The Miami Dolphins will likely be without wide receiver Jakeem Grant for their regular season finale against Buffalo Bills.
Grant left the 26-25 victory against the Las Vegas Raiders in the third quarter with an ankle injury that will keep him out of Buffalo, according to NFL Network informant Ian Rapoport.
Rookie Noah Igbioghene was used as the kick-off debtor on Saturday night and rookie Malcolm Perry took over the punt return function after Grant left the game.
While Rapoport suggested that Grant could end up on the injured reserve to create a roster spot, the Dolphins did not make that move on Monday or Tuesday.
The same goes for linebacker Elandon Roberts, who was taken off the field in Las Vegas with what appeared to be a serious knee injury.
The Dolphins played the game against the Raiders without DeVante Parker (hamstring), Solomon Kindley (knee) and Shaq Lawson (shoulder).
They will have their first injury report of the week on Wednesday, when they start training in preparation for the Buffalo game.
PRACTICE SQUAD MOVES
The Dolphins did their weekly training squad protections on Tuesday, but included different names this time.
The four players protected this week were DB Brian Cole, DB Javaris Davis, DB Nate Holley and WR Kirk Merritt.
The usual names of tight end Chris Myarick, quarterback Reid Sinnett and long-snapper Rex Sunahara were not involved, meaning they could be hunted by another team this week.
Sinnett’s exclusion is interesting, especially considering Monday’s report that the Dolphins brought in quarterback Jake Rudock to start their COVID-19 test series.
GAILEY MAIN OBJECTIVE
Dolphins coordinators conducted their final regular season Zoom media sessions on Tuesday, leading to another question for Chan Gailey about his plans for the future.
It’s a logical question to ask, given that Gailey is 68 years old and hasn’t trained since 2016 before the Dolphins pulled him out of retirement.
“This has been an unusual year, to say the least,” said Gailey. “The experience was like no other I’ve ever had, that’s for sure. I think someone asked me about it last week. I’m thinking about how to rise and beat Buffalo. That’s what I’m thinking about. I’m not thinking of anything else right now. How can I help this football team to beat Buffalo. “
SCHEDULE SNEAK VIEW
Recent published reports indicate that a 17th regular season is likely to be added in 2021, with the additional game being an interconference match against a team that ends in the same position in its division.
It looks like now, according to SI NFL writer Albert Breer, the extra game for the AFC East teams will be against NFC East.
This means that the Dolphins, who are guaranteed to finish second in AFC East, will face the runner-up in NFC East, although that is all we can say at this point, because that team could end up being the Dallas, the New York Giants or Washington.
The location of that game must be determined.
In addition to traditional home and home games with AFC East opponents, the Dolphins will play 2,021 home games against Houston, Indianapolis, Atlanta and Carolina and runner-up at AFC North (Cleveland or Baltimore).
The street games will take place against the three opponents of AFC East, Jacksonville, Tennessee, New Orleans, Tampa Bay and the runner-up in AFC West.
TALKING TUA
Finally, we end with Gailey describing why there seems to be more of a vertical pass game with veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick as a defender than with newcomer Tua Tagovailoa.
“Well, the game situation has a lot to do with it,” said Gailey. “If you end up being left behind and need to go to the field and score points quickly, it has a lot to do with it. We have been a team that tried to be 9-, 10-, 11-, 12-play drives, run football, play the action pass, control the time on the clock. That was the situation we found with Tua in the ball game. In addition, you are losing a few receivers every now and then and it has something to do with it. A lot of that goes into making decisions about what the game is being called and what kind of moves we make. “