Dolphins vs Patriots review: Offensive and defensive snap counts for Miami
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By: Kevin Nogle
The Miami Dolphins came out of Foxboro, Massachusetts on Sunday with a win, moving to 1-0 on the year and knocking the New England Patriots down to an 0-1 record. The Dolphins used just about every player available on the 48-man game-day roster, with just two offensive linemen not making any appearance in the game. There were a couple of surprises for the Dolphins’ playing time, but nothing overly shocking.
Throughout the year, we will monitor the snap counts for every player, seeing who sees their time increase and who loses playing time. Below you will find charts for the offensive and defensive snap counts, along with the each player’s season total. Finally, some thoughts of each position group close out each side of the ball.
Offense
The offense did not have a lot of surprises. Jacoby Brissett took two snaps at quarterback, replacing Tua Tagovailoa for quarterback sneaks, picking up a first down both times.
At running back, the Dolphins stuck to the idea of a platooning position group, with the hot hand seeing the majority of the work; with no one seeming to break out immediately, Myles Gaskin got the majority of the playing time, followed by Malcom Brown and Salvon Ahmed.
Durham Smythe led the tight end group with 70 percent of the offensive snaps played, while Mike Gesicki, the top catching threat for the group, played in 39 percent of the contest. Hunter Long (33 percent) and Cethan Carter (24 percent) both saw decent playing time.
The wide receivers were pretty much exactly as expected, with DeVante Parker and Jaylen Waddle on the field most of the game, followed by Albert Wilson, Jakeem Grant, and Mack Hollins. How Preston Williams (inactive with an injury) and Will Fuller (suspended) change the rotation once they are back will be interesting.
The offensive line had the five starters all play 100 percent of the snaps; the only surprise may have been rookie Liam Eichenberg starting at left tackle despite Austin Jackson – who played three snaps on special teams – being available.
Defense
The defensive line rotations did not happen as Miami would have liked, given the injury to Raekwon Davis after just five snaps. Emmanuel Ogbah, Adam Butler, John Jenkins, and Christian Wilkins all played over half the game, while Zach Sieler was in for more than a third of the contest.
The evolution of the snap counts over the course of the season for the linebacker position will be one to watch. While Jerome Baker getting nearly all of the snaps (99 percent on Sunday, missing just one play) is normal, how the Dolphins increase rookie Jaelan Phillips’ playing time over the rest of the year will be interesting; he was on the field for just 22 plays or 29 percent of the game. Andrew Van Ginkel trailed just Baker in the snap counts for the linebacker position, playing 53 snaps, while Sam Eguavoen and Elandon Roberts were both on the field for 36 snaps, or just about half of the contest. Brennan Scarlett, who had a decent game, was on the field for 35 percent of the snaps, and Duke Riley made a one snap appearance on defense.
At cornerback, the team’s top two players, Xavien Howard and Byron Jones, each played all 75 snaps. Nik Needham had the second most plays seeing 47 percent of the action, while Justin Coleman was on the field for two defensive plays. After Needham’s work as an outside cornerback all summer and Coleman working as the primary nickel cornerback, it was a little interesting to see how few plays Coleman had on Sunday. The real disappointment, however, was Noah Igbinoghene landing on the inactive players list; he has to improve this season and start developing into the player Miami projected him to be when they selected him in the first round of last year’s NFL Draft.
At safety, Jason McCourty played all but one snap, while Eric Rowe was in the game 87 percent of the time. Jevon Holland had a solid game, playing 32 percent of the snaps while Brandon Jones played 11 defensive plays.
