Dolphins 2023 Week 1 Snap Count Observations
What stood out about the Miami Dolphins snap counts from their 36-34 victory against the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium on Sunday.
-- As a reminder, the inactives were T Terron Armstead, DB Elijah Campbell, WR Cedrick Wilson Jr., RB De'Von Achane and TE Julian Hill, while Skylar Thompson served as the third (emergency) quarterback and he could only play in the event both Tua Tagovailoa and Mike White got injured.
-- There were four players who were active but did not play: White, DB Verone McKinley III, CB Parry Nickerson and T Kion Smith.
-- Seven position players saw their only action on special teams, including 2022 seventh-round pick Cameron Goode, who was elevated from the practice squad Saturday. The others were CB Kelvin Joseph, CB Cam Smith, LB Channing Tindall, RB Chris Brooks and OL Lester Cotton.
DOLPHINS OFFENSIVE OBSERVATIONS
-- Because the Dolphins produced more big plays, they had fewer offensive snaps than the Chargers, 81-67.
-- What stands out on offense is tight end Durham Smythe played all 67 of those snaps. Every single one. That's really, really unusual for any tight end. We said before the cuts to the 53-player limit that Smythe was the only sure thing at tight end on the roster, and it sure manifested itself there. The only other tight end who got snaps was veteran Tyler Kroft, but it was only two of them. While we wouldn't expect Smythe to play every snap every game, there's no reason to think he won't continue to be the main guy at the position.
-- With Jeff Wilson Jr. on injured reserve, Raheem Mostert got most of the snaps at running back, with 49 compared ot 19 for Salvon Ahmed. We explained before the game that perhaps Brooks could be used in short-yardage situations, but the Dolphins had no third-and-1 or fourth-and-1 and only one third-and-2, which featured an incompletion on a pass intended for Smythe.
-- On a third-and-3, the Dolphins had wide receiver Erik Ezukanma lining up in the backfield and he got the carry, gaining 7 yards on a play where center Connor Williams was flagged for holding. Ezukanma earlier had a 12-yard gain on an end-around on one of his 19 snaps.
-- At wide receiver, the work load was fairly well spread out among Tyreek Hill (44 snaps), Jaylen Waddle (43), Braxton Berrios (35) and River Cracraft (27), which followed what we expected to be the pecking order.
-- Finally on the offensive line, it was Isaiah Wynn who got the call at left guard after Dolphins coaches (Mike McDaniel and Frank Smith) declined to declare a starter throughout the week. Wynn did miss one play in the second quarter for an unknown reason, but he ended up playing 66 of the 67 snaps.
DOLPHINS DEFENSIVE OBSERVATIONS
-- As was the case with left guard, there never was an official announcement as to who would start at safety beside Jevon Holland, but DeShon Elliott not only got the nod, he became one of three players to play all 81 defensive snaps. The other two were Holland and linebacker Jerome Baker.
-- Cornerbacks Kader Kohou and Xavien Howard each played 98 snaps and, as expected, it was Eli Apple who got the most work outside when Kohou was used in the slot, playing 60 snaps.
-- Jaelan Phillips (73) and Bradley Chubb (71) got the bulk of the work on the edge, while Emmanuel Ogbah ended up playing 18 snaps.
-- At inside linebacker, it was very surprising to see Andrew Van Ginkel play 51 snaps compared to only 17 for free agent acquisition David Long Jr., and perhaps that was due to the Chargers focusing on their running game for a good part of the afternoon and Van Ginkel being more stout against the run.
-- Christian Wilkins (68 snaps) and Zach Sieler (65) got their usual heavy loads on the defensive line, while Raekwon Davis played 46 snaps, his second-most snaps in any game since his rookie season of 2020. Rookie free agent Brandon Pili ended up playing only nine snaps in his NFL debut.
-- Safety Brandon Jones played two snaps on defense and 18 more on special teams in his first game since he tore an ACL last November.
-- On special teams, Riley and Joseph led the way with 24 snaps, followed by Cam Smith with 23. The offensive player with the most special teams snaps was Ahmed with 17 followed by Smythe, who supplemented his full load on offense with 15 snaps in the kicking game.
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