Miami's Receiver Room Is Running Out of Bodies Before Camp Even Ends

Already wrote this note once — the prior piece on August 4th covered the receiver crunch — but the situation has gotten specific enough to warrant a second look. Hill's left leg has "no power" by his own description, and he managed just four games last season before that injury took over. Bell is on the non-football injury list. Caleb Douglas, the third-round pick brought in specifically to add depth at the position, is listed as questionable. That's three of the names Miami was counting on at receiver, all unavailable or uncertain at the same time.

What's left is thin. The depth chart at wideout runs through Jalen Tolbert, Donaven McCulley, and Malik Washington — the same Malik Washington who split his 2025 snaps between receiver and backfield work. Washington was productive in a complementary role, but he was never meant to be a featured option in the passing game. The names behind him are camp-roster names.

The one thing keeping this from being a full alarm is Achane, who is currently listed as active. He caught 67 passes out of the backfield last season and is the offense's most reliable outlet regardless of what's happening at receiver. If the wideout situation stays this thin into the regular season, the offense will run through him by necessity — which puts a lot of weight on a player who has his own durability questions.

The bigger picture: Tua's back flare-up, the QB depth issues I wrote about Monday, and now this. Miami's offense is being stress-tested before a single regular-season snap. The next 10 days of camp will tell us whether any of these situations resolve or whether the Dolphins are genuinely going to open the year short-handed.