Dolphins 2025 Week 2 Snap Count Observations

Diving into the playing time and its implications for De'Von Achane, Jaelan Phillips, Willie Gay Jr. and other Miami Dolphins players.

New England Patriots running back Rhamondre Stevenson (38) carries the football against Miami Dolphins safety Minkah Fitzpatrick (29) during the fourth quarter at Hard Rock Stadium. | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

What stood out regarding play counts in the Miami Dolphins' 33-27 loss against the New England Patriots at Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday:

We'll start with the inactive list, which was highlighted by five injured players — tight end Darren Waller, running back Jaylen Wright, cornerback Ethan Bonner, defensive tackle Benito Jones and cornerback Storm Duck. The other was wide receiver Tahj Washington, along with emergency third quarterback Quinn Ewers.

Every player who was active played in the game except for new lineman Cole Strange and cornerback Cornell Armstrong, along with QB Zach Wilson. Jeff Wilson Jr. was on the field for a two-point conversion, but then came off after a false start penalty had the Dolphins kick the extra point instead.

Five players saw action only on special teams: Cameron Goode, Elijah Campbell, JuJu Brents, Daniel Brunskill and Kendall Lamm.

DOLPHINS OFFENSE OBSERVATIONS

After a first quarter where the Dolphins barely had the ball, the number of offensive plays for each team ended up pretty even, with 60 for New England and 57 for Miami.

With no injuries on offense in this one, six players wound up being on the field for every offensive snap — QB Tua Tagovailoa and the five offensive linemen: Patrick Paul, Jonah Savaiinaea, Aaron Brewer, Kion Smith and Larry Borom.

What stands out on offense from this game is De'Von Achane, who's off to a great start this season, being on the field for almost every snap — 53 of 57, to be precise. That represented the second-highest snap count of his career, behind only the 60 he played in the 32-26 overtime victory against the New York Jets last December.

Conversely, rookie Ollie Gordon II got only seven offensive snaps, and it says here the Dolphins should give him more looks and lighten Achane's work load at the same time.

There were no injury issues with either Tyreek Hill or Jaylen Waddle in this game, so they ended up each playing more than 80 percent of the offensive snaps, with Malik Washington third among wide receiver snaps with 35 — a couple of those even came with him lining up in the backfield.

With Waller out and only two tight ends dressed, both Julian Hill and Tanner Conner each played about half the snaps, with the Dolphins going without a tight end on several occasions.

DOLPHINS DEFENSE OBSERVATIONS

Four players were on the field for all of the Dolphins' 60 defensive snaps, including starting cornerbacks Jack Jones and Rasul Douglas. The other two were linebacker Jordyn Brooks and safety Minkah Fitzpatrick.

Linebacker Tyrel Dodson almost joined them, with 59 snaps played.

After being only on special teams in the opener, Willie Gay Jr. got some snaps on defense, as defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver had said he wanted to do. But it was only three snaps, and it happened that Gay made two tackles in those three plays, including one for a 6-yard loss on a swing pass. He need to play more often. Period.

After there was very good balance among the edge defenders in the opener, the snap counts weighed heavily toward Jaelan Phillips (40) and Bradley Chubb (38) in this one, with Chop Robinson (24) and Matthew Judon (20) lagging behind. Robinson sustained a knee injury early in the fourth quarter and didn't get back onto the field, but the Patriots had only five offensive snaps after that.

The Dolphins again used four safeties in the game, with Ifeatu Melifonwu getting 35 snaps, rookie Dante Trader Jr. 20 and Ashtyn Davis 14.

With Jones inactive, rookie seventh-round pick Zeek Biggers made his NFL debut, but it wasn't eventful as he got only six snaps on defense. Jason Marshall Jr. got 23 snaps in nickel situations.

We close with special teams, where K.J. Britt and Campbell tied for the team lead with 23 snaps, followed by Ashtyn Davis with 20 and Goode with 18. Minkah Fitzpatrick (11) and Zach Sieler (10) again got heavy special teams action. Among offensive players, Julian Hill led the way with 14 special teams snaps, followed by nine each for Alec Ingold and Nick Westbrook-Ikhine.