The Miami Dolphins just had their bye week, and it couldn’t have come at a better time for the team. The Dolphins have been battered, bruised, and some could argue broken through the first five weeks of the NFL season. The trials they’ve gone through at quarterback in the wake of the Tua Tagovailoa concussion have been well documented, but that has been far from the team’s only issue.
The Dolphins have had to deal with a laundry list of injuries on both sides of the ball, affecting some major players on the team, including having to deal with injuries to the majority of their running back corps while having to deal with starting multiple backup quarterbacks in Tagovailoa’s absence. The Dolphins needed a break to get healthy and gear up for the remainder of their schedule, and that’s what they got this week.
Despite that break, they have risen two spots in the latest power rankings from The Sporting News’ NFL analyst Vinnie Iyer. Heading into the bye week, the Dolphins were ranked near the bottom of the league at #24. Coming out of the bye week and heading into their Week 7 game against the Indianapolis Colts, Miami has risen to the #22 spot.
The Dolphins have essentially swapped spots in the rankings with the Arizona Cardinals, due in large part to Cardinals’ quarterback Kyler Murray’s continued struggles, and the fact that Cardinals wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. suffered a concussion of his own in last week’s game against the Green Bay Packers, adding uncertainty to an already struggling 2-4 Cardinals team going forward.
The Dolphins may also be propped up by the prospect of Tagovailoa returning in the not-too-distant future. While Tagovailoa will be out for the Week 7 matchup against the Colts, he’ll be eligible to return for the team’s Week 8 game against the aforementioned Cardinals. While neither Tagovailoa nor the team have made any announcements indicating that Tagovailoa will be activated for that game, the team’s head coach Mike McDaniel publicly stated for the first time on Monday that he expects Tagovailoa to be back this season.
Whether that’s in time for the Cardinals game next week or not remains to be seen, but if the Dolphins can come away with a win against Indianapolis and head into that game with a .500 record, that in and of itself should be looked at as a win considering the circumstances. Getting Tagovailoa back could spark the team to an unlikely comeback in the second half of the season.
