Dolphins 2025 Week 4 Snap Count Observations

Diving into the playing time against the New York Jets and its implications for Jaylen Waddle, Julian Hill, Kenneth Grant and Ashtyn Davis

New York Jets quarterback Justin Fields (7) slides to avoid a tackle against Miami Dolphins safety Ashtyn Davis (21) against the Miami Dolphins during the first half at Hard Rock Stadium. | Rich Storry-Imagn Images

What stood out regarding play counts in the Miami Dolphins' 27-21 victory against the New York Jets at Hard Rock Stadium on Monday night:

We'll start with the list of inactives, where the biggest news involved cornerback Ethan Bonner being inactive because of a hamstring injury. His absence plus that of injured starter Storm Duck (also inactive) left the Dolphins with four cornerbacks on the game-day roster — Jack Jones, Rasul Douglas, Cornell Armstrong and JuJu Brents. The other inactives were WR Tahj Washington and DT Zeek Biggers, with Quinn Ewers serving as the emergency third quarterback.

Every player who was active played in the game except for running back Jaylen Wright and QB Zach Wilson. This was the second time in Wright's two games this season that he didn't play.

Six players saw action only on special teams: Cameron Goode, K.J. Britt, JuJu Brents, Daniel Brunskill, Kendall Lamm and Jordan Colbert, who was elevated from the practice squad for the game.

DOLPHINS OFFENSE OBSERVATIONS

The teams had a similar number of offensive plays, with the Jets having a 63-58 advantage in that department.

The five starting offensive linemen, including new right guard Cole Strange — and QB Tua Tagovailoa played all 58 snaps on offense, and wide receiver Jaylen Waddle came close with 52 snaps.

Tyreek Hill wound up playing 24 snaps before leaving the game with his devastating knee injury, and interestingly Nick Westbrook-Ikhine (27 snaps) got almost as much playing time as Malik Washington (28) in this game.

De'Von Achane again got a heavy work load with 44 snaps (76 percent), far exceeding Ollie Gordon II's 15 snaps.

Fullback Alec Ingold played 31 snaps, his highest snap count of the season and highest since Week 5 last season, the 15-10 victory against the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium.

Veteran Darren Waller had a big impact in his Dolphins debut, and he did it with a pitch count. Waller played only 16 offensive snaps (28 percent) but had three receptions and two touchdowns.

With Tanner Conner little used in this game, Julian Hill had a season-high 40 snaps.

DOLPHINS DEFENSE OBSERVATIONS

Four players were on the field for all of the Dolphins' 63 defensive snaps — safeties Minkah Fitzpatrick, linebackers Jordyn Brooks and Tyrel Dodson, and cornerback Jack Jones.

Facing the run-heavy Jets defense, the Dolphins started the game with a unique look that featured four defensive linemen (Zach Sieler, Matthew Butler, Kenneth Grant, Jordan Phillips), two edge defenders (Bradley Chubb, Jaelan Phillips), two linebackers (Jordyn Brooks, Tyrel Dodson) and three defensive backs (Jones, Fitzpatrick and Ashtyn Davis.

The strategy of going bigger on defense certainly didn't work on the Jets' first drive (before Jones' forced fumble).

For those wanting to see Willie Gay Jr. get more action, this was not your night. He wound up playing only three snaps on defense along with seven more on special teams.

The Dolphins clearly have abandoned their edge rusher rotation, with Chubb and Phillips again dominating the snaps (48 and 46 compared to 22 for Chop Robinson and 15 for Matthew Judon).

While he wasn't on the field for the first snap, Rasul Douglas played every other one.

Ashtyn Davis seems to have cemented his position as starting safety, as he played 53 snaps compared to 18 for Ifeatu Melifonwu and 10 for rookie Dante Trader Jr.

Along the defensive line, what stood out was the low number of snaps for rookie fifth-round pick Jordan Phillips, whose total of 16 was 14 less than his previous season low. There was no injury reported for Phillips on Monday night, but maybe that's a possibility (unless it was performance-based). Kenneth Grant also had a pretty low snap count at 29, a bit strange considering the make-up of the Jets offense.

We close with special teams, where K.J. Britt and Campbell again tied for the team lead with 18 snaps, followed by Trader and Goode with 16. Since this has become a topic of conversation, Sieler played nine snaps on special teams and Fitzpatrick got seven. Among offensive players, Tanner Conner led the way with 15 special teams snaps, followed by Julian Hill with 13.