Dolphins see path
Pressuring rival QB crucial to ending Patriots’ dominance
Miami’s defense views Patriots quarterback Tom Brady as obstacle to division crown,
The quarterback who most affects the Miami Dolphins’ quest to win the AFC East for the first time in nearly a decade isn’t Jay Cutler or Ryan Tannehill.
It’s the New England Patriots’ Tom Brady.
As the Dolphins prepare for life after Tannehill, with Cutler the newly signed replacement, the ultimate challenge remains the same. To take the next steps, from the second wild-card team last season to division champion and potential Super Bowl team, the Dolphins must figure out how to catch up with the Patriots, something no AFC East team has done in the Brady era.
The Dolphins’ last division title came in 2008, the year Brady missed with a torn anterior cruciate ligament. The last team to win the AFC East when Brady played a full season was the New York Jets, in 2002.
“I love the challenge. I think it’s the right way. If we’re going to win a championship, we’ve got to go through our division,” defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh told USA TODAY Sports.
The Patriots swept the Dolphins last season, including a win in Week 2 when Brady was suspended, and New England coach Bill Belichick spent the offseason after his team’s Super Bowl victory making aggressive moves to reshape his roster, including trading for wideout Brandin Cooks and signing prized free agent cornerback Stephon Gilmore.
What have the Dolphins done to keep up?
While coach Adam Gase and a host of players said Miami’s offseason moves weren’t in direct response to the Patriots, the Dolphins appear to be trying to address the weakness the two losses last year exposed, and it starts with the defensive line. Miami surrendered 281 rushing yards in those games and struggled to generate a pass rush, with no sacks of Brady in a 35-14 loss in Week 17.
Miami used its top two draft picks on its front seven, with defensive end Charles Harris at No. 22 in the first round and inside linebacker Raekwon McMillan in the second round. Harris is expected to see extensive time as part of the pass rush rotation behind veterans Cameron Wake and Andre Branch, while McMillan is listed as a starter. Fifthround pick Davon Godchaux is also pushing for a starting job at defensive tackle alongside Suh.
Miami’s top veteran moves were re-signing Branch, who had 51⁄ sacks last season, and trading for former Los Angeles Rams defensive end William Hayes.
“You’ve got to be able to get to Tom. If you can get to Tom, you’ve got a chance,” Dolphins cornerback Byron Maxwell said. “To me, that’s just the formula to win, period. It’s D-line. Those guys make it go. If you can’t stop the run, you can’t rush the passer, you can’t do nothing in this league, you can’t make nothing happen.”
The Dolphins will have to wait until November to see if they’ve made up ground on the Patriots, with games against New England in Weeks 12 and 14. With those games coming in the back half of the season, the Dolphins know they’ll have to win early games to make sure those division games matter.
“Everybody in this league has the same goal, and that’s to be Su- per Bowl champions, and everybody is going to have to go through the Patriots to do it,” tight end Julius Thomas said. “Not to think about one team in particular or to think that far ahead, but we have to make sure that we have a championship routine, championship practice habits, championship effort. It takes a lot.”
The recent injury to Tannehill and switch to Cutler might have temporarily dampened the lofty expectations players had at the start of training camp, but it shouldn’t change the urgency veterans such as Wake, the longest-tenured defensive player on the roster, feel to not just get back to the playoffs but also to finally win the AFC East.
“We have to put this franchise back where it belongs,” Wake said. “Last year was a good start, I think, but I think guys who were here last year, that wasn’t the endgame. It wasn’t like, ‘Yay, we made the playoffs! Congratulations! OK, we’re done.’ It’s like, ‘ OK, that’s the foot in the door; let’s take the next step.’
“If that’s not where we start, then that’s a failure. We have to take it a step further and do more. I’ve told the guys, ‘If you were here last year, you knew how much it took for us just to get where we got. You know it’s going to take more for us to get three more games, four more games.’ ”