Sept. 4, 2026, 7:11 p.m. ET
The Miami Dolphins took three wide receivers in the 2026 NFL Draft, but one of them, third-round pick Chris Bell, probably would’ve gone a lot sooner if he hadn’t been coming off a torn ACL that he suffered during his final season at Louisville.
Bell recovered quickly over the last few months, and while he was expected to miss some time, he came off the non-football-injury list and even played in Miami’s preseason game against the Atlanta Falcons.
While the 22-year-old is on the active roster and has already played his first snaps in an exhibition game, he knows he still has to get back to playing shape, both mentally and physically.
“The last skill is just getting that confidence back, you know what I’m saying? Getting back into football shape,” Bell told the media this week. “I feel like I just got to keep working on being confident. Not just confident in my knee but just knowing that I’m going to go out there and catch the ball and make a play and stuff like that. I know sometimes I kind of overthink during practice, but as soon as the ball hits my hand and I catch it, all that nervousness goes out. So just building that confidence back and that conditioning and getting back into shape.”
Against the Falcons, Bell caught two of his five targets from Cam Miller for 22 yards, including one for a gain of 18. However, he wants to get back to the player he was in his final year at Louisville, when he caught 72 passes for 917 yards and six touchdowns in 11 games.
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If he can put up that type of production in Miami after that injury, the Dolphins will probably be better than many people expected them to be, and it will be clear that new general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and head coach Jeff Hafley got a steal.