Finsmob Unleashed

The Patriots went to the Super Bowl in 2025, but they aren’t even the favorites to win the AFC East in 2026. Many feel the Patriots simply benefited by playing an easy schedule and will be exposed in 2026 with a more difficult schedule. The Buffalo Bills will once again be the favorites. The Bills immediately grabbed up Dolphins cast off DE/OLB Bradley Chubb. That was the most significant move the Bills. They also signed CB Dee Alford to a 3 year contract but Chubb should make the most impact on the Bills defense. Their draft class was headed by EDGE rusher TJ Parker from Clemson in RD 2. As long as Josh Allen is the QB, the Bills rightfully belong as the favorites to win the division. I’d say Allen is probably asked to do too much, but no other QB in this division is capable of putting his team on his back and getting them a victory. The two picks in the draft on the offensive side were OT Jude Bowry from Boston College, in RD 4 along with WR Skyler Bell from Connecticut, also in RD 4. The Bills added WR DJ Moore from the Bears, and he will join former Chargers WR Joshua Palmer and probably their most important receiver last season, slot WR Khalil Shakir. RB James Cook like De’Von Achane, just got paid, and besides Josh Allen, is the Bills next best offensive weapon. We’ll see how much of an impact WR DJ Moore makes. Moore has 4 1000 yards + seasons for the Chicago Bears but the 28 year old WR only had 50 receptions last season for 682 yards. The Bills desperately need a big play WR, we’ll see if Moore is up to the task.

The Patriots after getting to the Super Bowl have been entrenched in the Mike Vrabel/Diana Russini scandal. There has been basically no football talk regarding the Patriots, fair or not. I thought that a lot of the criticism the Patriots got during last season was uncalled for. You don’t pick your schedule, you simply play the schedule you’re given. In that regard, the Patriots did their job and then some. The Patriots won 14 games, so spare me the easy schedule argument. The Patriots from Sept 28th to December 1st rattled off 10 consecutive wins. They lost 1 game the following week to the Bills in a close fought loss 35-31, and then went on to win another 6 straight, including playoff wins against the Chargers, Texans and Broncos, the Broncos game on the road at Mile High in Denver. The first 2 picks in the draft for the Patriots were in the trenches with OT Caleb Lomu from Utah RD 1 (Pick #28), and then EDGE rusher Gabe Jackas from Illinois in RD 2. The Patriots picked up WR Romeo Doubs (Packers) in free agency, along with oft injured OL Alijah Vera-Tucker from the NY Jets. The Patriots also signed former Dolphins TE Julian Hill to a 3 year deal. Doubs will play the slot along with good looking young WR Kayshon Boutte and former Dolphins WR Mack Hollins on the outside. The schedule will be more difficult, but I wouldn’t count out the Patriots so quickly.

The NY Jets had a ton of draft capital going into 26 after trading away 2 players for a kings ransom. The Jets traded meh CB Sauce Gardner for 2 1st RD Draft picks, one in 2026 and one in 2027, along with WR Adonai Mitchell from the Indianapolis Colts. They also traded DT Quinnen Williams to the Dallas Cowboys for a 2026 2nd RD pick and a 2027 1st RD pick. So next year, the Jets have 3 first round picks in a very important QB Draft. Dolphins fans should be hoping Malik Willis is the deal so we don’t have to draft a QB in RD 1. I suppose an alternative hope would be we’re awful and own the 1st pick and then collect a bounty of picks for another NFL team to move to #1 to get the Qb of their choice. The Jets selected EDGE rusher David Bailey from Texas Tech with the 2nd pick in RD 1 in the NFL Draft, along with TE Kenyon Sadiq from Oregon at pick #16 RD 1, and then the final of the trio of 1st RD picks was WR Omar Cooper from Indiana. They also nabbed a fine CB prospect in D’Angelo Ponds in RD 2 (Pick #50). In free agency, the Jets bolstered the defense bringing in former GB Packers EDGE rusher Kingsley Enagbare along with Benglas EDGE rusher Joseph Ossai. The Jets also signed veteran LB DeMario Davis from New Orleans. The Jets, like the Bills and Dolphins re-signed their RB Breece Hall. Hall has been oft injured and somewhat underwhelming, but the Jets feel Hall is worth the gamble. They also gave former Dolphins S Minkah Fitzpatrick an extension and to fill the gap at QB for a season, they picked up free agent QB Geno Smith to reunite himself with the adoring NY fans. Tee hee.

