Bills
Bills DE Greg Rousseau recorded 2.5 sacks and two tackles for loss in Buffalo’s 23-20 win over the Browns in Week 16. Rousseau isn’t caught up with his personal statistics and just wants to help them win.
“Just doing my job, just trying to do my one-eleventh,” Rousseau said., via BillsWire. “I’m not caught up in all the stats and stuff, it is what it is, I’m just trying to go hard. I’m happy I can help the team win.”
Bills HC Sean McDermott highly praised Rosseau for his performance.
“That was huge. We needed that from Greg,” McDermott said. “We felt like we had a chance to get after [the Browns’] O-line today.”
Dolphins
- ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler asked around with league sources to do a post-mortem on QB Tua Tagovailoa‘s time with the Dolphins. One veteran scout believed that even though Tagovailoa is just 27, his game was aging faster than other passers: “[He] wasn’t as twitchy or explosive as he was a year and a half ago. His feet and quickness were good enough and could help him compensate for [a] lack of elite ability. You don’t see that anymore. He’s gotten comfortable.”
- “I saw a quarterback who couldn’t play football after his first read,” an NFL defensive coach who prepared for him told Fowler. “And then he was on the interception train damn near every week.”
- A team source reiterated to Fowler that the decision to bench Tagovailoa was exclusively HC Mike McDaniel‘s, and was not made with much consideration about what it would mean for Tagovailoa’s future. Fowler adds that at best, McDaniel’s once staunch support for Tagovailoa has waned and at worst he might be done with him completely. Most of the people he talked to expected Miami to explore parting ways with Tagovailoa this offseason.
- McDaniel’s job security could also be a factor. One NFC exec told Fowler: “If you still believe in McDaniel, which it seems like [Miami] might, then give him a new quarterback to work with. He’s still one of the better offensive coaches in the league.”
- As far as the team’s options in 2026 with Tagovailoa, Fowler notes the Dolphins will almost certainly try to trade him, but his $54 million guaranteed salary makes him hard to move even if Miami pays down a significant portion of that. If they cut Tagovailoa, it would be an NFL-record $99.2 million dead cap hit. Said one AFC executive: “They are almost stuck with him.”
- Some execs used what the Broncos did with QB Russell Wilson as a model for the Dolphins, but Fowler points out Wilson had another $37 million in guarantees for the following season that was set to vest, prompting Denver to take the escape hatch. Tagovailoa only has another $3 million guarantee vest, so there’s...