LAS VEGAS — The results of Super Bowl 58 were a good news/bad news situation for the Miami Dolphins.
The good news? The Dolphins weren’t alone in losing to the Kansas City Chiefs.
The bad? Andy Reid is one of the five best coaches ever. And Patrick Mahomes is the next Tom Brady — except probably better.
How Can Miami Dolphins Catch Kansas City Chiefs?
Mahomes on Sunday became just the third player in NFL history to win three Super Bowl MVPs. And he did it at age 28.
The other two on that shortest of lists? Tom Brady (who won his at age 43) and Joe Montana (33).
What’s more, this might be the weakest version of the Chiefs we’ll see. On Christmas Day, they lost their fourth of their last six games and weren’t even a lock to make the playoffs.
Of the Chiefs’ three championship teams — 2019, 2022, and 2023 — this group had the worst record (11-6), DVOA (17.9%), point differential (+77), and offensive EPA per play (.021).
And they just survived the toughest playoff path ever, in terms of DVOA, beating the NFL’s No. 1 (Ravens), No. 2 (Niners), No. 3 (Bills), and No. 6 (Dolphins) teams.
“Battling through the adversity that we went through this year, and the guys staying with the process, keeping believing,” Mahomes said post-game.
“You never know how it’s gonna happen, and to be able to go play three great teams to get to this game and play another great team, and win all those games, it was a true road in the playoffs, and we were able to come through and be Super Bowl champs.”
The Dolphins were one of those three “great teams” to which Mahomes referred. They had their best roster in decades and still got bludgeoned by these flawed Chiefs in the playoffs.
Certainly, Miami was banged up big time on defense, but they still had all but two offensive starters. And all they managed was seven points.
And now they greet an offseason of change. The Dolphins have already replaced defensive coordinator Vic Fangio with Anthony Weaver, but the biggest moves might come on their roster.
Miami has to shed some $50 million in cap obligations in the next month just to become NFL compliant. They have a bunch of key free agents, including Christian Wilkins.
And their top-end players, led by Tyreek Hill and Jalen Ramsey, are all a year later, with little help coming from their past two draft classes.
Short of an injury to Mahomes, the Dolphins’ best — and probably only — chance of getting past the Chiefs is for quarterback Tua Tagovaioa to take yet another quantum leap in his development.
Is it possible? Sure.
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But it’s also not likely.
“I just want to see him make sure the curve continues to be exponential in his growth,” Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said last month.
“We’ve seen at every stretch of the way him improving. That doesn’t mean it’s void of a result that isn’t desired. But what we’ve seen is him learn from all the things that he goes through. I think that’s the one thing that I can say in my two years of experience with him, is he’s as good of a learner as I’ve ever seen.”
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