Do the Dolphins Benefit From the Changing AFC East Landscape?
Credit: Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images
After five grueling weeks of largely uninspired football, the Miami Dolphins finally get to enjoy their bye week. It couldn’t come at a much better time, as the Dolphins have been dealing with a myriad of injuries to key players including starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa (who is still on injured reserve), De’Von Achane, and both starting safeties in Jevon Holland and Jordan Poyer.
Personally, as a fan, I am thankful that I don’t have to spend this Sunday watching a third-string quarterback eke out an ugly last-minute win against another cellar-dwelling team, but I digress.
While this Dolphins team and the fanbase alike get to enjoy a drama-free week for once, the same cannot be said for the rest of the AFC East. All of Miami’s rivals are either dealing with some sort of adversity or they’re making major changes that will impact the team’s outlook in the immediate future. The New England Patriots finally benched bridge quarterback Jacoby Brissett for third-overall pick Drake Maye. The New York Jets somewhat surprisingly fired head coach Robert Saleh after a 2-3 start. The Buffalo Bills have looked rather suspect as of late, dropping consecutive games to the Baltimore Ravens and Houston Texans. More on that later…
There’s a quote from “Game of Thrones” that applies here. “Chaos isn’t a pit, chaos is a ladder.” The 2-3 Dolphins could use a ladder right about now, and the shake-ups engulfing the rest of the AFC East present the opportunity. The bigger question is: will Miami actually take advantage of all this turmoil to move up in the standings, or will it be a pit that swallows them whole?
At first glance, you wouldn’t suspect that there’s trouble up in Buffalo. The Bills are 3-2 and currently lead the division. Even their two straight losses were to teams where you’d go, “Yeah, that makes sense.” Buffalo isn’t making a change at quarterback so long as Josh Allen stays healthy, and they haven’t fired head coach Sean McDermott. However, McDermott’s seat is starting to get warmer.
There might not be much shame in losing to the Ravens, but getting blown out with your defense allowing 35 points? That’s a strike against McDermott. The close loss against the Texans might not be a big deal, except that an anonymous player questioned McDermott’s late-game decision-making.
The Bills’ offense received the ball on their own three-yard line in a tie game with just under a minute remaining in the fourth quarter. Houston had all three timeouts, and conventional wisdom says that it’s best to run the ball, or at least keep the ball in-bounds on a short passing play to force the Texans to burn their timeouts. Rather than following conventional wisdom, McDermott called three deep passing plays with a (likely concussed) Josh Allen, all of which fell incomplete.
Houston got to preserve all three timeouts which were critical in them making a game-winning field goal. After the game, an anonymous Bills veteran gave a telling quote to the media in regards to the late-game blunder. “I hope (the coaches) learn from it.” It’s not the spiciest quote ever, but any time players are starting to question their coaches’ competency, that’s not a good sign for their future.
Going now to the AFC East’s second-best New York, they’ve dealt with offensive woes all season long. Even with Aaron Rodgers at quarterback, offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett’s offense has looked archaic and unadaptable. After a close loss against a Minnesota Vikings team that struggled offensively against a strong Jets defense, Robert Saleh was reportedly considering relieving Hackett of his play-calling duties.
Now, this part is reckless speculation, but Rodgers is best buddies with Hackett, and probably caught wind of Saleh’s plan. So maybe he made a call to owner Woody Johnson and got Saleh canned, even though Saleh’s defense was far from New York’s biggest problem. I could be wrong, but if that’s the case, then there’s nothing saving the Jets until Rodgers’ ego is put in check.
As for the Patriots, they are making a change at the quarterback position by starting Maye this week against a Texans defense that has the highest pressure rate in the NFL. Probably not a smart move, considering that the Patriots offensive line ranks 28th in the NFL in pass block win-rate, but they really don’t have much of a choice. Jacoby Brissett wasn’t getting the job done, with their own team’s reporters saying Brissett was losing the team. At that point, there’s not much to lose at this point by starting Maye and letting him take his lumps.
Chaos can be detrimental for these teams, but it can also bring positive results, so there’s no guarantee that Miami stands to benefit. There’s still time for Sean McDermott and company to get their act together and put the locker room noise behind them. Jets interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich could be a breakout defensive mind, and Todd Downing could end up being a better play-caller than offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett. Maye has the talent to overcome a bad offensive line and could make something out of nothing in New England.
While we don’t know which team will benefit the most from the changing landscape in the division, I wouldn’t bet on all three of the Bills, Jets, and Patriots getting better after making these moves. One or two of these teams is likely to be in an even more precarious position in the coming weeks, and the Dolphins’ objective moving forward is to take advantage of these potential downfalls in the same way opposing teams beat up on Miami after Tua got hurt. The NFL is a dog-eat-dog world, and the Dolphins are hungry to start eating back. Now it’s just a matter of figuring out whose head will be served to them on a silver platter.
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