Alex Smith became the best deep passer in the league in 2017. Do you know what changed?

No one is saying Tua needs to be a star. The point is the weapons around him led by Hill make them an extremely dangerous team.

Hill has made DBs look stupid for years and a lot of that had absolutely nothing to do with Mahomes.

As for the 2017 game against the Patriots, that was the Kareem Hunt coming out party and no one on the planet had any idea that was coming given that Ware was the presumed starter until a training camp injury.

They very well may be legit and I love the combo of Hill and Waddle, but they were down 35-14 heading into the 4th quarter against Baltimore.

But when push came to shove, Alex Smith reverted back to Alex Smith, even with Tyreek Hill.

I have no doubt that this Dolphins offense will put up a lot of points and stats, and hopefully they can steal one agaisnt Buffalo, but I just don't think they're a contender in a conference with guys like Mahomes, Allen, and Herbert (who also have good to great defenses).

Small sample size. We’ll see where they are by mid season.

I’m not going to get too high or too low on Tua.

I remember when Trubisky had a 6 TD/0 pick game. I also have seen Josh Allen look like shit early in his career. Who knows which one Tua will be? Probably somewhere in between.

One thing is clear. Tua can’t reasonably expect to have weapons of this caliber through his entire career. If he doesn’t produce consistently with these guys, then he’ll put a ceiling on their success.

I think the 2017 Chiefs are a good comp actually. Great skill players and an average QB. They scored just under 26 ppg and won 10 games. I think Miami will do something similar. Only they don’t have Andy Reid and the conference is ridiculously stacked. I think they can get into the playoffs, especially with 7 spots, but I don’t think they measure up to the top teams.

They do some cute things from time to time.

Totally agree with all that.

And I’m not saying I necessarily even believe in Tua. Just think he’s been surrounded by enough weapons that they have the potential to really stress defenses and you don’t need a star QB when you have Hill and Waddle.

Will teams catch up to their offense over time? Sure. But they are a scary matchup as as they have a lot of talent on both sides of the ball.

Let me ask you a question: if we were going to Miami next week, how confident would you be that our secondary can hold up against them?

If they can beat the Bills once or twice, it’s fantastic.

I’d rather face the Dolphins in the AFCCG than they Bills.

Right now, they remind me of the Fred Hoiberg Iowa State teams. They probably weren’t ever real National Champion contenders, but those teams could light it up from 3. They probably wouldn’t be able to sustain their success for 6 games against great teams, but they could absolutely beat anyone on any given day.

That’s how I see the Dolphins this year.

I don’t think our secondary (or many in the league) is shutting down Waddle and Hill. I think Spags would be able to confuse Tua enough to win though. Those weapons are absolutely legit.

Well for one, I would hope our coaching staff is smart enough not to play matchup defense with 2 rookies in the secondary. The Ravens defensive game plan was terrible and we’ve seen them do it against the Chiefs multiple times. Wait until teams start throwing cover 2 shells at Tua just like they do to the other top QB’s.

And defenses can't get better as year goes on as well?

MIAMI DOLPHINS #1

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Despite the dominant win last night, the injury bug has really bit the Bills<br><br>They already didn’t have Gabe Davis, Ed Oliver, Tim Settle or Tre White against the Titans<br><br>Now add injuries to Dane Jackson, Micah Hyde, Matt Milano, &amp; Jordan Phillips<br><br>On a short week, that’s tough</p>&mdash; Matthew Bové (@Matt_Bove) <a href="https://twitter.com/Matt_Bove/status/1572221205561872384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 20, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>