Is the Patriots’ reign over? Why the AFC East is wide open for the Miami Dolphins
The AFC East is as wide open as it has been in a generation.
Free agency and COVID-19 have done what the Dolphins, Jets and Bills could not (despite years of trying): Take the Patriots down a peg.
Tuesday’s big, potentially division-altering news: Six New England players — including three starters — have elected to opt out of the 2020 season over COVID-19 concerns. The biggest names: linebacker Dont’a Hightower, right tackle Marcus Cannon and safety Patrick Chung.
All three are major losses, but none is bigger than Hightower, who was not only a two-time Pro Bowler but also the emotional leader of the league’s top-ranked defense in 2019.
And combined with a mass exodus during free agency, New England’s roster is a shell of what it was just a year ago.
The Patriots have won the AFC East in each of the past 11 seasons and a staggering 17 times since 2001. But they were already due to take a step back after Tom Brady bolted for Tampa Bay in free agency and key defenders Kyle Van Noy, Jamie Collins, Duron Harmon and Danny Shelton all signed elsewhere.
Now, with six more players gone — and their top four linebackers from 2019 off the roster — New England is on track for its worst season since the Drew Bledsoe era.
The shift has been so drastic and dramatic, the gambling public spent much of the day searching for the new equilibrium.
After the draft, the Patriots were an even-money bet to win the division, per William Hill Sports Betting, with an expected win total of 8.5 games. The Dolphins, meanwhile, were 7-to-1 to win the AFC East and projected to win six games.
How had those odds changed since the flurry of opt-outs? Hard to say, but it’s fair to say significantly, since William Hill took AFC East futures off the board Tuesday afternoon.
The gambling site still had the Patriots at 7 1/2-to-1 to win the AFC; by way of comparison, the Dolphins were listed at 50-to-1.
Meanwhile, the Bills — who were a Wild Card team at 10-6 last year — are dealing with their own roster issues. Defensive tackle Star Lotulelei also opted out, the second big hit to their defensive line this offseason. They had already lost Shaq Lawson to the Dolphins in free agency.
It’s unclear if any Dolphins players has elected to take the season off. No Dolphins player had as of Tuesday, per the league’s transactions report.
Was Tuesday’s wave of opt-outs a response to the outbreak in the Marlins’ clubhouse — with four more players testing positive, upping the total to 15?
Perhaps to a small degree. But an agent at a prominent firm said that their clients who have passed on the 2020 season did not make that decision in recent days.
Meanwhile, there’s heightened concern that overnight travel is particularly risky. Since practices resumed in early July, the Marlins did not have a single test positive until last weekend’s road trip to Philadelphia.
“Based on what has happened with MLB and the Marlins I have spent the last 2 days speaking to GMs about pushing hard to have no over night stays during the season,” Davie-based player agent David Canter wrote on Twitter. “It’s imperative if we want to have a full season that players fly in and out on game day for safety reasons.”
Granted, that’s impossible if the NFL doesn’t change its schedule. The Dolphins are set to log the fourth-most miles in the league in 2020 (21,183), with three road trips of more than 2,000 miles, according to CBSSports.com.
▪ Dolphins veterans reported to training camp Tuesday, meaning that all Miami players should by now have undergone at least one COVID-19 test.
The team placed three players — long snapper Blake Ferguson, defensive tackle Benito Jones and cornerback Cordrea Tankersley — on the league’s reserve/COVID-19 list Monday.
While the NFL will not release if any of those three actually tested positive, the NFLPA announced Tuesday that 21 players around the league have had a positive test result since testing began last week.
This story was originally published July 28, 2020 at 4:42 PM.
