The Miami Dolphins released their first depth chart of the season with a clear signal: rookies Caleb Douglas and Chris Bell will start at wide receiver against the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday (4:25 p.m. ET, FOX). Head coach Jeff Hafley emphasized the decision is based on merit, not experimentation.
Rookies Earn Starting Roles
“Winning is the priority. We’re not going to put a guy out there Week 1 just to see what we have,” Hafley said. “We believe those guys deserve to start, and we’re going to start them. And we’ll find out what we need to work on, how we need to develop them, with winning as a priority.”
Douglas’ Early Impact
Douglas has worked with the first team since early in training camp and started the preseason opener against the Washington Commanders, making his Week 1 inclusion unsurprising. Wide receivers coach Tyke Tolbert highlighted the third-round pick’s playmaking ability.
“He makes some plays. He has some wiggle; he has some speed,” Tolbert said. “He can make plays on balls outside the frame of his body. Some of those things that we liked in the draft process and we liked in training camp, and he’s been making some of those plays.”We wish he could catch everything and have every assignment correctly, but the fact of the matter is none of the rookies are doing that right now. But he’s coming along really, really well. We really like where he is.”
Bell’s Accelerated Return
Bell’s path is more remarkable. The third-round pick played just 13 preseason snaps, all in the finale against the New York Giants, after rehabbing a torn ACL suffered in December. He was activated off the non-football injury list on Aug. 17 and cleared for full contact a week later—well ahead of the team’s initial projection of a Week 6 return.
“He’s been putting the work day in and day out, and he’s come along so strongly to the point where … [we said] why wait til the bye — he’s ready,” Tolbert said. “Now, again, he’s behind some of those other guys. He doesn’t have the banked reps those other guys have … but he’s catching on. He has a ways to go, but he’s up to the point where he’s so talented that you have to put him on the field and see what he can do.”
Hafley confirmed Bell will not be on a snap count against the Raiders.
Raiders’ Experienced Secondary
Las Vegas fields one of the league’s youngest rosters but counters with a veteran secondary. Safety Jeremy Chinn and cornerback Eric Stokes have been in the NFL since 2020 and 2021, respectively, while cornerback Taron Johnson enters his ninth season. Like Miami, the Raiders hired a new head coach and coordinators this offseason, adding uncertainty for both sides.
Coaches Prepare for Road Test
Offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik said he will monitor how the rookie receivers handle a hostile road environment and a fluid game plan.
“Your first game’s on the road; you got to deal with crowd noise,” Slowik said. “Obviously, there’s pretty good players on defense that you’re going against. What happens during the game that creates adversity? How do you respond to that? And do you rise to the occasion, or do you sink? That’s what we’re going to be looking for.”
“Like, there’s going to be a lot of adjustments in this game. There’s going to be a lot of things; both sides are going to have to do just from not having much to go off of before we kind of get into this thing, which is why we really got to hang our hat on the style of play. And once that starts to fade — and it happens sometimes to young guys when they get in that environment. It’s our job as coaches, we got to bring them up.”