So where do the Dolphins fit in all of this? It appears as if the Dolphins universally are expected to fail this season. Dead last according to Vegas, but I feel like the Dolphins could be a surprise this season. As for winning the division, I wouldn’t put money on that, but as I’ve said here before, I don’t see any reason why this team can’t win as many games as we did last season or more. We’re going to be an extremely young team. On the surface, I feel more optimistic about the O-line despite the Austin Jackson news, and also despite the De’Von Achane apparent injury. There’s plenty of time between now and the beginning of the season so no reason to panic. If anything, the answer as to who might replace Austin Jackson if he should actually miss time as he has missed so much the last 2 seasons (20 games) to be exact, should be revealed. My first thought was 1st RD pick OT Kadyn Proctor, but he may just remain at LG where he’s projected to start, and perhaps OT Charlie Heck or former Chargers OL Jamaree Salyer take over at RT. My preference would be Proctor, I’d rather have a pair of excellent bookend tackles that can move people off the ball, rather just one side of the ball if he were to play LG. The bigger question of course resides with QB Malik Willis. In my mind, I can’t possibly imagine him being worse than QB Tua Tagovailoa was for us last season, and I’m not kidding.

Let me make something very clear. I don’t want QB Malik Willis to be a running QB. I want him to be a QB who can run. That’s two different things entirely. I want him to be a passer, look to move the ball through the air when he drops back to pass, not to constantly look for a running lane. On the other hand, if running room is there and it’s abundant, GO FOR IT! Pass first, run second. To have a QB with some athletic ability to me will be a pleasure after being saddled with Tua for the last seasons. Malik Willis has not been tested, he’s only started 1 game last season, and 6 in his career, 3 of them coming the last 2 seasons. Obviously, HC Jeff Hafley likes Willis and he watched him run the scout team for his defense all of the last 2 seasons. You can make an argument that Willis has a 2 year window to show he’s an upper echelon starting caliber QB, but you can also make the argument that he’s a placeholder, and that we will draft our franchise QB in 2027. We signed RB De’Von Achane to a big contract and he will be used a ton. I doubt Hafley will lean on Willis too heavily, we’ll try to be a run heavy team and control the game with our rushing offense and our defense. We drafted TE Will Kacmarek in RD 3 for a reason, he’s the most physical blocking TE in the 2026 Draft. TE Greg Dulcich is more of a receiving TE, so bet heavy that we’ll be seeing lots of 2 TE sets with Kacmarek involved in the run blocking game.

The defense will be as huge a question as the offense is. We’ll need bigger contributions from 2nd year defensive linemen Kenneth Grant, Jordan Phillips and Zeek Biggers. We brought in a lot of EDGE guys like Trey Moore (6’1 243), and Max Llewellyn (6’5 258) and then UDFA EDGE rusher Mason Reiger (6’4 258). We kind of waited a long time to address the pass rushing inadequacies of this team, considering Bradly Chubb, who is now a Buffalo Bill led the team with 8.5 sacks, with DT Zach Sieler next with 5.5 sacks, followed by 4 from Chop Robinson. A repeat of those type of sack numbers will leave this defense in a lot of trouble. It seems as if Hafley has intentions of using guys in multiple positions and bring some pass rush from “nickel LB” and safety spots. Despite that, we’re going to some of these rookies to bite early, and really hope that year 3 is the time that Chop Robinson starts laying some wood on NFL QB’s. We did bring in some exciting players for the defense that I can’t wait to see, LB Jacob Rodrigues, S/LB Kyle Louis, obviously CB Chris Johnson, who will no doubt be starting. It’s tough to put high expectations on a very young roster guided by a first time NFL Head Coach in Jeff Hafley, and a brand new GM in Jon-Eric Sullivan. Regardless, I’m optimistic that we can be an exciting, tough team to watch.

GO DOLPHINS!!!