MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. -- There's no gamesmanship involved with the Dolphins' first depth chart of the season.
Rookies Caleb Douglas and Chris Bell were listed as starting wide receivers ahead of Sunday's game against the Las Vegas Raiders (4:25 p.m., E.T., FOX), and coach Jeff Hafley said it's not a fluke or a formality -- the rookies have earned their spot.
"Winning is the priority. We're not going to put a guy out there Week 1 just to see what we have," he said. "We believe those guys deserve to start, and we're going to start them. And we'll find out what we need to work on, how we need to develop them, with winning as a priority."
Douglas has worked with the Dolphins' first team since early in training camp and started their preseason opener against the Washington Commanders; his inclusion among Miami's Week 1 starters was no surprise.
Dolphins wide receivers coach Tyke Tolbert said Douglas has an "it factor," although that doesn't mean there won't be rookie moments for the third-round pick.
"He makes some plays. He has some wiggle; he has some speed," Tolbert said. "He can make plays on balls outside the frame of his body. Some of those things that we liked in the draft process and we liked in training camp, and he's been making some of those plays.
"We wish he could catch everything and have every assignment correctly, but the fact of the matter is none of the rookies are doing that right now. But he's coming along really, really well. We really like where he is."
Bell, on the other hand, played just 13 snaps in the preseason, all in the finale against the New York Giants. He spent most of the offseason rehabbing a torn ACL suffered in December, but was activated off the non-football injury list Aug. 17, and was cleared for full contact a week later.
His return to the practice field was well ahead of schedule; though the team was initially coy about his rehab timeline, general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan eventually revealed the team thought he'd be ready after its Week 6 bye.
Bell is still getting back into playing shape, although Hafley said he won't be on a snap count this week. Despite that, the third-round pick's coaches say his talent is obvious -- and impossible to ignore.
"He's been putting the work day in and day out, and he's come along so strongly to the point where ... [we said] why wait til the bye -- he's ready," Tolbert said. "Now, again, he's behind some of those other guys. He doesn't have the banked reps those other guys have ... but he's catching on. He has a ways to go, but he's up to the point where he's so talented that you have to put him on the field and see what he can do."
Similar to Miami, the Raiders are also one of the youngest teams in the league, but have a fairly experienced secondary. Safety Jeremy Chinn and cornerback Eric Stokes have been in the league since 2020 and 2021, respectively, while cornerback Taron Johnson is entering his ninth NFL season.
Also similar to the Dolphins, Las Vegas hired a new head coach and coordinators this offseason, so there will be a fair amount of uncertainty for both sides come Sunday.
Dolphins offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik said he'll be paying attention to how his rookie receivers respond to a hostile environment Sunday, and how they adjust to what he described as a fluid game plan.
"Your first game's on the road; you got to deal with crowd noise," Slowik said. "Obviously, there's pretty good players on defense that you're going against. What happens during the game that creates adversity? How do you respond to that? And do you rise to the occasion, or do you sink? That's what we're going to be looking for.
"Like, there's going to be a lot of adjustments in this game. There's going to be a lot of things; both sides are going to have to do just from not having much to go off of before we kind of get into this thing, which is why we really got to hang our hat on the style of play. And once that starts to fade -- and it happens sometimes to young guys when they get in that environment. It's our job as coaches, we got to bring them up."