Dolphins ‘excited' to see Will Fuller make debut, list him as a starting wide receiver

The Dolphins are wasting no time getting their money’s worth out of receiver Will Fuller.

The team’s depth chart was released Tuesday, showing Fuller as a starter along with DeVante Parker and Jaylen Waddle.

Fuller had been ineligible for the opener last weekend at New England while finishing out a league suspension for violating the substance-abuse policy.

More:Dolphins place DT Raekwon Davis on injured reserve, meaning he'll miss at least three games

More:Habib: No time to panic, but Patriots' actions, words on Tagovailoa must raise concerns

Fuller, 27, is coming off a season with the lowly Houston Texans in which he nevertheless had career highs in receptions (53), yards (879), average (16.6) and touchdowns (eight). He could spark a Dolphins offense held to 17 points and netting 185 passing yards vs. New England. 

“Will has been a high performer in his career,” said George Godsey, the Dolphins’ co-offensive coordinator. “We’re excited to get him back. For Will, I know he’s excited. He’s been itching at the bit.”

Godsey is eager to see how the offense will perform with the speedy Waddle and the speedy Fuller stretching defenses.

“We’ve got a lot of weapons,” Godsey said. “Moving them around, getting them open versus certain matchups, and really the catch-and-run element especially with Will is a factor with his speed. ... ”

Fuller missed most of training camp with an injury, so it remains to be seen whether he has his timing down with quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.

"He missed some time in training camp," coach Brian Flores said. "We really only had him for, I would say, a handful of practices. We’ll work him in and see how to best utilize him in the offense and see how things go during practice this week. I think we've got a lot of guys in that room."

Defensive tackle Raekwon Davis (knee) was placed on injured reserve Tuesday, opening a roster spot for Fuller.

Waddle had 61 receiving yards against the Patriots, ranking third by a Dolphin making his NFL debut. The two above him weren’t wide receivers: fullback Stanley Pritchett (77 yards in 1996) and tight end Randy McMichael (73 yards in 2002).

Updates on depth chart 

The depth chart also listed Austin Jackson as the starting left tackle. Jackson missed practice last week while on the reserve/COVID-19 list. Although Jackson was eligible for the game, rookie Liam Eichenberg made his NFL debut and filled in for him.

Eichenberg is now listed as the backup right tackle behind Jesse Davis.

Defensively, Justin Coleman continues to be listed as the third cornerback ahead of Nik Needham even though Needham played 35 snaps vs. the Patriots and Coleman only two.

Needham was tied for third on the team with six tackles; Coleman didn’t make the stat sheet.

Co-coordinator operation ‘pretty clean'

The Patriots game marked the first regular-season test of Godsey working with co-coordinator Eric Studesville, plus Charlie Frye on the headset to Tua Tagovailoa.

“From an operation standpoint, it was pretty clean from our perspective,” Godsey said. “We were playing on the road. That environment is not an easy environment. We saw a lot of teams here in this first week where maybe it wasn’t as clean.”

Not Boyer's favorite film

The Bills spanked the Dolphins 56-26 in the most recent meeting, on Jan. 3, as Josh Allen threw for 224 yards and three touchdowns in limited duty. As much as he’d probably prefer not to, Dolphins defensive coordinator Josh Boyer has reviewed the tape of the debacle.

“Yeah, I’ve seen it several times,” Boyer said. “I’ve watched it quite a bit. You try to take as much as you can from each film that you watch. I think that’s just part of preparation. You like to study players, schemes, calls, all of those things that go into it as we’re game-planning and prepping this week. It’s definitely something that we look at.”

What would be one thing Boyer would change from that game?

“If I could change one thing, I just hope that I’m going to work a little bit harder, a little bit better, put the guys in better positions,” Boyer said. “You can play the what-if game all you want. You just try to study things and do what we believe in and try to put a sound game plan that the players can execute.”

Tough day for ex-Dolphin Haack

The Dolphins will see a familiar face on the opposite sideline Sunday. Matt Haack, the “quarterback” in the famous “Mountaineer Shot” touchdown pass to kicker Jason Sanders, is now punting for the Bills.

Haack is a dependable punter but had a rough opener last weekend, suffering a blocked punt and netting an average of 28.0 yards. His replacement in Miami, Michael Palardy, netted 35 yards.

Noteworthy

· Shouldn’t the Dolphins have a turnover chain? They have a takeaway in 23 consecutive games dating back to November 2019. The last time any team had a streak that long was 36 by New England in 2011-13. The Dolphins’ longest such streak is 42 from 1982-85.

· Sunday’s game could be the glamor event of the home schedule — the Bills are the defending division champs — yet a Ticketmaster search shows seats available in most price ranges and in most areas around the stadium.

· BetOnline.ag has doubled the Dolphins’ odds to win the Super Bowl, from 20-1 in February to 35-1 last week and 40-1 this week. The Dolphins are 20-1 to reach the Super Bowl, ahead of only the Raiders, Bengals, Texans, Jaguars and Jets.