Dolphins 2023 Week 8 Snap Count Observations

What stood out about the Miami Dolphins snap counts from their 31-17 victory against the New England Patriots at Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday.

-- As a reminder, the inactives were CB Xavien Howard (groin), S Jevon Holland (concussion), WR Robbie Chosen and DT Brandon Pili, with Skylar Thompson again serving as the third (emergency) quarterback in the event both Tua Tagovailoa and Mike White had gotten injured.

-- There were two players who were active but did not play: QB Mike White and OL Connor Williams, who had missed the previous two games and three of the previous four because of a groin injury.

-- The six position players who saw their only action on special teams were LB Channing Tindall, CB Cam Smith, LB Cameron Goode, DB Elijah Campbell, CB Kelvin Joseph and DT Da'Shawn Hand.

DOLPHINS OFFENSIVE OBSERVATIONS

-- In a reversal from the previous week, the Dolphins dominated the time of possession and ran 77 offensive plays compared to only 53 for New England.

-- More injuries caused some unusual playing time on the offensive, with right guard Robert Hunt leaving the game for good in the first half with a hamstring injury and left tackle Kendall Lamm missing five snaps at the end of the first half with an abdomen issue before he returned.

-- Even before then, Robert Jones replaced Lester Cotton at left guard for six snaps. The only two offensive linemen who played all 77 snaps were center Liam Eichenberg and right tackle Austin Jackson.

-- At wide receiver, Jaylen Waddle and Tyreek Hill came into the game after having been on the injury report during the week, but it certainly didn't reflect in their playing time. Each of them played 75 percent of the offensive snaps.

-- Braxton Berrios was the third-most-used wide receiver with 41 snaps, followed by Cedrick Wilson Jr. with 23 and newcomer Chase Claypool with 11l

-- At running back, Raheem Mostert got the most snaps as expected with 43, and Jeff Wilson Jr. and Salvon Ahmed split the rest evenly (19).

DOLPHINS DEFENSIVE OBSERVATIONS

-- What stood out on defense is that the Dolphins used the same 11 players for more than 80 percent of their snaps.

-- Those 11 players were CB Kader Kohou, S Brandon Jones, S DeShon Elliott, LB Jerome Baker, CB Jalen Ramsey, LB David Long Jr., CB Eli Apple, DL Christian Wilkins, DL Zach Sieler, LB Jaelan Phillips and LB Bradley Chubb.

-- Four Dolphins players were on the field for all 53 defensive snaps: Elliott, Kohou, Baker and Jones.

-- In his first appearance for the Dolphins, Ramsey ended up playing 49 of the 53 snaps (so much for being on a pitch count).

-- The heavy usage of the top 11 meant way fewer snaps on defense for some players, including Andrew Van Ginkel. His 14 snaps on defense represented his lowest total since the Week 4 game at Cincinnati in 2022.

-- Emmanuel Ogbah had another light work load, getting six snaps on defense after getting only three against the Eagles.

-- CB Nik Needham, who made his first appearance since sustaining an Achilles injury in mid-October of 2022, got four snaps on defense along with two on special teams.

-- We close with the special teams, where Riley again led the way in snaps with 21, tying with Campbell and Bethel. The offensive players with the most special teams snaps again were Ahmed and Claypool with 12 each.

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