Projecting the Dolphins Week 1 Inactives

The Miami Dolphins will be making their lineup decisions for the game at Las Vegas based strictly on strategy and matchups

Miami Dolphins head coach Jeff Hafley takes notes against the Atlanta Falcons during the second quarter at Hard Rock Stadium. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The new era of Miami Dolphins football kicks off Sunday afternoon, and first-year head coach Jeff Hafley will have the full complement of players on the 53-man roster at his disposal.

That was the result of the team's first clean final injury report for a Week 1 matchup since at least 2016 — not one player was given a game status designation.

Hafley therefore will have to make his decisions as which 48 players (provided eight of them are offensive linemen, otherwise the limit is 47) will be active against the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant Stadium.

Normally, deciding on the inactive list is made simpler by starting off with those players injured and unavailable, but in this case the decisions will be made based on other factors, such as matchups and game strategy.

With that said, here's our best guess as to what the inactive list will look like.

PROJECTING THE DOLPHINS INACTIVES FOR WEEK 1

Because they elevated edge defender Clelin Ferrell from the practice squad Saturday, the Dolphins now have 54 players eligible for this Week 1 game, meaning they'll have to make six of them inactive.

Our projections look like this:

QB Brady Cook: There's no reason to have three quarterbacks active and Kyle McCord is the backup to Malik Willis, so this is an easy place to start.

WR Jalen Tolbert.: This is a very tough call, and it comes down to special teams. First off, there's no way the Dolphins will have six wide receivers active because it's too many resources at one position. We've got Ryan Miller active because of his special teams work, which is why the Dolphins claimed him off waivers from the Giants and why he made the 53-man roster. This then came down to Tolbert or rookie fifth-round pick Kevin Coleman Jr., but we're thinking Coleman will be active because he's the backup punt returner to Malik Washington while Tolbert isn't a factor on special teams.

T Chukwuebuka Godrick: The Dolphins have 10 offensive linemen on the active roster, which is a very high number, and it's pretty much a slam dunk that two of them will sit. Despite being listed as the second-team left tackle behind Patrick Paul, we're still thinking he's sitting and the Dolphins would use either Caedan Wallace and Jarrett Kingston at left tackle in a pinch.

G DJ Campbell: The rookie sixth-round pick was listed on the third team on the first depth chart of the regular season, which suggests he'll be inactive for a bit at the start of the regular season.

S Julius Wood: We would expect Wood to become a factor for the defense at some point, but he just got here after the cuts to 53 and loses out on the game-day spot to rookie fourth-round pick Kyle Louis, in large part because of special teams.

TE Justin Joly: The reality is the Dolphins don't need four active tight ends for any game, which leaves Joly out — unless there's any concern about Will Kacmarek and Seydou Traore making through the game after being listed on the initial injury report of the week (even if they didn't get a game status designation).