Buffalo Rumblings
The Buffalo Bills host the Miami Dolphins on Thursday night at Highmark Stadium get Week 3 started with a classic AFC East rivalry game. It’s the last time the division-leading Bills play the Dolphins in their current stadium before moving across the street in 2026, which should have Bills Mafia at full roar in its “goodbye for now” chant.
But calling the Dolphins a “rival,” given the relationship between the two teams recently, it feels slightly disingenuous. Yes, there’s a long and storied history between Buffalo and Miami, of course. It’s been famous for its streakiness.
The Dolphins famously won 20 consecutive games between the two teams in the 1970s. Buffalo, on the other hand, has won 12 out of the last 13 matchups with Miami. And in the same way that Miami’s dominance in the 1970s represented a divergence between the two teams in organizational competence (the Bills had just three winning seasons in that decade while the Dolphins had just one losing season), the current iterations of the two teams also highlights the differences in team building philosophies for each team.
The Dolphins have a General Manager in Chris Grier who has presided over the team’s roster building since 2016. His nine years in the chair mark the longest tenure in NFL history for a GM whose team does not have a playoff win. Grier has hired Adam Gase, Brian Flores, and Mike McDaniel as head coaches for the franchise, overshooting the general standard of a general manager getting two head coach hires before getting dismissed themselves in an organizational sweep.
Grier also selected Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa with the fifth overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, “successfully” completing the “Tank for Tua” philosophy popular amongst many fans during the 2019 season. Notably, he bypassed Oregon quarterback Justin Herbert, selected immediately after by the Los Angeles Chargers at sixth overall.
After a rocky start to the Tua Era in Miami, Grier brought in San Francisco 49ers whiz-kid Mike McDaniel, a man with a reputation for creative schemes behind many of the Kyle Shanahan offenses during his time with the Niners, Atlanta, Cleveland, and Washington. For a brief amount of time, the McDaniel/Tua union looked like it was the answer for the Dolphins.
In 2022, Tua combined with all-star receiver Tyreek Hill, first round pick Jaylen Waddle, and McDaniel to concoct one of the most potent offenses in the league. He ranked in the top three in many major quarterback metrics, though, unfortunately, his multiple concussions marred an otherwise hopeful season. “Is he any good” was replaced by “if he can stay on the field, this is a dynamic offense” as the go-to catch phrase for Dolphins fans. The vibes were good, confidence was high, and the idea that the Bills would be short-lived as kings of the AFC East wasn’t foreign to many a Fins faithful.
But a funny thing happened on the way to that elusive Miami playoff victory.
Bills General Manager Brandon Beane likes to...
