Dolphins 2023 Week 3 Snap Count Observations

Robbie Chosen, Eli Apple and rookie Julian Hill were among the Miami Dolphins with noteworthy playing time against the Denver Broncos

What stood out about the Miami Dolphins snap counts from their 70-20 victory against the Denver Broncos at Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday.

-- As a reminder, the inactives were WR Jaylen Waddle (concussion), WR Erik Ezukanma, CB Cam Smith, RB Salvon Ahmed (groin), T Kion Smith and TE Tyler Kroft (back), with Skylar Thompson again serving as the third (emergency) quarterback in the event both Tua Tagovailoa and Mike White had gotten injured.

-- Because of the blowout victory and most of the starters and front-line players being pulled at some point in the second half, everybody who was active ended up playing.

-- Again, because of the blowout, this was the first game this season where all non-specialists got some snaps on offense or defense. Because of that, CB Parry Nickerson, LB Channing Tindall and three-time practice squad elevation Cameron Goode played the first snaps of the season on defense, while RB Chris Brooks and OL Lester Cotton got their first snaps on offense.

DOLPHINS OFFENSIVE OBSERVATIONS

-- For the first time this season, the Dolphins ended up with more offensive plays than their opponents, with a 73-62 margin over the Broncos.

-- Injuries were a factor on offense, with Waddle and Ahmed inactive and center Connor Williams leaving the game with a groin injury he sustained on rookie De'Von Achane's 40-yard run in the third quarter. Williams left after playing 43 snaps and Liam Eichenberg came in for the final 30.

-- Because of the limited number of offensive linemen who were active, the Dolphins couldn't pull every starter from the game, and it was left guard Isaiah Wynn and right tackle Austin Jackson who ended up playing every snap. Robert Hunt ended up with 61 snaps, while Terron Armstead played 56 (very good) snaps in his first appearance after missing the first two games with injuries.

-- After playing all but two snaps in the first two games, tight end Durham Smythe got a much lighter load against the Broncos, as rookie tight end Julian Hill got the bulk of the work. Smythe played only 26 snaps, while Hill got 57 in his NFL debut. Hill was targeted only once but got a lot of work as a blocker. Smythe wasn't among the players with an injury reported in the press box, so maybe this was a case of load management or preferring Hill's blocking for this particular matchup.

-- Robbie Chosen made his Dolphins debut against Denver, and the Dolphins gave the veteran wide receiver a lot of work, with a team-high 42 snaps at the position.

-- Fellow wide receiver Cedrick Wilson Jr. was active for the first time this season and played 34 snaps, though he did not have a catch and was not targeted once.

-- The snap counts at wide receiver were affected by the shoulder injury that River Cracraft sustained in the second quarter after he had played 25 snaps.

-- At running back, Achane ended up with a work load (30 snaps) almost the same as starter Raheem Mostert (37), though again the score likely was a factor.

-- Finally, for record-keeping purposes, Tua Tagovailoa ended up playing 58 snaps before he was replaced by Mike White with the win secured in the fourth quarter.

DOLPHINS DEFENSIVE OBSERVATIONS

-- The big news when it comes to the defensive snaps was at cornerback, where veteran Justin Bethel supplanted Eli Apple as the outside cornerback opposite Xavien Howard in nickel packages.

-- Bethel actually led all Dolphins players in defensive snaps with 51, while Apple played four snaps in the fourth quarter before he left the game to be evaluated for a concussion.

-- The rest of the defensive snaps, for the most part, were what we would expect based on the first two games, except for David Long Jr. again playing the bigger role next to Jerome Baker at inside linebacker.

-- Andrew Van Ginkel wound up playing 30 snaps on defense and he rotated at outside linebacker with Bradley Chubb and Jaelan Phillips before Phillips left in the second quarter with an oblique injury, and then AVG got most of the snaps there with Emmanuel Ogbah coming on in relief.

-- Safety Brandon Jones, a starter the past two seasons before he went down with a torn ACL last October, got 16 snaps on defense for his heaviest work load of the season so far.

-- Defensive back Elijah Campbell played 16 snaps on defense and another 21 on special teams in his first game after being inactive in the wins against the Chargers and Patriots. 

-- We close with the special teams, where six defensive players logged 20 or more snaps, topped by Duke Riley and Kelvin Joseph's 26 and Bethel's 23. Among offensive players, Brooks led the way with 18 special teams snaps to go along with the first 13 offensive snaps of his NFL career.

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