Written by Chad Hahn
Heading into week 14 of the regular season the Dolphins come in 3-9 visiting the rival New York Jets in the Meadowlands. The Dolphins are looking to sweep the regular-season series with Jets as in an earlier meeting the Dolphins won in Miami against the Adam Gase lead Jets team.
Over the past couple of days, the Dolphins have tinkered with the waiver wire changing out 10% of their roster, giving more opportunities to even more younger players and giving them the opportunity to play with the team in 2020. One of the key waiver wire acquisitions this week was a fourth-round pick in the 2018 draft, wide receiver Mack Hollins, Hollins is a big, fast and physical wide receiver and plays hard on the special teams unit.
In coach Brian Flores’s weekly press conference one key factor I got from that press conference was how much time and effort he puts into the waiver wire which he is done every day for the past 15 years, it makes you wonder how involved he really is on all these acquisitions this season. One particular that catches my attention that no one is talking about is if he is so involved on the waiver wire and both him and general manager Chris Grier has coveted draft picks the way they have over this past year, it makes you really think that their opinion of quarterback Josh Rosen could be higher than many others expect. For this duo to put out and trade a second-round and a fifth-round draft choice, they must have liked what they saw and felt they could develop Rosen for the long term. It begs the question, “what if Rosen is the future and they know he wasn’t ready mentally but had the personality and physical tools to “the man” in Miami. What if the plan all along was to develop and train Rosen for a year or until he was ready. What if the “Tank for Tua” was a smokescreen?
One thing is for sure, both Grier and Flores has a clear plan and has executed the plan very well to this point. Now to the game at hand, The Dolphins are riding high coming into this game after a 37-31 victory at home last week against the Philadelphia Eagles, where it was lead by the FitzMagic show which contributed over 350 yards and 3 touchdowns in the air. His main beneficiaries were wide receiver Devante Parker and tight end Mike Gesicki. I look for this trend to continue versus the Jets’ porous defense. A defense that will be without there star safety Jamal Adams who will be missing the first game of his career.
The expectation for Miami is for them to start running back Patrick Laird in place of injured running back Kalen Ballage which is preferred anyway because Ballage has struggled mightily averaging a terrible 1.8 yards per carry on the season. Laird has gained steam over the past few weeks and it has become apparent to all that Laird’s offensive role should expand. He is not the only running back that will see increased playing time as an addition to him the expectation is to also have an increased role for a rookie seventh-round running back Myles Gaskin.
On paper, the Jets should win this game led by quarterback Sam Darnold and offensive playmakers Le’Veon Bell, Demaryius Thomas and Robbie Anderson. Good thing for Miami, Coach Brian Flores doesn’t believe in paper champions as he believes in building a championship organization from the ground up through hard work and preservation. With the absence of All-Pro safety Jamal Adams I believe the Dolphins will out will the New York Jets on the road in New York to pick up their fourth victory of the season and continue the underdog season led by Coach Brian Flores and his staff. I believe Coach Flores will simply out Coach Adam Gase and put a real question in the Jets mind if Gase should continue as head coach if he gets swept by this year’s version of the Dolphins.