The machinations of the NFL international schedule in 2023 deprived fans of witnessing Tyreek Hill’s return to GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium to face his former team, the Kansas City Chiefs. Instead, the regular-season matchup was played in Frankfurt, Germany, a game Hill’s current team, the Miami Dolphins, lost 21-14.

The presumptive NFL Offensive Player of the Year will now return to his old stomping grounds for the first time in a playoff setting. Kansas City, the AFC’s No. 3 seed, will host sixth-seeded Miami in the AFC wild-card round matchup Saturday (8 p.m. ET, Peacock).

Kansas City locked up its eighth consecutive AFC West title last week and sat key players such as quarterback Patrick Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce during Week 18. Meanwhile, the Dolphins played for the AFC East title on “Sunday Night Football” against the Buffalo Bills; they lost, 21-14. Instead of hosting a playoff game or two, the Dolphins must go on the road for the second straight postseason.

What happened in Chiefs vs. Dolphins?


The Chiefs were coming off a loss to the Denver Broncos and put up six points on their first drive of the game, which took less than three minutes. They scored two touchdowns with less than three minutes left in the second half – the second of which came on a Hill fumble that was recovered, and lateraled, for a touchdown.

Miami scored twice in the third quarter, but that’s all the Dolphins could muster against Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s unit. The game was insightful for how the Chiefs won in 2023: solid defense, just enough offense.

Patrick Mahomes’ career record in playoffs
Mahomes has yet to play his first true postseason road game At Arrowhead, however, he’s 9-2, and 11-3 in the postseason overall with two Super Bowl victories.

 

The Dolphins continued making moves involving edge defenders on Wednesday. The team announced that Melvin Ingram has been signed to the active roster from the practice squad and that Malik Reed has signed to the team’s practice squad. They signed veterans Justin Houston and Bruce Irvin on Tuesday to bolster a group that has lost Jaelan Phillips, Bradley Chubb, and Andrew Van Ginkel to season-ending injuries.

Ingram had seven tackles and 1.5 sacks in three regular season appearances with the team. He had six sacks with the Dolphins last season as well.

Reed had three tackles in four games for the Raiders this year and he had 25 tackles and a sack for the Steelers in 2022. Reed opened his career with 15 sacks over three seasons in Denver.

 

As if playing with a severely sprained ankle wasn't bad enough, it appears Miami Dolphins receiver Tyreek Hill suffered a new injury in Sunday's 21-14 loss to the Buffalo Bills.

Hill, who will be returning to Kansas City for the first time since being traded to Miami in the 2022 offseason, is nursing a quadriceps injury that would have limited his practice participation if the Dolphins had begun the team's on-field work for Saturday's playoff game against the reigning champions — he was listed as limited on the first injury report of the week based on an estimation.

Hill missed the Dec. 17 win against the New York Jets because of the left ankle injury he suffered the previous week, and he's played through the pain the past three contests, contributing 22 receptions for 262 yards and one touchdown in Miami's win over the Dallas Cowboys, and losses to he Baltimore Ravens and Buffalo Bills.

The Dolphins have leaned on Hill, who has produced 1,799 yards and 13 touchdowns on 119 catches, all season to serve as the team's primary playmaker, and the hope is the quadriceps injury doesn't slow him down further. Especially with Jaylen Waddle's availability for the game being a mystery because of the high ankle sprain that has kept him from playing the past two weeks.

What's Waddle's status?
Waddle, who participated in last week's Friday practice, was listed as limited on Miami's projection of a practice report Tuesday when players were given the day off.

The Dolphins will hold a walk-through Wednesday before holding a full-scale practice on Thursday and another walk-through Friday before leaving for Kansas City. Another item of concern on the Dolphins' injury report was the "did not practice" status for Miami's two starting safeties.

Jevon Holland, who played his second game Sunday since coming back from two MCL sprains, would have been held out of practice because of his knees.

Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel hinted that Miami's medical team intends to alter their approach with Holland, who had his involvement in the Bills game limited to 27 defensive snaps because of lingering soreness.

