The Miami Dolphins will likely not have wide receiver Jakeem Grant for their regular season finale against the Buffalo Bills.
Grant left the Las Vegas Raiders 26-25 win in the third quarter with an ankle injury that will keep him out of Buffalo, according to NFL network informant Ian Rapoport.
Rookie Noah Igbioghene was used on Saturday night as a pitching player and rookie Malcolm Perry took over the point-and-point return post after Grant left the game.
Although Rapoport suggested the possibility of Grant ending up on the injured reserve to create a roster spot, the Dolphins did not make that move on Monday or Tuesday.
The same goes for defender Elandon Roberts, who was retired from the Las Vegas field with what appeared to be a serious knee injury.
The Dolphins played the game against the Raiders without DeVante Parker (hamstring), Solomon Kindley (knee) and Shaq Lawson (shoulder).
On Wednesday they will have the first injury report of the week when they start practicing to prepare for the Buffalo game.
PRACTICE OF SQUARE MOVEMENTS
The Dolphins made their weekly training squad protections on Tuesday, but this time they included different names.
The four protected players this week were DB Brian Cole, DB Javaris Davis, DB Nate Holley and WR Kirk Merritt.
The usual names of tight end Chris Myarick, quarterback Reid Sinnett and long-eyed Rex Sunahara were not involved, meaning he could be sneaked in by another team this week.
Sinnett’s exclusion is interesting, especially considering Monday’s report that the Dolphins had led quarterback Jake Rudock to begin their COVID-19 test series.
GAILEY’S MAIN OBJECTIVE
Dolphins coordinators held their final regular-season Zoom media sessions on Tuesday, prompting another question to Chan Gailey about his plans for the future.
It’s a logical question to ask given that 68-year-old Gailey hasn’t been training since 2016 before the Dolphins pulled him out of retirement.
“This has been an unusual year, to say the least,” Gailey said. “The experience has been like no other I’ve ever had, it’s true. I think someone asked me about it last week. I’m thinking about how to go up and beat Buffalo. That’s what I’m thinking about. Right now I’m not thinking about “How else can I help this football team beat Buffalo?”
SNEAK PROGRAMMING PREVIEW
Recently published reports have indicated that a 17th regular season will likely be added in 2021, with the additional game being an interconference clash against a team that finishes in the same position in its division.
It now looks, according to SI NFL writer Albert Breer, that the extra game for the AFC East teams will come against the NFC East.
That means the Dolphins, who have the assurance of finishing second in the AFC East, will face second-placed NFC East, although that’s all we can say right now because this team could end up being Dallas, the New York Giants or Washington.
The location of this game must be determined.
In addition to the traditional home and home games with AFC East opponents, the Dolphins will play the 2021 home games against Houston, Indianapolis, Atlanta and Carolina and the second-placed AFC North (Cleveland or Baltimore).
The road games will come against the three AFC East opponents, Jacksonville, Tennessee, New Orleans, Tampa Bay and the AFC West runner-up.
YOUR SPEAKER
Finally, we end with Gailey describing why it looks more like a vertical pass game with veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick at quarterback than with rookie Tua Tagovailoa.
“Well, the situation in the game has a lot to do with it,” Gailey said. “If you end up falling behind and need to get off the field and earn points quickly, that has a lot to do with it. We’ve been a team that has tried to be a unit of 9, 10, 11, 12 games, run football, pass the game and control the time on the clock.This is the situation we encountered with Tua in the ball game.In addition, from time to time you are missing some receivers and this has to do with this.Most of this goes through the making decisions about what the game is called and what kind of plays we play ”.