during a brief news conference, he struggled to answer the first question.

"My motivation for coming back to the NFL? Could we start with an easier question?" he said with a chuckle. "My motivation is to get my life going again. Being out of football in the situation I was in makes it difficult, you know? I want to create a better life for myself and for my family, and being a football player, for me, is a big part of that."

Williams played in the Canadian Football League last season and applied for reinstatement Oct. 1. He rushed for 3,225 yards in the 2002-03 seasons after being traded to the Dolphins from New Orleans. He retired in 2004 and traveled in India and Australia before returning to the Dolphins in 2005, when he ran for 743 yards alternating with rookie Ronnie Brown.

Brown is now on injured reserve, leaving the Dolphins thin at running back.

Williams' return will likely be a popular one for fans.

At least one fan stood outside the team complex Thursday wearing Williams' No. 34 jersey and displaying newspaper clippings of his previous successes with the team.

"We ought to support him to really let him know that his fans still love him and care about him and look forward to him being all he can be," fan Vanessa Wilcox said.

As part of the NFL drug program, Williams underwent therapy for the past five and a half months in Boston and benefited from the treatment, his agent, Leigh Steinberg, said.

"This is the program working exactly as it should -- treating a player for an underlying life problem in a positive and sophisticated way and returning him to health," Steinberg said. "The Dolphins, or whatever team, is getting a highly motivated player with a new lease on life."