The Miami Dolphins absorbed some bad news on Thursday when it was announced that the team was placing three, including defensive starters Kyle Van Noy and Christian Wilkins, on the reserve/COVID-19 list — casting serious doubt into their availability to play in Week 10 against the Los Angeles Chargers. Given the Chargers’ ability to move the football and the high-performance of young quarterback Justin Herbert thus far in the season, having all hands on deck would have eased a lot of minds for how Miami was going to draw up a game plan to cross up the young quarterback.
Instead, the Dolphins must continue their preparations with the assumption that neither Van Noy nor Wilkins will be in play for the Dolphins. There does appear to be some outside hope that Van Noy may be available, as sources have told Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald that Van Noy’s designation on the list is on account of contact tracing.
“NFL Network reported that both players will miss Sunday’s game, though the team would not confirm that and The Miami Herald has been told that at least one of the two has not yet been ruled out,” wrote Jackson.
“If the players contracted the virus, both would definitely miss Sunday’s home game against the Los Angeles Chargers. But Van Noy was placed on the list because of contact tracing, according to a source.”
While the Dolphins likely already know whether or not there’s a chance Van Noy is at their disposal, lets operate under the assumption that neither Christian Wilkins or Kyle Van Noy is eligible to play for Miami on Sunday. How are those defensive snaps shared?
Kyle Van Noy has played in no less than 88% of the Dolphins defensive snaps in any of the last four games he dressed for (Miami sat him versus the Jets due to a minor injury). But the Jets game holds a clue for Miami: as there was a player who saw a significant jump in snap production for that football game. It wasn’t Andrew Van Ginkel, who may have been the first assumed choice — it was LB Sam Eguavoen. Aside of the Jets game, Eguavoen’s season high for defensive snaps is just 8, which came against San Francisco in Week 5.
Week 6 against the Jets? Eguavoen played 49 defensive snaps (69% of team reps). Look for him to adopt many of Van Noy’s reps this weekend with Andrew Van Ginkel a more likely candidate to take the obvious passing down/distance snaps.
On the defensive line, the Dolphins can take solace in the strong play of Zach Sieler up front. He’s played about 65% of the Dolphins’ snaps during their four game winning streak; which is a sizable amount. Fellow defensive tackle Raekwon Davis has played in over 50% of the team’s snaps for the past two weeks as well — that figure is likely to further expand as Miami looks to cover their bases up front. And while this duo can take a fraction of Wilkins’ snaps depending on the rest of the front, Miami will still need someone else to step in on the defensive line.
Look for Shaq Lawson to get more run. Miami can play four across the front with Lawson, Sieler, Davis and Emmanuel Ogbah and still reasonably expect to hold their own up front — and Lawson has been playing less than 50% of the Dolphins’ defensive snaps over the course of the last two weeks.
Miami may still need to promote IDL Benito Jones off the practice squad for short yardage reps, but the Dolphins’ defensive personnel groupings won’t handle these losses with a one for one swap. Expect a group effort and expect Sam Eguavoen and Shaq Lawson to carry the brunt of the extra weight for each respective loss for the week.