MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Hope is nearly gone. Soon it’ll be time for change for the Miami Dolphins.
Even a strong performance Sunday from Tua Tagoaviloa in his return from IR — he graded out as a B in PFN’s proprietary QB+ metric — wasn’t enough for the Dolphins Sunday.
Their offense might have shown improvement, but now the defense is to blame after a second straight blown 10-point lead, this time in a 28-27 loss to the very mediocre Arizona Cardinals.
So as a season with the highest of expectations reaches its tipping point, the Dolphins should consider the future.
If they lose to the first-place Buffalo Bills next Sunday in Orchard Park, N.Y., Dolphins owner Stephen Ross should triage the season and hold a fire sale ahead of the Nov. 5 trade deadline.
Miami Dolphins Should Be Trade Deadline Sellers
No veteran should be off limits, except for perhaps Tua, who probably isn’t tradeable based on his contract and concussion history.
But Terron Armstead, Tyreek Hill, Jalen Ramsey, Calais Campbell, and Raheem Mostert all should be among those made available by the Dolphins via trade.
To be clear, we’re not saying the Dolphins should give any of those very good players away. But this nucleus pretty clearly is not going to win a Super Bowl. Better for Ross to recognize and act on that now while their value is the highest.
The Dolphins could get a number of premium picks for these star players, who probably would jump at the opportunity to join a team in contention. That haul, combined with the tens of millions in freed up future cap space, would allow the Dolphins a chance to transition to a brighter future.
And if Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel and general manager Chris Grier balk at the reset, Ross should overrule them — by any means necessary.
Mike McDaniel reacts to 2-5 pic.twitter.com/TzahqMboHv
— Adam Beasley (@AdamHBeasley) October 27, 2024
McDaniel and his players of course aren’t thinking in those terms right now. They still think they can turn things around, and have a pretty good talking point in the team’s 2021 season.
“There’s always time,” Tagovailoa said of turning the season around. “Seventeen games. That’s a long time. A lot of games. So whether we’re counted out or we’re not, it doesn’t matter.
“We’re going to continue to play football. A lot of people in here know that [in 2021] we started out 1-7.
“We didn’t have half the guys that we have, and no disrespect to my other teammates, but I’m talking about the talent that we have here, we didn’t have half that talent however many years ago.
“So to give that group respect, we won the next [seven] games and I’m not saying we’re going to do that or whatnot, but it is possible. Anything’s possible. So we’re going to continue to trust each other, lean on each other, believe in each other, and we’re going to go do it next week.”
Should Miami Dolphins’ Stephen Ross Order a Hard Reset?
That’s a competitor speaking.
Here’s a realist speaking: The Dolphins are one of the worst teams in football. They’d have a top-10 pick in April’s draft if the season ended today.
They should act accordingly.
After losses in five of their last six games, the Dolphins at 2-5 were the AFC’s 11 seed entering Week 8’s 4 p.m. window.
And while they’re technically within two games of the No. 7 seed, they’re about to play the hardest game of their season to date. Next week is their annual road game against the Buffalo Bills, who have won eight straight games vs. the Dolphins at Highmark Stadium dating back to 2017.
“It’s a significant challenge,” McDaniel said of facing the Bills in Buffalo at 2-5. “…I think the biggest thing is that you have to understand that all the heartbreak has to go into your next opponent.
“It’s the next opponent and it’s a divisional game and I know we have all the reason in the world to have 110 percent invested in it, so that’s what my expectation will be. I think it’s rough – 2-5 is rough. But in the NFL season, you can’t really take what your record is at this stage and extrapolate. That’s where you get causes for concern.
“You have to go take your best game and try to win one football game and I think that’s a really cool football place to play, and guys – I think we have the right guys and if they weren’t motivated for this one, they would be the wrong guys, and I’m not nervous about that. Just want to make sure that all of our energy is put towards what we’re able to do, not what has been done.”
If they cannot, their season will effectively end Sunday with two months to go.
In that case, they should cut their losses, free up cap space, load up on picks, and not waste another season of their best, aging players’ careers.