The Wide World of Dirt

After 10 games, the NFL regular season is more than halfway complete, and while no one has been officially eliminated from playoff contention, the path for many teams over the next seven games is already set.

That’s where our writers come into the fold. Dirt — our Miami Minutes columnist — will be giving his honest take on the Philadelphia Eagles’ season to this point while Sean — our Philly Report columnist — tackles the Miami Dolphins’ season.

Without any further ado, here is Dirt’s take on the Birds.

At this time last season, the Philadelphia Eagles were on top of the football world, jumping out to a 10-1 record to start the 2023 season.

Everything after that was just really, really sad, so I won’t linger on that too long.

Questions emerged through the prolonged losing streak about the limited offense that saw MVP candidate Jalen Hurts regress to his more inconsistent 2021 form in the passing game.

Offensive coordinator Brian Johnson lost his job at season’s end since his most effective play was the Brotherly Shove. His offense faced scrutiny for its simplicity, mostly from an over-reliance on screen plays.

Even worse was the defense that was initially led by Sean Desai. Desai was no replacement for predecessor Jonathan Gannon, so head coach Nick Sirianni elevated Matt Patricia to take over playcalling duties.

Yes, that Matt Patricia.

Coming into this season, Philly needed to make a number of moves to rehabilitate this contending team with a star QB signed to a long-term deal.

Howie Roseman answered the call in a number of ways.

Despite Sirianni’s temperamental style, the embattled coach was retained for his fourth season but given two new counterparts: OC Kellen Moore and DC Vic Fangio. More on them in a moment!

Roseman overhauled the roster through free agency and the draft with the key acquisition coming from the Giants: Saquon Barkley. More on him in a moment!

Replacing a retiring Jason Kelce on the offensive line could’ve produced problems, but Cam Jurgens has proven to be a fine stand-in for the multi-time All-Pro center.

Another move made to bolster an already-strong offensive line was acquiring Mekhi Becton and moving him to right guard where he has stayed healthy, only missing time against the Bengals.

Howie also snagged WR Jahan Dotson from Washington for a third and a seventh in next year’s draft, though that pickup hasn’t exactly done much for Philly yet.

The season got off to a wonky start for Philly on a terrible field in Brazil where Hurts threw two picks and nearly lost them the game if it weren’t for the NFC Divisional Round version of Jordan Love showing up for Green Bay.

Philly should be 9-1, but a critical drop on third down by Saquon left the door open for Kirk Cousins and the Falcons to engineer a TD drive to win the game.

A tight game against the Saints was saved by Barkley’s heroics while his lack of touches no doubt led to a Buccaneers’ victory in week 4.

The Browns game ended in a win, but when your head coach is yelling at his own fans on the sideline during the game, it gives off the vibe that things aren’t going well in the locker room.

That said, that was the game that put the Eagles back in the driver’s seat because the actual key to their offense returned: AJ Brown.

The Birds haven’t lost a game since that awful loss to the Bucs where they averaged just 3.8 yards per pass attempt. Brown averages an astounding 18.7 yards per catch, putting up just one game of less than 65 yards (Jacksonville).

On the other side, DeVonta Smith picked up some of the slack in Brown’s absence but hasn’t exactly popped when playing #2, hauling in just 6 balls for 43 yards combined over the past two weeks.

Even when missing key pieces on offense (like Dallas Goedert for a month), Kellen Moore adjusts the offense to make sure that it still operates at a high level.

Saquon Barkley makes life easier for everyone on this team, there’s no doubt about it. Over 1,100 yards through 10 games would be great for any back, but it’s nearly 200 more yards than he gained on the ground through 14 games last year.

An average of 5.8 yards per carry would top the league most years. Unfortunately for Barkley, Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson are also quite good at running the football, and they’re on the same team, both logging over 6 yards per carry.

I haven’t even gotten to the defense where new acquisitions Zack Baun, Quinyon Mitchell, and Cooper DeJean are haunting opposing offenses.

Baun played sparingly with the Saints over the last four seasons. Looking for linebacker help, Roseman signed the former Wisconsin Badger to a one-year, $1.6 million deal that has paid immense dividends.

The 2020 third-rounder has roved the second level with elite precision, tallying 102 combined tackles through 10 games. Consider that he came into Philly with 88 tackles to his name, and that’s an excellent pickup.

Roseman selected Mitchell out of Toledo in the first round this year with the rookie making a statement early in his career. While he’s not creating turnovers, he’s keeping opposing receivers quiet, allowing just 23 catches on 41 targets.

Quinyon Mitchell is already an elite eraser at the cornerback spot. If his coverage skills are already leading to reduced targets in his direction, it won’t be long before he starts racking up picks as well. I expect him to be a force for years to come in the NFC East at this rate.

The Eagles rank #1 in total defense, only giving up 273.1 yards per game and tied for fourth by giving up just 18 scores.

Philly’s passing defense has been the real story, ranking second with just 173.2 yards given up a game alongside just 9 touchdowns through the air while their rushing defense sits a solid seventh.

For Philadelphia, the focus for the rest of the season should be to just keep doing what they’re doing because it has obviously worked out well for them.

Vic Fangio is coaching up this young defense into a particularly inspired bunch, but I’d like to see them force more turnovers. They are only +2 as a team on turnover differential. That gap must widen before the postseason.

I would advise Kellen Moore to incorporate more receivers into the gameplan and to not lean so much on Barkley throughout the rest of the regular season in order to preserve him for January (and perhaps even February.)

This Sunday’s game against the Rams should be a cakewalk, but the real test lays the following week against the Ravens. Baltimore’s coaching staff made strides last week against Pittsburgh that could serve to shut down their next opponents.

