Former NFL LB Says Bills Don’t Have Dolphins Number: ‘This Is 2024’

The Buffalo Bills own the AFC East.

This is not necessarily a controversial statement, as there is no recent evidence to the contrary. Buffalo has won its division in each of the last four seasons, with the race only being especially close in one of those campaigns. Even Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel agrees with that sentiment, telling reporters the Bills “own the division until somebody takes it away” during his Wednesday press availability.

The Dolphins came close to taking the AFC East from Buffalo last season, with each team finishing the campaign with 11-6 records; The Bills won both regular season games with Miami, allowing Buffalo to hold the tiebreaker. The Dolphins have made a habit of losing to the Bills in the recent past, as Buffalo is a combined 11-2 against Miami since rookie Josh Allen’s 2018 season.

Related: Week 2 NFL Bills vs Dolphins preview: A pivotal early clash

Making matters worse for the Dolphins is Allen’s dominance against the “fish,” as the otherworldly signal-caller has totaled 4,001 yards and 38 touchdowns against the divisional foe over his pro career. Despite the recent quarterback and overall team success over Miami, some pundits feel a changing of the guard is due; during a recent appearance on Good morning footballco-host (and former NFL linebacker) Manti Te’o talked about Buffalo’s upcoming Week 2 matchup with the Dolphins, suggesting that history is irrelevant to this week’s matchup and that Miami is ready to get over the proverbial hump .

“We talked about the weather changes, we talked about playing in Buffalo in November, it’s a different scene, different weather, all that stuff,” Te’o said. “History may say the Buffalo Bills have the Miami Dolphins’ number, but that’s not history. It’s 2024. It’s the Miami Dolphins. The Buffalo Bills are not the same team they were in the past, starting with the secondary. You think of Tre’Davious White, you think of Micah Hyde, Jordan Poyer. Guess where Jordan is, guys? He is in Miami. We talk about the dominance the defense has had over the years over Tua and Tyreek Hill and company, a lot of that had to do with those two safeties they had there, those two All-Pro safeties who kept a roof over it. speed.

“Then you think about Josh Allen and he’s dealing with new talent around him. It has to do with, I think last week, he threw to seven different targets. He doesn’t have Stefon Diggs, he doesn’t have Gabe Davis. To Stefon Diggs’ credit, he was someone who gave the Bills the opportunity to extend drives and kept Tua off the field and kept Tyreek off the field. So with those two components alone, I think the Miami Dolphins, it’s going to be a different future starting in 2024.”

There’s a lot to take in from Te’o’s comments, but we’ll start with his qualms with Buffalo’s secondary. He notes that the team parted ways with White, Hyde and Poyer in the offseason, which is true, but leaves out an important point: All three of those players have dealt with various injuries in recent seasons. White has played in just 21 regular-season games over the past three seasons with the Bills and has played just four times against the Dolphins (he tore his Achilles tendon in Buffalo’s Week 4 matchup with Miami last year). Although Hyde played in each of the team’s games against the Dolphins in 2023, he missed both of the divisional matchups in 2022. Poyer missed the games against Miami in both 2022 and 2023.

That’s not to say the Bills won’t miss the departed linebackers (especially Hyde and Poyer, as those two effectively provided a “roof” over the top of the defense), but the team is without those defensive backs. in previous matches with Miami; they still found ways to win.

Jumping on the offensive side of the ball, Te’o brings Allen targeting several different targets as if it were a problem (the former linebacker notes he targeted seven players in Week 1, but actually targeted 10 and connected with nine), but it is, if anything, a feather in the cap of the crime. A major problem Buffalo’s offense has faced in years past has been an over-reliance on Diggs and a lack of solid distribution; the team, in the absence of the Pro Bowler, has built a deep and versatile receiving crop to which Allen can spread the ball evenly, with the quarterback connecting with nine players in Week 1 serving as an indication of the feasibility of the offensive philosophy as opposed to a major problem.

Regardless, Te’o is right to suggest that previous games won’t have one direct impact on Thursday night’s clash, despite the Bills’ recent dominance in the series. Miami will look to overcome their divisional foe while Buffalo will look to continue their talent when the two teams face off Thursday night at 8:15 p.m.

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