Several Dolphins are best in league entering last weeks of regular season
Heading into the final five weeks of the season, more than a handful of Dolphins sit atop various measurements of performance — either in the NFL overall or AFC specifically — and that’s a big reason why Miami stands at 9-3 and three games atop the AFC East.
Ten factoids involving 10 Dolphins who rank No. 1 in a statistical area or by an analytics website as we approach Monday’s game against visiting Tennessee (8:15 p.m., ESPN and CW-39):
Tyreek Hill leads the NFL in receiving yards at 1,481 — well ahead of No. 2 CeeDee Lamb’s 1,182 for Dallas.
Hill also leads the NFL with 12 receiving touchdowns. He’s on pace for 2,098 receiving yards, which would set an NFL record.
Pro Football Focus ranks Hill the best and Jaylen Waddle the seventh-best wide receiver in the AFC this season. And among AFC players, Hill has the fastest timed speed on any play this season: 22.01 yards on a 64-yard catch and run against the Giants, per Next Gen Stats. (Seattle’s DK Metcalf has the fastest time overall.)
Among qualifiers, Tua Tagovailoa ranks first in the AFC in passer rating at 106.0, ahead of Houston’s C.J. Stroud (101.2).
San Francisco’s Brock Purdy leads at 116.1, with Dallas’ Dak Prescott at 108.3, and Tagovailoa third if you exclude Cincinnati’s Jake Browning, who has made only four appearances.
Pro Football Focus rates Connor Williams the best center in football this season, just ahead of Atlanta’s Drew Dalman.
PFF rates Jevon Holland the best safety in football, tied with Tampa Bay’s Antoine Winfield Jr.
Holland has a very solid 81.4 passer rating in his coverage area, and PFF said he’s the eighth-best run-defending safety in football.
Among every NFL cornerback who has been targeted at least 20 times,
McDaniel encourages his coaches to find ideas for plays ... anywhere,
Jalen Ramsey has the lowest passer rating against — an absurd 7.4 passer rating in his coverage area. That includes eight completions in 22 targets for 77 yards and three interceptions.
Raheem Mostert — who has dropped to second in the AFC in rushing yards behind Tennessee’s Derrick Henry — leads the NFL in rushing touchdowns with 14 and total touchdowns with 16. Mark Clayton holds the Dolphins’ single-season record for touchdowns with 18 in 1984.
PFF rates David Long Jr. as the best run-defender among all linebackers this season.
Left tackle Terron Armstead has allowed by
far the fewest quarterback pressures (three) of any offensive lineman who has played at least 100 passing downs. (Armstead has played 170.)
Of the 39 offensive tackles who have passblocked at least 400 snaps, Austin Jackson has given up the second-fewest pressures (13). That leads the AFC in that category; Detroit’s Penei Sewell is the only one who has allowed fewer (12) in as many snaps.
Jackson agreed to a three-year, $36 million contract extension this week.
Among running backs with at least 50 carries, De’Von Achane leads the league with a 9.5-yard average (on 56 carries). Nobody else is close.
So the Dolphins are doing a lot well.
Here’s one thing they’re
not doing well, until last weekend: converting in short-yardage situations.
The Dolphins entered December having converted 19 of 34 chances on third down and 1, 2 or 3. That 55.9 percent was 25th in the league. Miami had thrown 25 times on thirdand-short and 15 had been converted into first downs.
Miami had run nine times on 3rd and short and converted only four times, which was 31st in success rate.
On fourth-and-1 or 2 and 3, Miami was 3 for 8, a conversion rate that was last in the league. The Dolphins had thrown six times in those situations and converted two of those six. They were 1 for 2 in success rate on fourth and short runs.
But there was good news on that front against Washington; Tagovailoa’s
78-yard pass to Hill for a touchdown came on a 3rd and 2 on Miami’s first possession.
Offensive coordinator Frank Smith suggested Miami throws a lot on short yardage because “we have an extremely accurate quarterback.”
But Smith said: “This area we can improve in. The biggest thing is that when you look at us as an offense and you see we have an ability to move the football. One section isn’t as good as the other because the disparity between the two is drastic. You’re top five in most categories, and you have this one where you’re at the bottom” in shortyardage conversions.