Chris Bell Camp Update — August 23: Off the List, Onto the Field
2026 NFL Season · Sunday, Aug 23
Chris Bell came off the non-football injury list and took his first practice reps as a professional on Tuesday — limited, in a red no-contact jersey, three team-period routes. The milestone every downstream question was waiting on has arrived, and Friday's preseason finale is now an open door.
Follow Chris Bell and get every episode, every week.
The full episode, in writing
Chris Bell came off the non-football injury list this week and practiced for the first time as a professional on Tuesday — a limited session in a red no-contact jersey, three team-period routes against a full defense, no targets thrown his way, per Alain Poupart at Dolphins On SI. Poupart's read on the reps was that Bell ran and cut effectively, which is the specific thing his November knee tear at Louisville had left unproven. The passing of the physical that activation requires is the medical milestone this whole file has been waiting on since spring.
Nobody in the building inflated it. Head coach Jeff Hafley: "There's still a lot of steps to go... He's got to get in football shape... it's good to have him out there." Bell himself was looser: "It felt great. I haven't played football in a little minute, so my first practice, I was a little nervous, but I'm just out there getting my feet wet," per Poupart. The timeline in the same reporting ran: Saturday's Giants game never in play — and he indeed did not appear — the preseason finale against Atlanta on Friday, August 28 an open door, and the season opener uncertain with setbacks always possible.
For anyone hearing this fresh: Miami drafted Bell 90-fourth overall out of Louisville with the torn anterior cruciate ligament fully known, and the June read said his situation inverted the usual rookie problem — the receiver room around him is wide open, so availability, not opportunity, was the entire question. The room did not close while he rehabbed, either. This week's game coverage had rookie Kevin Coleman Jr. as the one receiver clearly playing his way onto the roster, per Mike Oliva at DolphinsTalk, with Tutu Atwell dropping passes into roster doubt, per Brian Miller at Phin Phanatic — churn, not a settled hierarchy.
What to watch next: whether Bell's practice participation escalates out of the red jersey, and whether he takes a snap against Atlanta on Friday before rosters cut to 53 on Sunday, August 30. We'll check after cut day.
_Data via nflverse._
Keep going