The Miami Dolphins have three heralded safeties. Who plays?

If you look at the Dolphins internal depth chart (hidden somewhere in the team's practice facility where reporters aren't welcome) it raises a significant question because it features Reshad Jones as a starting stafety. And T.J. McDonald as a starting safety.

And, obviously, Minkah Fitzpatrick figures prominently because he was the team's first-round draft pick last month and it would be a bad look if the No. 11 player selected in the entire draft was on the bench throughout 2018.

So the Dolphins have three prominent safeties for a sport that typically demands two starting safeties.

Except that Burke envisions a plan that needs three big-time safeties playing a lot.

So expect Jones, McDonald and Fitzpatrick to play. Expect times when all are on the field but one of them is at another spot. And there may be times two of them -- either Fitzpatrick or McDonald -- miss snaps based on opponents and situations.

This is the vision:

"It's always good to have different weapons for me," Burke said Saturday. "And I know I mentioned this last year, the way offenses are going and even you look at some of the guys we drafted on offense -- the tight end spot and running back spot, those sort of things -- we're going to put he best 11 players on the field from play-to-play, week-to-week, with our match ups.

"I have a little more comfort level now with how to use those guys. So we're going to let those guys compete at safety. But again, I look at the linebackers, there may be some three safety packages when they're on the field together.

"There may be times when T.J. and Reshad are a better grouping for us. Or Minkah and Reshad are a better grouping for us. Or something else, I don't know."

Reshad Jones, a Pro Bowl player, isn't coming off the field. The other two, meanwhile, are going to be all over, including (sometimes) on the bench.

"Our challenge as a coaching staff is to get the best feel for how to utilize those guys," Burke said. "What their strengths are ... So when we get into a game plan situation it's, 'Hey, this guy's better doing this.' Or, 'Let's use this guy this way.'"

This is Burke's plan. But it can all change because he has been around Fitzpatrick all of 48 hours and not one of those were in team drills on the field with other veteran players. But in his mind, Burke sees the possibilities.

"Through our scouting process with Minkah and how we felt about his versatility and his ability to do a lot of different things on the field at a fairly high level, that's another piece we've added in that room and we're going to let it play out," Burke said.

"I'm anticipating having different packages where there's going to be different groupings on the field at different times, whether it's all three of them or different groupings of two of them at a time or whatnot.

"That's going to play out as we go through it. I'm anticipating having to control that a little bit whether that's in the linebacker room or the safety or DB room, having multiple packages where we're going to have versatility, which is a good thing. We'll have to manage it but it's a good thing where we can put different people on the field depending on how the offense is dictating what we need to stop."

Interestingly, part of the experimentation about to happen once offseason field work and training camp begin is trying Fitzpatrick at the nickel (slot) cornerback spot on early downs. This despite the fact nickel cornerback Bobby McCain was perhaps Miami's most consistent cornerback in 2017.

In those times against multiple tight ends or backs or a bigger bodies in a game for the offense, Fitzpatrick could be the nickel cornerback, Burke said.

"We played around with that a little bit last year against New England," he said of using three safeties in the game. "We played some three-safety packages.. They're such a tight end heavy team. When you have guys that are multi-dimensional, the more you can play around with how you can utilize them on the field.

"We're going to try to get all those guys caught up to speed and in multiple spots and have the ability to do a lot of different things hopefully."

That will require the Fitzpatrick to learn not just one but multiple assignments. Burke doesn't see a problem with that at this point, calling the rookie a "big picture thinker."

"My sense," Burke said. "is he has the ability to absorb a lot."

This story was originally published May 12, 2018 at 1:28 PM with the headline "The Miami Dolphins have three heralded safeties. Who plays?."