Miami Dolphins 2026 Week 8 Snap Counts Stories: Rookie Revelations, Top Guys Emerge

What stood out regarding play counts in the Miami Dolphins' 24-19 loss against the New England Patriots on Sunday:

We'll start with the list of inactives, which was highlighted by guard Kadyn Proctor missing the game because of a concussion.

The only Dolphins players who were active but did not play were backup quarterback Kyle McCord and offensive lineman Andrew Meyer.

Since we've been keeping track every game, the starting lineup was back to six rookies with Proctor being out. The six starters were fullback DJ Herman, Will Kacmarek at tight end, wide receiver Caleb Douglas, linebacker Jacob Rodriguez, cornerback Chris Johnson and safety Michael Taaffe.

DOLPHINS OFFENSE OBSERVATIONS

-- There two things that stand out about the offensive snap counts, both of them involving rookies.

-- While Malik Washington missed a few plays after taking a big hit to the head on a play that resulted in a personal foul flag against New England, Caleb Douglas still looked like he emerged as the No. 1 wide receiver in this game. He played 56 of the 65 offensive snaps, compared to 48 for Washington and Chris Bell also got an elevated role with 45 snaps. That was a big jump from Bell's 31 snaps against the New York Jets in Week 7.

-- Then there was rookie tight end Will Kacmarek, who played only 20 snaps on offense, his lowest total since the season opener after he had dealt with injury issues in training camp. Kacmarek has been on the injury report in recent weeks with a hamstring problem, and if that's the reason his snap count was limited, then maybe the Dolphins need to sit him for a game to get him completely healed. If not, we'd question using him so little when the running game could have used extra blocking help against the Patriots.

-- Kacmarek's usage on offense ended up being the same as Herman, and we just don't understand that — again, barring injury complications.

-- It again was the Ollie Gordon II show at running back, as he played 53 snaps (82 percent) and Jaylen Wright got only eight offensive snaps. Given Wright's lack of production — he's averaging 1.9 yards per rushing attempt this season — it's difficult to argue against the snap distribution here, though the Dolphins might eventually want to take a look at recent waiver wire pick-up Kaytron Allen.

-- Veteran Jalen Tolbert was active but got only six offensive snaps, by far the fewest of any of the wide receivers.

DOLPHINS DEFENSE OBSERVATIONS

-- Four players were on the field for all the team's 60 defensive snaps — LB Jordyn Brooks, LB Jacob Rodriguez, S Michael Taaffe and CB Chris Johnson. Those were the same four with 100 percent participation against the Jets in Week 7.

-- Josh Uche again led all edge defenders with 48 snaps, with Chop Robinson second with 33. Rookie seventh-round pick Max Llewellyn got only two defensive snaps and didn't play on special teams, and one can't help but wonder why the Dolphins wasted his third and final practice squad elevation for that amount of work. The Dolphins now won't be able to use in another game this season unless they sign him to the 53-man roster.

-- Also note that Llewellyn's low snap count happened even though fellow edge Malik Herring missed some game time because of an injury before returning.

-- The Dolphins went big on about a third of their defensive snaps with at least three of their interior defensive linemen. The snap counts behind Zach Sieler were pretty even between Jordan Phillips, Zeek Biggers and Kenneth Grant, with all of them getting between 27 and 37 snaps.

-- In his second game back after being on IR with a knee injury, rookie Kyle Louis played a season-high 11 snaps on defense in a nickel role.

-- Linebacker Willie Gay Jr., back after missing the Jets game because of illness, played 27 defensive snaps alongside Rodriguez and Brooks.

-- Tackle Chukwuebuka Godrick, who the Dolphins claimed off waivers from the Kansas City Chiefs after the cuts to 53, made his season debut and it consisted of four snaps on special teams.

-- Godrick and Kaytron Allen were among the six non-specialists who saw action only on special teams, along with LB Shaka Heyward, LB Jackson Woodard, CB Reese Taylor and G/T Caedan Wallace.

-- Finally with special teams, rookie Seydou Traore again led the way with 22 snaps, followed by 17 for Julius Wood, followed by 16 each for Louis, Heyward, Woodard and Allen.

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