2016 Games Schedule:

Week 9 November 6 @ Pro Player Stadium on Land Shark Field at Dolphins Park

Week 15 (Saturday – Primetime) December 17 @ Met Life Stadium

Just one game better than we are against the Bills since 2012, the Jets have been another serious road block to the Dolphins quest for 9-7 and first round playoff exit glory. They may not be able to spell their team’s name half of the time, but the Jets fans travel well and always win in Miami.

Since Ryan Tannehill took over, the Dolphins have not beaten the Jets at home. Conversely, Miami has beaten the Jets three out of four tries at the Meadowlands. One of those games was a Matt Moore led charge in the 2012 season when Tannehill sustained a knee injury on the second drive of the game.

Jets head coach, Todd Bowles, was a former Dolphins interim coach and hot candidate around the league to get a head coaching job. Bowels led the Jets to a surprising 10-6 record last year with a chance to get win number 11 and make the post-season before Ryan Fitzpatrick threw three fourth quarter interceptions to end the season in Buffalo.

Speaking of the bearded Harvard grad, he is still not signed by the Jets at press time. Frankly, I don’t see the issue getting resolved because Fitzpatrick is dug in on the Jets bumping their $9 million offer and he has no leverage unless another team sees its starting quarterback suffer a serious training camp injury. The Jets know he was largely responsible for their success last year, but they simply don’t have the cap room to pay him commiserate with the going rate for above average quarterbacks. The two sides are millions apart.

EDIT: Shows how much I know about the Jets front office workings. This is a slight problem with writing these pieces a couple weeks in advance.

 

I originally had multiple paragraphs written here to discuss how Geno Smith would derail the team. I wrote this piece the day before Ryan Fitzpatrick agreed to a one year, $12 million deal with the team on the eve of training camp. The picture of Geno getting annihilated by Wake is too good to remove, however, so it stays. Fitzpatrick had the best year of his career in 2015 but the final quarter of the final game of the season saw him throw three interceptions on three drives with an opportunity to win the game and take the Jets to the post-season.

I don’t see the same success transpiring, nor do I see the struggles he endured in Buffalo being the norm, but somewhere in between there. He’s an average quarterback that played above his means last year and with age becoming more and more of an issue, I’d forecast his game reverting back in the other direction.

Another thing in Miami’s favor is the fact that we aren’t losing the home game to London. I still want to know whose idea that was to take away a divisional home game from us and light a bag of dog shit on his doorstep. Even the Billy Madison prank isn’t enough pay back – that was an embarrassment.

The problem with the Jets games has been in the trenches. New York has the best defensive line in football even after losing ultra-important Damon Harrison. His absence and the upgraded interior Miami line will afford more running opportunities and allow the Dolphins to improve upon the six sacks it allowed in 2015 to the Jets.

The defensive backfield of the Jets was supposed to be another strength last year but Darrelle Revis regressed and Buster Skrine was a complete free agent bust allowing 17 passing touchdowns in his coverage area. To make matters worse for the Jets, Skrine has been promoted to a full time perimeter player while the impressive Marcus Williams will play the slot.

 

Miami’s best position is wide receiver and Adam Gase is going to have a lot of match-up potential to get the Miami offense going.

As for the New York offensive line, 10 year veteran D’Brickashaw Ferguson called it a career and the Jets are now banking on a guy that spends more time in the trainer’s room than he does protecting his quarterback’s blind side. Ryan Clady is the left tackle and Breno Giacomini was a disaster at right tackle a year ago but the Jets didn’t bring in any competition there.

The Jets have just as many holes on their roster as the Dolphins do. The difference between the Jets and Bills is that New York has some serious positions of strength, particularly the front seven. Even if Miami’s offensive line goes from one of the league’s worst to one of the better ones, it’s inconceivable to expect the Jets defensive line to be held at bay twice.

With the questions at quarterback, the dumpster fire at the edge of the offensive line and the thin secondary, Miami can win at least one of these two games.

The Jets and Dolphins will have similar records. I’m thinking both teams win seven games in 2016 and will split the two games accordingly.

Fuck the Jets.