Opener in Miami moved to Nov. 19
DAVIE — While the NFL had no choice but to move Sunday’s game due to the threat of Hurricane Irma, Miami Dolphins and Tampa Bay Buccaneers players will be forced to make the best of a bad situation in 2017. Postponing their game to Week 11 (Nov. 19) when they previously had a bye week scheduled likely will put the two teams at a competitive disadvantage for the rest of the season.
It could lead to tired legs in the season’s final month and more games and practices lost to injuries. The bye week for both teams was already late in the year and leading into a critically tough stretch of the season that could decide each team’s playoff fate.
“Let’s be honest about it — it’s a long season and I think the stretch after our bye week is probably one of the toughest — if you want to be real about it — probably the toughest in the NFL," receiver Jarvis Landry said Tuesday before the NFL’s decision to postpone the game was announced Wednesday.
The Dolphins will come off a Monday night game at Carolina on Nov. 13, and then play Tampa Bay six days later at Hard Rock Stadium. Then Miami will turn around and travel to New England for a Nov. 26 showdown against the reigning Super Bowl champ Patriots.
“That bye week [would] give us an opportunity to kind of get some guys healthy. In this NFL, you’re going to get banged up week in, week out," Landry said. “For us, that bye week came at an appropriate time."
Miami will then host the Denver Broncos on Dec. 3 and the Patriots on Dec. 11 before two road games against Buffalo (Dec. 17) and Kansas City (Dec. 24). The Dolphins finish the season at home against Buffalo on Dec. 31.
Because of the rescheduled game, the Buccaneers will now be playing three straight road games, traveling to Miami, Atlanta (Nov. 26) and then Green Bay (Dec. 3). Tampa Bay then hosts Detroit (Dec. 10) and Atlanta (Dec. 18) before traveling to Carolina to face the Panthers on Dec. 24. The Buccaneers close the season with a home game against New Orleans on Dec. 31.
Tampa Bay defensive tackle Chris Baker tweeted his displeasure about the scheduling parameters on Wednesday morning, conveying: “Dear @NFL @NFLPA the players are not interested in playing 16 straight weeks #PLAYERSAFETY THIS IS CRAZY”
Both coaching staffs will likely have to get creative with additional rest days, and they might alter their practice schedules to avoid fatigued legs in the second half of the season.
In the immediate future, it is possible that the Dolphins could leave for California early and practice out there ahead of their Sept. 17 road game against the Los Angeles Chargers. The Dolphins practiced in California for an entire week last season between their games against the Chargers and Los Angeles Rams.
This will not be the first time NFL teams have played 16 straight games. The league did it for 13 straight seasons — from 1978 to 1990. But that was every team, not just two franchises.
“It’d be tough, but we’d make it through it. Obviously we’d have to," Dolphins quarterback Jay Cutler said Tuesday.“But our guys kind of need that bye week to get healthy and kind of push through the second half of the season."