The Miami Dolphins' playoff hopes are still alive as they need only two steps in the ever-so-important Week 18 with one of them being to win the final game of the regular season against the New York Jets. It remains to be seen if Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa will play in the game, but star Tyreek Hill would mention the other instance that needs to happen for the team to pencil themselves in for the postseason.
Hill would take to social media, specifically on X, formerly Twitter, where he posted a message that read “Happy new year especially to the chiefs.” There were some who were taken aback by the post and people began to speculate if this could mean he wants to go back to his former team, but there is a different meaning to it.
Besides Miami beating New York on Sunday, they need the Chiefs to beat the Denver Broncos which would put them in the playoffs for the third straight season. They also needed the Indianapolis Colts to lose one of their last two games, which they would in an upset against the New York Giants.
Status of Dolphins' Tua Tagovailoa unsure, Tyler Huntley ready if needed
The Dolphins handled business against the Cleveland Browns as Tagovziloa was out with a hip injury, leading the way for backup Tyler Huntley to put on a solid game. However, the team will go only as far as their star quarterback takes them as head coach Mike McDaniel spoke about Tagovailoa's injury, calling his recovery “tricky” and “all about time.”
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“It’s all about time and I think what was tricky is we were basing all of our timelines with this particular unique injury to Tua (Tagovailoa) and how his body would respond to that based upon the week previous,” McDaniel said via the team's transcripts. “So then with really the change in momentum or trajectory of it getting better, I think it was about the timing of when the game was relative to his recovery process from the last week which was a different timeline than the week previous. So where does that leave us? Firmly in the unknown.”
Dolphins' Mike McDaniel on possibly the Chiefs resting their players
McDaniel would later say that Huntley will get more practice reps in the chance that Tagovailoa can't play so he can better prepare himself. He would also speak about the Chiefs taking on the Broncos and the high likelihood that they will rest their top stars like superstar Patrick Mahomes since they locked up the No. 1 seed already.
“That we’ve been afforded the opportunity to kind of execute upon which when you dig a hole within the season that you have to get yourself out of,” McDaniel said. “And then you’re faced with the reality of yeah, you need to take care of business and you need some help; you learn quickly that any time spent on the help is not benefitting the desired goal. So in terms of playing, not playing, whatever; I’ll let them handle that. I do know that through the experience of in my career in the [NFL]…if you are a betting man that is just checking boxes based upon lineups, you’re going to lose money.”
The Dolphins (8-8) will face the Jets Sunday.