A trap game against Carolina should be dispatched with ease while a cross-state trip to the Steel City awaits in week 15. Because we don’t know who will take snaps for Pittsburgh, I have no idea how to call that game.

The Eagles finish their season with three straight division games with the last two coming against the Cowboys and Giants.

I project this team ends the season at 13-4 and wins the division, and they have a real shot to get back to the Super Bowl because the NFC hasn’t shown that it’s fielding any true contenders to this point outside of Detroit.

That is assuming that Nick Sirianni is able to keep his head on straight and rally this squad around him and the team’s vision for success. Here’s to hoping!

Now, here is Sean’s take on the 2024 Miami Dolphins.

Phin-ished?

Fresh off an 11-6 season and a second-straight playoff berth, the Miami Dolphins bowed out in the Wild Card round against the future back-to-back champion Kansas City Chiefs.

Taking a step back, that was a successful season, right?

That is until you realize that there were some legitimate hope and expectations that the Dolphins had a deep playoff run in them, especially after running out to a 5-1 start.

This was spearheaded by a dynamic offense helmed by a healthy Tua Tagoavailoa having a career year behind center with rookie RB De’Von Achane blowing by defenders and wideouts Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle being the best deep-threat duo in the league.

Coach Mike McDaniel’s squad included a stingy defense filled with stars led by veteran defensive coordinator Vic Fangio.

After that 5-1 start, the Dolphins went 1-6, lost the division to the Bills and exited the postseason early.

It was the second consecutive season that the Dolphins faltered as the season went along; it felt similar to the Kliff Kingsbury-led Arizona Cardinals teams during his head coaching tenure.

An offseason of questions loomed large, especially at the QB position as Tua was up for a new deal. What ensued was a lot of rearranging and old faces feeling the effects of the salary cap.

That stingy defense was in need of an overhaul. Vic Fangio mutually agreed to part ways and head home to Philly while core talent like DT Christian Wilkins, CB Xavien Howard, OLB Andrew Van Ginkel, LB Jerome Baker, DE Emmanuel Ogbah, and DT Raekwon Davis were let go or left in free agency.

It was a full mini-reset with a lot of their additions coming to South Beach for very little years or money.

As an outsider, I completely thought that meant the Dolphins were going to have a reset-year. If the talent on offense could carry them to a surprise berth, great!

If not, then that should have been expected.

But, I sensed from Miami fans that they were expecting to compete, especially with signing Tua to a contract extension and WR Tyreek Hill not getting any younger.

They had a decent draft getting EDGE Chop Robinson and OT Patrick Paul in the first 2 rounds. Heading into this season, I was expecting a middling team that was going to bet on a defensive philosophy shift and have their offense carry them after locking up their QB for the foreseeable future and hopefully healthy.

After a thrilling Week 1 come-from-behind win led by Tua, they cratered in Week 2 against AFC East foe, the Buffalo Bills, and to top it all off, Tua got hurt.

Another concussion in his career and calls once again for him to step away from the sport.

People have had their issues with Tua his entire career in terms of who or what he is as a player. I like Tua; I think he’s a good player and a quarterback that can win games for his team.

I’d have him out of my top ten and more in the 12-16 range, but that is still a range teams have won a lot of games with QBs in that range.

My biggest issue and concern was the concussions. CTE is very real and scary; I don’t want anyone to have to go through that, especially someone like Tua that comes off as a very nice person in interviews I have seen over the years.

However, if you have a quarterback who has dealt with injuries — even if you make a commitment to a player like that — you have to have a competent backup.

This is coming from an Eagles fan whose only Super Bowl in franchise history is because of a competent backup and whose current quarterback was taken in the second round to backup their then-franchise guy.

The Eagles place a premium on the quarterback position at all three levels: starter, backup, third string. This is because Howie Roseman has experienced the highest of highs from making those investments.

You would think other teams, like the Dolphins, would do the same, yet they didn’t follow suit.

Skylar Thompson and Tyler Huntley are very fringe-level QBs, and even then, expecting them to be the main cogs for an offense (which I mentioned was the strength and had to be the strength of the team) isn’t going to cut it.

It also seemed like McDaniel wasn’t able to adjust the offense to Thompson and Huntley which led to an 1-4 stretch without Tua in which they didn’t score more than 15 points.

Tua returned in week 7 and instantly made the Dolphins’ offense watchable and fun. Though they lost two consecutive one-score games, you can see the Dolphins are a much better team with Tua, a strong argument for Tua earning that contract extension.

Since that 30-27 loss to the Bills in Week 8, the Dolphins upset the Rams on Monday Night Football and blew out the Raiders and sit at 4-6 on the season.

All things considered, it isn’t completely far off from where I expected the ‘Fins to be at this point in the year.

The AFC is a tougher conference this year, but there are some winnable games for Miami ahead.

They get the Patriots again, two against the hapless Jets, and Cleveland. They have tough ones against the Packers, Texans, and Niners. I am not saying playoffs are likely, but they can at least make other teams sweat.

What is important is to keep Tua healthy and hope some of these younger players step up. The Dolphins will also likely get some extra compensatory picks for the 2025 draft which can help once again add more cost-effective talent to a roster that has their big-money quarterback locked into a contract.

If they falter the rest of the way, they can get higher selections and add better talent and go into next year fresh.

But, they are also playing well right now, who says they can’t get hot and play better and get to the postseason for a fanbase dying for consistent success?

They truly are an interesting team to watch for the rest of they way, and I for one will keep my eye out for them. 

(Top Photo Credit: Matt Rourke/AP Photo)