Dolphins 2022 Week 12 Snap Count Observations

Trent Sherfield, Myles Gaskin, Duke Riley and Eric Rowe were among the Miami Dolphins with noteworthy playing time against Houston

What stood out about the Miami Dolphins snap counts from their 30-15 victory against the Houston Texans at Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday.

-- As a reminder, the inactives were QB Teddy Bridgewater, CB Noah Igbinoghene, WR Erik Ezukanma, RB Raheem Mostert and TE Hunter Long. Bridgewater (knee) and Mostert (knee) were the only two kept out of the game because of health issues.

-- The only player who was active but did not seen any action was running back Salvon Ahmed.

-- Five position players saw their only action on special teams: DB Justin Bethel, LB Sam Eguavoen, LB Channing Tindall, OL Michael Deiter and TE Tanner Conner. Deiter remains the only position player on the roster who has yet to play a non-special teams snap this season.

DOLPHINS OFFENSIVE OBSERVATIONS

-- The thing that stands out on offense obviously is the playing time on the line affected by the injuries to tackles Terron Armstead and Austin Jackson. Armstead played a little less than half the snaps (37 of 76) before leaving the game with a pectoral injury and being replaced by veteran Brandon Shell. Jackson, meanwhile, missed the final six snaps on offense after sustaining an ankle injury.

-- Another noteworthy development was the snap counts at wide receiver, where Trent Sherfield got pretty much the same playing time as Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle, with his 46 snaps to Waddle's 47 and Hill's 45. Of course, Hill dealing with cramps and the lopsided halftime score played a role in the player usage.

-- As expected, Jeff Wilson Jr. got the bulk of the work load with Mostert inactive, but it was surprising to a degree that Myles Gaskin got 26 snaps while Ahmed stayed on the sideline the entire game. It's also important to note that neither Gaskin nor Ahmed playing a single special teams snap, suggesting that the choice of which of those two plays has more to do with offense than the kicking game.

-- The tight end snaps again were split fairly evenly between Mike Gesicki (41) and Durham Smythe (37),  but each player was targeted only once in the passing game. Smythe caught a touchdown pass; Gesicki's target resulted in an incompletion.

-- For those keeping score, Tua Tagovailoa played 55 snaps at quarterback before he was pulled in favor of rookie Skylar Thompson in the third quarter with the outcome pretty much under control. Thompson played the final 21 snaps on offense.

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DOLPHINS DEFENSIVE OBSERVATIONS

-- Safety Jevon Holland, and cornerbacks Xavien Howard and Kader Kohou all played each of the Dolphins' 61 snaps on defense, and safety Eric Rowe came close with 55 snaps.

-- The Dolphins' high-profile outside linebacker trio of former first-round picks Bradley Chubb, Melvin Ingram and Jaelan Phillips all were used about the same — Chubb and Phillips played 38 snaps; Ingram played 36. This is a great way of keeping those guys fresh and effective.

-- As a fourth outside linebacker, Andrew Van Ginkel got 23 snaps on defense, along with the number on special teams, where he continues to have a valuable role.

-- Newcomer Justin Zimmer got 13 snaps along the defensive line in his first game with the Dolphins, which also was his first game of the 2022 season.

-- Christian Wilkins and Zach sieler dominated the snaps on the defensive line with 44 and 43, respectively, far ahead of Raekwon Davis, who played 27 snaps. It's worth noting here that Davis was on the injury report last week with a knee injury.

-- At inside linebacker, Jerome Baker, Elandon Roberts and Duke Riley all had a similar number of snaps (between 30 and 34), though it was noteworthy that Riley also had 23 special teams snaps.

-- We close with those special teams, where Bethel tied for the highest snap with 24, followed by 23 for Elijah Campbell, Riley and Van Ginkel, and 22 for Fejedelem. The highest special teams snap count for an offensive player went to Smythe with 16.

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