Dolphins 2021 Week 15 Snap Counts ... And What They Mean

The Miami Dolphins' success running the ball against the New York didn't happen by accident

The Miami Dolphins had their best rushing performance of the season in their 31-24 victory against the New York Jets at Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday, and there obviously were a lot of factors involved.

One was the performance of running back Duke Johnson, for which he was rewarded when he was signed to the active roster Monday, along with some good blocking up front.

And then there was the commitment the Dolphins made to running the ball and taking advantage of the league's 31st-ranked rushing defense.

This can be found not only with the season-high 42 rushing attempts by the team, but also with the personnel usage on offense, as revealed by the snap counts.

Let's start with Durham Smythe leading all tight ends with 65 snaps, a career-high 92 percent of the offensive plays. Mike Gesicki, who obviously is the receiving threat among the tight ends, by comparison played 45 snaps.

Then there was offensive lineman Robert Jones , who got 10 snaps in jumbo formations. Those were his first offensive snaps of the season, outside of getting seven snaps against the Buffalo Bills in Week 2.

The last thing to note on offense is the Johnson ended up playing 45 of the 71 offensive snaps after starting at running back, and after both coming off the COVID-19 list Friday Myles Gaskin played 26 snaps, while Salvon Ahmed was in uniform but did not play.

DEFENSIVE THOUGHTS

What stood out on defense is one name among the four players who got all 57 defensive snaps: Nik Needham.

The third-year player was used as the free safety in the absence of rookie second-round pick Jevon Holland, and joined Xavien Howard, Byron Jones and Jerome Baker in lining up for every snap.

For those wondering, this was the fifth time in his NFL career that Needham played every defensive snap; he did four times as a rookie late in the 2019 season.

Eric Rowe and Brandon Jones split time at the strong safety spot against the Jets, with Jones played 36 snaps in his return after missing two games with an elbow injury and Rowe played 33 snaps.

The other noteworthy item on defense involved linebacker Duke Riley, who played nine snaps after getting more than 30 in each of the previous two games.

SPECIAL TEAMS ONLY

Linebacker Vince Biegel led the way in special teams snaps with 25, to go along with one snap on defense.

There were seven position players whose only snaps came on special teams: Clayton Fejedelem, Sheldrick Redwine, Sam Eguavoen, Noah Igbinoghene, Tommylee Lewis (though he could be considered a return specialist), Calvin Munson and Solomon Kindley.

The only player besides Ahmed who was active but did not play was offensive lineman Greg Mancz, who was back in the lineup after missing a month with an ankle injury.