Dolphins 2025 Week 3 Snap Count Observations

What stood out regarding play counts in the Miami Dolphins' 31-21 loss against the Buffalo at Highmark Stadium on Thursday night:

We'll start with the inactive list, which was highlighted by three injured players — tight end Darren Waller, cornerback Storm Duck and safety Ifeatu Melifonwu. The others were wide receiver Tahj Washington, defensive back JuJu Brents and defensive tackle Zeek Biggers, along with emergency third quarterback Quinn Ewers.

Every player who was active played in the game except for new lineman Cole Strange and running back Jaylen Wright, who was active for the first time this season, along with QB Zach Wilson.

Five players saw action only on special teams: Cameron Goode, Elijah Campbell, K.J. Britt, Kendall Lamm and Jordan Colbert, who was elevated from the practice squad for the game.

DOLPHINS OFFENSE OBSERVATIONS

As evidence of how close this game actually was, the Dolphins and Bills ran practically the same number of offensive plays, with Miami's 61 just one more than Buffalo's total.

There were no injuries on offense, but the Dolphins made a switch at right guard after Kion Smith played the first 36 snaps, replacing him with Daniel Brunskill for the final 25.

There was nothing else overly surprising about the player usage on offense, though it's worth noting that rookie sixth-round pick Ollie Gordon Jr. more than doubled the seven snaps he had against New England. This was good recognition by Mike McDaniel that Gordon was giving something special to the offense on this night.

Tyreek Hill (53), Jaylen Waddle (53) and De'Von Achane (47) dominated the snap counts among the skill position players, which should be a given just about every week.

The Dolphins again went with two tight ends on their game-day roster, with Julian Hill getting the bulk of the work (36 snaps to Tanner Conner's 26).

DOLPHINS DEFENSE OBSERVATIONS

Four players were on the field for all of the Dolphins' 60 defensive snaps — safeties Minkah Fitzpatrick and Ashtyn Davis and linebackers Jordyn Brooks and Tyrel Dodson, who might have been the team's best defensive player in this game.

Cornerback Jack Jones also was on the field for every snap, except for the one play he missed after getting the wind knocked out of him when tight end Dalton Kincaid collided with him in the middle of the field while running a crossing route.

After playing three snaps on defense against New England in Week 2, Willie Gay Jr. got a little bit more action against the Bills with eight snaps when the team went with three off-the-ball linebackers, though he wasn't as noticeable.

After there was very good balance among the edge defenders in the opener, it's starting to appear as though Anthony Weaver is going heavily with Jaelan Phillips and Bradley Chubb as the main edge defenders, as they got 42 and 41 snaps compared to 22 and 18 for Chop Robinson and Matthew Judon. The team did use Phillips, Chubb and Robinson at the same time against the Bills, not very often.

With Melifonwu inactive, the Dolphins used only three safeties in this game, and even then rookie fifth-round pick Dante Trader Jr. played a modest 13 snaps.

Cornerback Cornell Armstrong got his first action on the season, playing 13 snaps after Jason Marshall Jr. left the game because of a hamstring injury. Armstrong was the one responsible for Khalil Shakir on the game-winning touchdown.

Benito Jones returned after a one-game absence, but Jordan Phillips still got the most snaps at nose tackle by a large margin, 30-9. Phillips got the start when the Dolphins opened in a 2-4-5 alignment, so this might have been about more than just easing Jones back into the lineup as it was gradually turning the position over to the rookie.

We close with special teams, where K.J. Britt and Campbell again tied for the team lead with 23 snaps, followed by Dante Trader Jr. with 19 and and Goode with 17. Minkah Fitzpatrick (10) and Zach Sieler (10) again got heavy special teams action, and it was on special teams that Sieler made his costly mistake. Among offensive players, Julian Hill led the way with 13 special teams snaps, followed by Nick Westbrook-Ikhine with 11.

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