SoFla Guide Editors
Help has arrived for a Dolphins team still searching for its first win. Head coach Jeff Hafley confirmed Friday that rookie wide receiver Caleb Douglas and running back Jaylen Wright will both play Sunday against the New York Jets, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported. For a 0-5 offense that has struggled to move the ball through the air, getting Douglas back is about as welcome as a cold front in October.
What happened
According to ESPN, the Dolphins enter Week 7 at 0-5 and sitting fourth in the AFC East in Hafley’s first season as head coach.
Hafley confirmed on Friday, October 23, that Douglas will play through his right ankle injury, the Sun Sentinel reported. ESPN and the Associated Press reported that Douglas has missed the past three games. He has been sidelined since September 20, when he left in the second half of a 35-13 loss at San Francisco.
Douglas sounded ready to go. “Getting back out there, it felt good,” he told the Associated Press, adding that it was about “just being able to run again and being able to move.”
When ESPN asked him Wednesday whether he still feels explosive after the injury, the rookie didn’t hesitate: “I always feel explosive.”
Hafley also confirmed that Wright, who has been dealing with a nagging foot injury, will play in Week 7, according to the Sun Sentinel. Yahoo Sports reported that Wright missed Week 5 because of the foot. He wasn’t exactly breezing through the week, though. Wright was reportedly limited in practice all week, according to ESPN and the Sun Sentinel, so keep an eye on how heavily Miami leans on him.
Douglas is reportedly a third-round pick, per ESPN.
Why Douglas matters so much
Two games was all it took for Douglas to make his mark. ESPN reported that he caught seven passes for 113 yards in the first two games of the season, and that total is still third most on the team. His 94 receiving yards in Week 1 remain the best single-game output by any Dolphins pass catcher this season, according to ESPN.
Read that again. A guy who has been out since Week 2 still owns the team’s best receiving game.
His absence has shown. Without Douglas, Miami’s passing offense ranks 31st among the league’s 32 teams, the Sun Sentinel reported.
The most painful stat of the season, though, comes from Sports Illustrated’s All Dolphins: Miami has not held a lead for a single second in 300 minutes of game action through five games. Not one second. Fans in Miami Gardens and beyond would happily take even a brief early lead at this point, just to remember what it feels like.
The injury report on both sides
The good news comes with some bad. Defensive end Rob Beal Jr. has been ruled out for Week 7 with a hamstring injury, and cornerback Reese Taylor is unlikely to play with a quadriceps injury, according to the Sun Sentinel.
That matters, because the Jets may be getting a big piece back too. Jets head coach Aaron Glenn said running back Breece Hall would be questionable with a quadriceps injury, the Sun Sentinel reported. Hafley, for his part, said he expects Hall to play after the standout rusher missed three games.
So Miami’s defense, already down Beal and likely Taylor, could be staring at a fresh Hall. That’s a real test.
What’s next
The Dolphins and Jets are scheduled to kick off Sunday, October 25, at 1 p.m. ET.
The question for South Florida is simple: Is this the week? Douglas gives the offense a proven playmaker it has badly missed, and Wright adds a body to the backfield, even if his workload is unclear after a limited week of practice. On the other side, the defense is thinner than Hafley would like heading into a game where Hall could be back.
A first lead would be a start. A first win would be a whole lot better. Either way, Sunday will show how much difference a couple of healthy bodies can make for a team that badly needs a spark.
