Dolphins have quiet week while division foes get bad news
By Carlton Ray
Sometimes no news is good news; injuries and holdouts affected the Dolphins’ AFC East opponents, while the Dolphins had a quiet week.
The news was bad this week for the Buffalo Bills, when they found out that their first round draft pick, defensive end Shaq Lawson, will undergo shoulder surgery that will keep him out for most of his rookie season. The major surprise, I guess, is that the Dolphins didn’t draft Lawson, considering our recent history of drafting injured players. To add injury to injury, it was also announced on ESPN that Sammy Watkins recently had foot surgery. Whether he will be out for a long period of time or not, it is never a good sign when a speedy wide receiver has to deal with foot issues. Similar to Dolphins wide receiver Devante Parker last year, a foot surgery seems to have an unpredictable recovery period, so who knows when Watkins will be back on the field at full speed.
Patriots fans on the other hand could not be happy to hear this week that wide receiver Danny Amendola had knee and ankle surgery, and that wide receiver Julian Edelman is wearing a walking boot on his left foot. Add that to the looming suspension of Tom Brady, reportedly for four games at the start of the season for the Deflategate issue… and with Rob Gronkowski being tabbed as the Madden video game covermodel, with its rumored curse, you could understand if New England fans are feeling a bit, well, queasy, about their early season passing game.
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And then we have the J-E-T-S, with their quarterback, Ryan Fitzpatrick, getting bashed by former Jets star, Bart Scott, for Fitzpatrick’s contract impasse with the Jets. Among other things during Scott’s interview with SiriusXM NFL Radio, he said that “On another 20 teams in the league, he [Fitzpatrick] would be a backup.” Considering that Fitzpatrick led the Jets to a 10-6 record last year, including a sweep of the Dolphins, Scott is probably underestimating Fitzpatrick’s importance, but who knows… maybe the Jets are thinking about starting rookie Christian Hackenberg, considering that they drafted him in the second round of this year’s draft. The Fitzpatrick situation is compounded by the continued holdout of star defensive end, Muhammad Wilkerson, who has refused to sign his franchise-tag tender contract, and is also still rehabilitating the surgically-repaired right leg that he broke in the week 17 game against the Bills.
Meanwhile, the Dolphins have been quietly going about their business, signing their first and second round draft picks, Laremy Tunsil and Xavien Howard, in addition to later round draft picks Jakeem Grant, Jordan Lucas, and Brandon Doughty. The Dolphins also signed defensive lineman Jason Jones, who can play defensive end and tackle, and was a teammate of Ndamukong Suh while playing for the Detroit Lions. Add that to the two year contract signed by Cameron Wake earlier this month, and it looks like the Dolphins management team has been steadily closing their business deals and getting the roster ready for training camp. Here’s hoping that no news continues to be good news for the Dolphins.