Miami Dolphins Week 3 defensive snaps counts in win over Oakland Raiders

Yesterday, we caught up on the Miami Dolphins’ Week 3 offensive snap counts from their win over the Oakland Raiders. Today, we pick up the defensive side of the ball. Normally, these posts will come out on Monday or Tuesday, depending on what else is happening, but I am behind, so we are only finishing them up now on Thursday.

Our snap counts take a look at each position grouping and try to see why what happened in the game happened, and if the snap counts indicate anything. We also keep track of how many snaps each player has played on the season, as well as the percentage of possible snaps on the year.

Time to get to the defense:

The defensive line was a mess on Sunday, but not from the play on the field but rather the injuries that happened. Suddenly an incredibly deep defensive end grouping was down two major contributors as William Hayes tore an ACL and Andre Branch injured his knee. Where the Dolphins look to rotate players as much as possible to keep everyone fresh throughout the game, the team now had to rely more on Cameron Wake, Robert Quinn, and Charles Harris than they probably preferred. It did not come back to haunt them, but those snap counts were definitely not what was expected prior to the game.

Defensive tackle was no better as Hayes typically rotates into here as well, while Akeem Spence was sent to the locker room early after being ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct. Davon Godchaux, Jordan Phillips, and Vincent Taylor all played fairly well, but again, it is not the ideal situation for Miami’s coaches, who want to see a constant rotation.

Linebacker was an interesting position this week. Kiko Alonso never comes off the field, which is not a surprise. Raekwon McMillan did see some down time this game, compared to Week 2 when he played 100 percent of the game. Baker went from 23 percent played to 61 percent, which could be a sign of the Raiders playing in base set more often, but could also be a sign that the coaches are trusting the rookie a little more in coverage. We will have to watch that throughout the next few weeks. Chase Allen suffered a foot injury during the game, which could explain why Stephone Anthony made his season debut.

The Dolphins secondary was shaken up as well in this game, with safety Reshad Jones missing the game with a shoulder injury, which basically moved Minkah Fitzpatrick from nickel cornerback to free safety. He is still listed here because this is where he will likely see most of his snaps this season, but he definitely played safety for the Raiders game. That left Xavien Howard, Bobby McCain, and Torry McTyer to cover the cornerback spot, with the first two both playing nearly the entire game and McTyer playing almost half of it. The Dolphins struggled early in coverage, with the shift of players and Jones missing likely a big part of that. They seemed to settle down, and now have some experience for McTyer, which could be huge later in the year.

T.J. McDonald played the entire game, just as he has the last two games. Jones would have played 100 percent of the snaps as well, but his shoulder injury forced him to miss the contest. He is hopefully ready to return to the field this Sunday.