Dolphins 2021 Week 11 Snap Counts ... And What They Mean

The Miami Dolphins opened on offense against the New York Jets on Sunday with Mike Gesicki and Adam Shaheen both on the field, a precursor to the strategy for most of the game.

Gesicki and Durham Smythe both ended up playing 51 of the 72 offensive snaps in the 24-17 victory against the Jets and Sheen played 46, meaning that on average the Dolphins had two tight ends for every snap (based on 148 tight end snaps on 72 offensive plays).

That usage also was reflected in the relatively low amount of snaps for the wide receivers after Jaylen Waddle, who played 55 snaps.

The other four wide receivers combined for 86 snaps, including 38 for Albert Wilson and only one for Isaiah Ford. Mack Hollins had the second-fewest snaps among the wide receivers with 22, which remains strange to us because he sure looks like the most effective currently on the 53-man roster after Waddle.

At running back, it was a whole lot of Myles Gaskin and very little of anybody else, to no one's surprise.

Gaskin played 53 snaps, while Patrick Laird played 11 and Duke Johnson played only six after being elevated from the practice squad. Remember that Salvon Ahmed was made inactive to accommodate the presence of Johnson in the game-day lineup.

DEFENSIVE THOUGHTS

On the other side of the ball, the snap counts that jumped out were those of Brandon Jones and Nik Needham.

Jones was limited to 37 of 60 defensive snaps against the Jets, but that was the result of him leaving the game with an elbow injury.

Needham, meanwhile, saw his snap count go from 4 against Baltimore to 28 against the Jets as he got more work as an extra DB than Justin Coleman, who got 22 snaps after getting 44 against Baltimore.

The development of Coleman in recent weeks has been among the positive developments for the Dolphins defense.

The Dolphins opened against the Jets on defense with a 3-4 alignment and four defensive backs, with Brennan Scarlett getting a start at linebacker along with Jerome Baker, Andrew Van Ginkel and Elandon Roberts.

Scarlett, though, was limited to nine snaps before he left the game with a knee injury.

Xavien Howard, Byron Jones and Baker played the most snaps on defense, all with 59 of the 60.

SPECIAL TEAMS ONLY

Our weekly look at those non-specialists who played only in the kicking game and didn't get snaps on offense or defense revealed the usual suspects.

The five who fell in that category against the Jets were Clayton Fejedelem, Elijah Campbell, Cethan Carter, Solomon Kindley and Robert Jones.

Jamal Perry played his first two snaps of the season on defense, but it was on a Jets kickoff return in the fourth quarter that he sustained the knee injury that knocked him out of the game.

Three players were active but did not play against the Jets: QB Jacoby Brissett, C Cameron Tom and DB Trill Williams.