Landry laughs last! Ex-Dolphins receiver torches old team, keys Browns’ 41-24 victory
Jarvis Landry got his revenge.
But in a perverse way, he helped the team he so desperately wanted to beat Sunday.
Landry was great on the last Sunday in November, 2019. But his big game Sunday might help the Dolphins become great in the years to come.
The tank, or whatever you want to call it, is back on.
We’ll get to that in a moment. But first, give Landry his due.
He was everything Dolphins fans used to love about him in his rematch with the team that traded him away nearly two years ago.
Landry was fiery. He was tough. He was productive, with two touchdown catches that keyed the Browns’ 41-24 victory over the team that drafted and developed him.
In short, Landry was spectacular against the Dolphins, with the highlight his high-point touchdown catch in traffic.
“It didn’t mean extra,” said Landry, fooling no one, after going for 148 yards and 10 catches on 13 targets, “but it was fun. Definitely was fun.”
Here’s the truth: It absolutely meant extra. His quarterback, Baker Mayfield, admitted as much.
“He did a good job suppressing the emotion, keeping it to himself, and making it all about the team,” Mayfield said. “But deep down inside, we know how much it meant to him.”
How could it not? Landry is a prideful guy, and it hurt him that the Dolphins not only refused to give him the big-money, long-term deal he craved, but instead traded him to the Browns in early 2018 despite having his rights for that season.
Now, the names, faces and circumstances have all changed in the two years since. Of the 44 Dolphins who took the field Sunday against the Browns, just eight played with Landry in Miami.
That short list includes Davon Godchaux, who was Landry’s teammate with both the Dolphins and LSU.
“I love Jarvis,” Godchaux said. “He’s a great friend of mine. But it’s not about him. It’s about the Miami Dolphins. At the end of the day, you’ve got to keep fighting. He’s a great player.”
Godchaux’s right. It wasn’t just about Landry. It was also about Odell Beckham Jr. (six catches for 84 yards and a touchdown), Mayfield (24 of 34, 327 yards and three scores) and Nick Chubb (106 yards and a touchdown on 21 carries).
The Dolphins’ depleted defense barely had a chance.
“A tough matchup,” Dolphins corner Nik Needham said. “He’s got good hands. You can tell he’s a vet. ... I wish we played them again, for sure.”
They probably won’t again for at least a couple more years. The Browns will finish at least third in the AFC North. Unless the Jets completely collapse, the Dolphins are going to finish last in the AFC East.
And that’s probably OK.
In a micro sense, Sunday was another bad day at the office for the Dolphins.
They fell behind 28-0, and while Ryan Fitzpatrick made it a little interesting with some second-half magic on his 37th birthday, never truly threatened the Browns.
But the loss was a win in the chase for the No. 1 pick. The Dolphins dropped to 2-9 on the season, and remained on track for a top 5 — at least — pick. The Dolphins are currently projected to pick third next April and play the two teams currently ahead of them — the Bengals and Giants — in the next four weeks.
If they lose out, they will have no worse than the third pick — and probably the second — in next April’s draft.
So they enter December with a chance to really improve their position.
They will have 14 or so picks in April. At least four, including two in premium spots, should be defensive backs. The Dolphins don’t have the firepower to hang with loaded offensive teams like the Browns.
“Both of the receivers, Landry and OBJ, they both provided a great challenge but it was a challenge we were up to,” Dolphins safety Steven Parker said. “We didn’t come out like we wanted to, but second half I feel like we fought. ... He definitely had a little but of extra something, but they definitely wanted to feature him, which we knew that’s what they wanted to do.”
Added Beckham: “We’ve played together and this is what we expect. Not to sound like that’s not a surprise to us, it was just a good day at work. It’s what we work hard for every single week to be able to do this. To see it happen, it was great. To be able to look up and know that every pass coming our way we were going to make a play on it, and that was a lot of fun.”
This story was originally published November 24, 2019 at 4:13 PM.