DeShon Elliott would have been held out of Tuesday's practice because of a calf injury he suffered warming up for Sunday's Bills game. Elliott handled 72 defensive snaps against Buffalo, filling his usual role.

Dolphins tailbacks getting healthy?
Tailback Raheem Mostert, who hasn't played the past two games because of an ankle and knee injury, would have also been limited, which is a good indicator that the team's leading rusher might play Saturday.

Mostert, who gained 1,012 rushing yards on 209 carries and scored 21 touchdowns this season, has been held to one practice per week for the past month. A good indicator that he's playing against the Chiefs would be his involvement in Thursday's practice.

His replacement, De'Von Achane, also would have been limited Tuesday because of his toe and rib injury.

Achane has filled in for Mostert admirably the past two games, gaining 163 rushing yards and scoring a touchdown on 24 carries. He finished 2023 rushing for 800 yards and scoring eight touchdowns on 103 carries. That averages out to 7.8 yards per attempt, which is the best by a tailback in a season in NFL history with a minimum of 100 attempts.

Offensive line working through injuries
Center Liam Eichenberg would have had his practice participation limited by the calf and ankle injury he's been nursing for the past month. Eichenberg typically has his participation limited all week, but starts the game.

And Terron Armstead, who has been plagued with knee, ankle and back issues for most of the season, would have been held out of Tuesday's practice. But Armstead rarely participates in the first practice of the week.

One name that escaped the injury report was Robert Hunt, who returned to the starting lineup for the first time in a month against the Bills. Hunt handled all 52 offensive snaps as Miami's starting right guard, and his exclusion from the injury report hints that the hamstring injury that plagued him twice this season might finally be behind him.

Chiefs have issues too
Kansas City's practice report featured two players — left tackle Wanya Morris (concussion) and receiver Justyn Ross (hamstring) — who did not practice.

Offensive tackle Donovan Smith (neck), cornerback L'Jarius Sneed (calf), and receiver Kadarius Toney (hio/ankle) were limited.

Linebacker Nick Bolton (wrist), safety Deon Bush (elbow), safety Chamarri Cooper (shoulder), tight end Noah Gray, tailback Isaiah Pacheco (shoulder), receiver Rashee Rice (hamstring), offensive tackle Ja'waan Taylor (knee), receiver Marquez Valdes-Scanting (oblique) and cornerback Jaylen Watson (calf) were all listed as full practice participants.

 

Since it looks like the reconstructed line will be almost whole again, maybe we can get back to that #1 rushing attack. Especially if Mostert is playing. Its time for McD to step into his anointed GURU label and pull something out. The play action with motion across the line is where were going to continue of we don't get it figured out. Kohu just doesn't have the speed to keep up running across the entire field. Some other scheme needs to be implemented every once in awhile to throw a wrinkle at them.

 

Getting the running game going helps the play action and the passing game. Just because its cold doesn't mean the passing game is dead. It's the wind that is a larger factor. And footing.

 

Everyone thinks they should pay the players more, this is how they do it.

 

Tagovailoa said at a Wednesday press conference that he thinks “a little lower than 20" degrees is the coldest weather he’s played in during his career and the forecast in Kansas City calls for temperatures below that and a wind chill that would make it feel like less than zero. Tagovailoa joked that he’s not planning on hitting Dan Marino up for any Isotoner gloves and said he believes “the whole thing is a mindset” that he will see what it feels like on the field before seeing what they might have to do differently.

“I think it’s just a feel of how everything is, what the ball feels like, what throwing feels like, what holding the ball feels like, if there’s wind, if there’s not wind, you have to take all those things into consideration,” Tagovailoa said. “But we’ll go there, we’ll test it out and we’ll see what we have to do as far as adjusting or not.”

Saturday will be Tagovailoa’s first NFL playoff game, so there would be adjustments to make even if the weather were a little less frigid. The weather might not make that any easier, but it’s something the Dolphins will have to overcome if they’re going to extend their season.

 

This belongs in the cap thread. Keep this thread related to the KC game please.
https://thephins.com/threads/salary-cap-for-2024.98744/