Breaking Down the Significance of the Big Chris Bell News

The Miami Dolphins returned to practice Monday with a major addition.

The team announced before practice they had activated rookie wide receiver Chris Bell off the Non-Football Injury list.

Bell had been on the list since the start of training camp as he continued to rehab after the torn ACL that cut short his final season at Louisville.

The timing of Bell's activation off NFI was one of the biggest storylines at the start of training camp and stayed that way through its culmination.

There's no other way to put it, this is great news for the Dolphins.

WHY THE BELL MOVE IS SO BIG

Head coach Jeff Hafley had said more than once during training camp that Bell was progressing well, but also never gave a definitive timetable, a wise move given the last thing the Dolphins would have wanted to do with the wide receiver was rush his return.

The Dolphins now are a little less than four weeks away from their 2026 regular season opener against the Las Vegas Raiders, and this move eliminates the concerns that Bell would have to start the season on Reserve/NFI, which would have sidelined him for at the least the first four games of the regular season.

It's not a big secret anymore that the Dolphins wide receiver corps is a bit on the underwhelming side — and that's being very polite — and that makes Bell's arrival all the more welcome.

Based on potential alone, Bell has the opportunity to establish himself as the No. 1 wide receiver, with all due respect to fellow rookie Caleb Douglas, who has earned all types of praise for his work in training camp and his highlight-reel catch.

The reality is that if not for his ACL injury in November 2025, Bell likely would have been selected earlier than Douglas, who was the first of Miami's three third-round picks, with Bell coming in after Ohio State tight end Will Kacmarek.

Because of his body size and type and his playing style, Bell has drawn comparisons to new New England wide receiver A.J. Brown, and having Bell and the speedy and tall Douglas together on the field bring all sorts of interesting possibilities for new QB Malik Willis and the passing game.

Because he's a rookie coming off a major knee injury, the Dolphins and especially their fans will have to resist the temptation of expecting too much too soon from Bell, but it's also OK to dream big about the potential of the wide receiver corps if both he and Douglas can reach their full potential.

In short, this move Monday morning was the best possible way (pretty much) for the Dolphins to kick off another week of training camp and the preseason.

BELL'S SUMMERTIME PROGRESS

Hafley had last talked about Bell and his progress as he began ramping up his work on the outskirts of practice a couple of weeks ago, but offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik also had suggested he still had a ways to go.

"Chris is progressing nicely," Hafley said. "You saw him run yesterday. Accelerating. Accelerating, he's decelerating. I think that's a credit to Chris how hard he's worked. I think it's a credit to Kyle (Johnston), our training staff. I think it's a credit to Todd (Hunt), our strength staff. And I would say this, we want to be certain that he is ready, so he does not have setbacks ruining his career."

Hafley, though, said at the time he would love it if Bell ended up being ready early enough to play either August 22 against the New York Giants and/or August 28 against the Atlanta Falcons.

"Not sure yet, but that would be a very, very big benefit for him to start getting some work."

It still might be too early for Bell to play against the Giants on Saturday, but one would think he'd at least get some snaps in the preseason finale.

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