Diving into bold predictions for all AFC East teams ahead of the 2022 NFL season, including thoughts on Mac Jones and Zach Wilson.
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1. Miami leads the NFL in YAC
One of the great questions in the NFL this season is what Miami's new offense will look like. For the first time,
Tua Tagovailoa might have a viable platform to work from, but new head coach Mike McDaniel bringing in an offense fresh from Kyle Shanahan’s notebook, as well as additions along the offensive line and
Tyreek Hill at receiver, presents a lot of exciting ingredients. The
49ers typically rank well in yards after the catch, and with Tua’s inclination to get the ball out of his hands quickly alongside the speed and quickness of Hill and
Jaylen Waddle, this could be an offense that dominates that area. Over the past three years, the 49ers have led the league in average yards after the catch by a full half-yard from anybody else, and they’ve never had a Tyreek Hill.
2. Miami’s OL ranks top half of the NFL
Miami’s offensive line was horrendous last season. It was the worst unit in the league, historically bad after allowing 235 total pressures despite the team protecting it with a lot of RPOs and a quick passing game. Miami’s line allowed more pressures than the
Bengals did if we include the Bengals’ Super Bowl run, and Cincinnati’s line was bad enough the team replaced three-fifths of it in the offseason. Adding
Terron Armstead and
Connor Williams is huge, and
Robert Hunt was a solid incumbent, giving the Dolphins immediately a totally different group than a season ago. If they can rely on young players to improve one of the remaining two spots, they can work around the problem spot. They
need this group to get to at least below average, but if things break their way, it could crawl into the top half.
3. Melvin Ingram leads the team in sacks
This one is part indictment of Miami’s pass rush and part endorsement of Melvin Ingram as a pass rusher who still has plenty of juice if he can stay healthy.
Emmanuel Ogbah tallied 11 sacks last season and
Jaelan Phillips had 10, but almost 50% of their combined sacks were clean-up or unblocked plays. Neither player earned a PFF pass-rushing grade above 72.0. Ingram was at 74.1 despite playing for two different teams. He notched only three sacks but recorded 42 pressures across 371 pass-rushing snaps.
