What to Make of the Week 1 Dolphins Depth Chart

Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel said after the team signed veteran cornerback Rasul Douglas last week that he wouldn't be handed a starting job and he clearly meant it based on the team's Week 1 depth chart.

While the depth chart never should be taken as the final word, it's certainly more indicative of reality during the regular season than during the preseason, and this is where we are right now.

And it's why it was quite notable that it was Jack Jones, who was signed earlier in training camp, listed as the starting cornerback opposite second-year player Storm Duck.

Jones being first on the depth chart doesn't necessarily mean he will be in the starting lineup against the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium on Sunday, but it's also probably more likely than not that he will be.

While Douglas clearly is a more proven commodity than Jones with a much longer NFL resume, Jones performed pretty well throughout training camp and the preseason and it says here he absolutely deserves the opportunity to start, and Douglas will or should be ready to take over if Jones' performance falls short.

After all, the whole idea of signing Douglas was to add competition to a cornerback group with very little in terms of proven players.

“We’re not in the business of handing over those positions, especially in a competitive environment," McDaniel said last week. "I think Rasul, we felt like, ensured even another step up of competitiveness in the room and so whether it’s him starting or someone else, I think overall the Dolphins are better. We weren’t plugging and playing, we were putting him in the group and seeing how that shakes out. We have three extra practices on top of a normal work week for Week 1 to kind of sift through that. It’s a competitive room that we’ll for sure start the guys that are in best position to start Week 1.”

While he's only been in the NFL for three seasons, while Douglas is going into his ninth season, Jones does have 21 career starts, including 16 for the Las Vegas Raiders in 2024.

OTHER DEPTH CHART DETAILS

The other notable aspect of the Dolphins' Week 1 depth chart on defense was the fact that Bradley Chubb, Chop Robinson and Jaelan Phillips all were listed as first-team players like they were in the preseason, but this time there were only 11 total starters with the nickel back position eliminated.

This, of course, is for record-keeping purposes because we all know that the Dolphins will employ five defensive backs at the same time on occasion, and the likelihood heading into the regular season is that rookie Jason Marshall Jr. will be that nickel corner.