Dolphins face Bills without two starters in secondary

The Miami Dolphins will face the Josh Allen’s Buffalo Bills with a stripped down secondary in Sunday’s critical AFC East match up..

Kader Kohou (neck) and Storm Duck (ankle), who sat out last Sunday’s 28-27 loss to the Arizona Cardinals because of their various injuries, were ruled out, as was starting free safety Jevon Holland, who will miss his second game of 2024.

Holland, who was previously sidelined by a broken left hand, is nursing a left knee injury he suffered against the Cardinals, which kept him from participating in practice all week. He was listed as doubtful for the game, but Miami decided that the injury, which supposedly won’t require surgery, needed more time to heal.

Holland, who has contributed 26 tackles and forced one fumble in the six games he’s played this season, missed five games last season because of MCL sprains he suffered in both his knees during Miami’s Black Friday win over the New York Jets.

Marcus Maye will start his third game of the season as Holland’s replacement. So far Maye, who has started 79 games in his eight NFL seasons, has played 55 percent of the Dolphins’ defensive snaps, either as a replacement for Jordan Poyer or Holland.

Maye has contributed 24 tackles and broke up one pass this season.

Cam Smith, the Dolphins’ 2023 second-round pick, stepped up in the absence of Kohou and Duck last week, becoming the third cornerback who enters the game versus three-receiver sets. However, that approach forced Jalen Ramsey to man the nickel cornerback spot most of the Cardinals game.

The only other alternative is to have special teams ace Siran Neal play nickel, or have Kendall Fuller work inside if Ramsey’s needed to shadow Bills rookie receiver Keon Coleman. The fact that Amari Cooper is inactive because of the wrist injury he suffered last week hints that Ramsey will do most of his work in the nickel spot.

Also inactive was starting tight end Julian Hill (shoulder), who is primarily used as a run blocker. Expect Durham Smythe and Jonnu Smith to handle a larger portion of the tight end snaps. Fullback Alec Ingold, who is nursing a calf injury that limited his practice participation this week, will play against the Bills.

Zach Sieler, who suffered a right eye injury last week, will miss his second straight game.

Da’Shawn Hand will start his second game of the season as Sieler’s replacement, and the Dolphins promoted Neil Farrell up from the practice squad to handle some of the defensive line snaps.