Brady-Mahomes matchup torture for Dolphins fans
There is a word for this newly minted Super Bowl matchup, from a Miami perspective.
Torture.
The matchup is Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Kansas City Chiefs, except, really, of course, it is Tom Brady vs. Patrick Mahomes.
So there it is, shoved right in the face of Dolphins fans for the next two weeks:
The one player most responsible for Miami not reaching the Super Bowl any time this century — Brady, the Old G.O.A.T. And the one player most likely to prevent Miami getting there any time in the foreseeable future — Mahomes, the Aspiring G.O.A.T.
As Brady’s greatness wanes (but remarkably still exists at all, at age 43), Mahomes’ greatness ascends.
It is the ultimate historic handoff.
Brady, Miami’s nemesis seemingly forever as a champion New England Patriot, leaves Bill Belich
ick behind, changes clothes, and sails into his 10th Super Bowl in search of his seventh championship. Football shall never again see anything like that run of dominance ...
... unless it is orchestrated by Mahomes, who at age 25 readies for his second Super Bowl in a row and second crown.
Mahomes’ Chiefs are a small favorite to win the Feb. 7 game in Tampa, even though Brady’s Buccaneers will be the first team in the Super Bowl’s 55 years to play for the championship in their home stadium.
From Miami’s vantage, just as Brady finally leaves the AFC East and the Patriots recede as Miami’s direct roadblock, Mahomes looms as the next conference obstacle for the next 10-plus years.
(And that’s not to forget the emergence of Buffalo and rising-star quarterback Josh Allen as the new AFC East frontrunner the Dolphins must now find a way to beat).
This G.O.A.T. Bowl Super Bowl, along with Allen’s meteoric rise in upstate New York, verifies for any doubters that QBs rule the world. A running game, great defense, top coaching — all of those things are fine. A franchise QB who’ll be great year after year after year is better. It is the beeline to relentless Super Bowl contention.
The Miami Dolphins know this acutely.
What they do not know, yet, is whether Tua Tagovailoa is that man. Not after a rookie season that
showed promise of greatness more than proof.
Coach Brian Flores and general manager Chris Grier publicly profess faith in Tagovailoa moving forward, and they should, but there’s a reason the club just fired its quarterbacks
coach and replaced him with a guy, Charlie Frye, who helped nurture and develop Tua at the Elite 11 quarterback camp a few years ago.
The change spoke volumes. Said the Dolphins didn’t see sufficient improvement in Tagovailoa from the day they drafted him fifth overall last spring to season’s end.
A new QBs coach might help. Experience might, too. An elite receiver or two undoubtedly would.
Meantime Miami’s public faith in Tua has not prevented a swirl of reports and speculation that the Dolphins are among the many NFL teams kicking tires on a possible megatrade for disgruntled superstar QB Deshaun Watson, who wants out of Houston.
The line of suitors is long, reportedly with the New York Jets near the front.
To be in the running Miami would have to give up its two first round 2021 draft picks (third and 18th overall), and much more.
Should the Fins go all in on Watson or invest all of that draft capital in Tagovailoa
by making the talent around him better? It is a quandary, with risks both ways.
The easy answer is to go all in and pull the trigger on proven greatness with Watson (I would), but the line on cost must be drawn somewhere. Even Watson cannot alone overcome a lack of surrounding talent, as his pedestrian 28-25 starting record for the Texans has shown.
That means the safer though less sexy answer might be faith and investment in Tagovailoa.
No matter which path plays out for Miami, about this decision the Dolphins had better be something they have far too seldom been over the past 20 years or so.
They better be right.