The Miami Dolphins will be opening their 2022 season against the New England Patriots this Sunday at 1:00 p.m. ET at Hard Rock Stadium. It will mark the 11th time in team history, and the third-straight year, that these franchises open the season against each other.
Miami’s all-time record against New England is 59-54, and the teams are 5-5 in openers against each other. The Dolphins are 3-1 when opening the season at home against the Patriots. Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is also 3-0 against New England so far in his career.
This opener is coach Mike McDaniel’s first regular season game as head coach of the Dolphins. Across the field will, of course, be Bill Belichick, and as McDaniel jokingly put it during Monday’s press conference, “Can there be a larger disparity in career win-loss total?”
While McDaniel is looking for his first win, Belichick is third all-time with 290 regular season wins, behind only Don Shula and George Halas.
McDaniel realizes this is not a coaching matchup, and told the media, “luckily, the schedule came out a long time ago, so I digested that and knew what Week 1 was, and luckily it’s the Miami Dolphins versus New England Patriots and not a one-on-one square-off between head coaches.”
The Dolphins will look to start fast out of the gate, and newly acquired wide-receiver Tyreek Hill has a career habit of that. In his six NFL seasons, Hill has scored six touchdowns in Week 1 games, while averaging 95 receiving yards in the opening contest through those seasons.
In addition to Hill, there are playmakers all over the field for Miami, as they hope to extend their current home win streak of six games and three-game streak against New England.
The Dolphins will be without their star cornerback Byron Jones, and, as per Miami’s depth chart, Nik Needham is listed opposite superstar Xavien Howard. Slot duties could be handled by depth corners Keion Crossen or Kader Kohou, or even more creative with safeties rotating in the nickel corner role with Needham filling in for Jones.
Needham is a natural boundary cornerback, although he was moved to the slot last season and proved to handle the transition admirably. He was among the NFL’s top-producing slot corners in 2021.
Other depth chart notes include the initial starting offensive line, which will see Terron Armstead at left tackle, Liam Eichenberg at left guard, Conner Williams at center, Robert Hunt at right guard and Austin Jackson at right tackle.
Handling the kickoff returns will be the duo of Raheem Mostert and Jaylen Waddle, while Hill will return punts.
The running backs and wide receiver charts are status quo, as is the tight end room. Mike Gesicki, who’s adapting to the McDaniel need for his tight ends to block, is listed as the starter with Durham Smythe and Hunter Long behind him, followed by Cethan Carter and rookie project Tanner Conner.
As for the defensive front seven, Melvin Ingram is another veteran Miami added in the offseason who’s listed as a starting outside linebacker opposite second-year stud, Jaelan Phillips. Jerome Baker and Elandon Roberts will man the middle with rookie Channing Tindall, Duke Riley and Sam Eguavoen adding depth.
Additionally, Andrew Van Ginkel could be making his return from an appendix removal just a few weeks ago to provide a rotation in the pass-rush along with newly signed Trey Flowers.
The Patriots flew down to Miami on Tuesday in order to get themselves acclimated to the September heat and hometown humidity of South Florida. McDaniel had a bit of advice for his opponents after starting with, “I feel very lucky, almost overly lucky that I get to work on my tan all the time.”
He concluded his presser with, “I’m sure there’s a lot of players and coaches for the Patriots that’ll be excited to bronze up a little bit before the TV regular season starts. So I know that for a fact that if you don’t put sunscreen on, you will get bronzed. So, factually, they better SPF up.”
