Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) - Sunday night is for all the marbles in the AFC East. It’s a winner-takes-all matchup in the least competitive division we've ever seen.
In a league where pretty much every year you get a game in the final week that decides a division's fate, the AFC East has not had a winner-takes-all matchup in the final week since 1997.
The New England Patriots spent 20 years running away with the division, and the Buffalo Bills have had a pretty easy time ruling the AFC East. Save one season where Mac Jones' Patriots tested the Bills late in the year.
Out of a few years of the Bills showing their strength as the new power in the AFC East, the Miami Dolphins have gone all-in to close the gap. Total win-now moves to challenge the Bills not in the future, but right now.
To understand the Dolphins' strategy, you have to understand their owner Stephen Ross. He's an 83-year old man that has yet to see a playoff win in 15 years as owner of the team.
Ross acts like an owner that is staring his own mortality in the face. He acts desperate.
Let's talk about what Ross tried to invest in:
Through Brian Flores' lawsuit against the NFL, we found out Ross orchestrated a meeting on a boat to bring fellow Michigan-man Tom Brady in as Dolphins quarterback. Had Flores' lawsuit not come forward, Brady likely would've been in Miami for the last few years.
According to The Athletic, Ross tried to set-up a meeting with Deshaun Watson the day before the 2021 NFL Trade Deadline, efforting to get the Houston Texans quarterback, at the time, to settle his sexual misconduct lawsuits so that the Dolphins could trade for him.
Ross failed in two chases for star quarterbacks. In the process, he showed the world he would look the other way on 24 sexual misconduct lawsuits, and lost a first-round pick for illegally trying to court Brady.
He may not have found his Tua Tagovailoa upgrade, but he didn't stop there.
Ross and the Dolphins were acting desperate to win, desperate to challenge the Bills. Out of that desperation, they've done it.
In the last two years, the Dolphins have traded two first-round picks, a second-round pick, a third, three fourth-round picks, a fifth, and a sixth-round pick for several veteran players including Tyreek Hill, Jalen Ramsey, and Bradley Chubb.
Hill and Chubb also cost the Dolphins up to $230 million in new contracts.
The consequences of all these moves are a team that will go into next season $42 million over the cap with just 37 players under contract, and big extensions needed at some point for Tagovailoa, Jaelen Phillips, and Jaylen Waddle.
That's tomorrow's problem for Miami.
Today, they've done it. They've closed the gap. They've got to this game: At home, beat the Bills, and you've conquered the division.
Amazingly, despite their plan working, there so much negative energy coming out of Miami.
Dolphins fans are staring at a lengthy injury report that has severely weakened both the offense and the defense. Plus, they're watching a mass of Bills fans descend on their city, about to take over half their stadium.
Fans in Miami are preparing for the worst. If the Bills win on Sunday night in South Florida, it will feel like there's nothing they can do as long as Josh Allen is the Bills quarterback.
Remember how Ross has acted the last few years. An overreaction to a late-season collapse, losing control of the division, is very possible.
The man I'd look at for that is Tagovailoa. Is Ross going to hand him a massive $50 million per-year extension after losing to the Bills?
I'm not sure that the next time a star quarterback becomes available, Miami won't be exploring how to make it work. That is, if they lose to the Bills, and eventually get bounced from the playoffs.
This is all-or-nothing for the Dolphins. Making it all the more sweeter for Bills fans if they can take this moment away from them.
