Dolphins Week 3 Power Rankings Roundup
The Miami Dolphins clearly have gained national respect.
That's what a 21-point fourth-quarter comeback victory against a quality team like the Baltimore Ravens will do for any team, particularly one that came into the season having a lot to prove.
After beginning the season in the middle of the pack, the Dolphins now are a unanimous top 10 team.
For a second consecutive week, the Dolphins were among the biggest movers in the national NFL power rankings after their 42-38 victory against the New England Patriots, moving up an average of a bit more than six spots based on our survey of rankings of 10 national outlets — SI, CBS Sports, NFL.com, The Athletic, The Sporting News, The Ringer, Pro Football Network, ESPN, Yahoo, and Pro Football Talk.
The highest ranking the Dolphins got was 5th (it was only 11th last week), while the lowest was 8th (it was 16th heading into Week 2).
Here's the breakdown of the Dolphins' 10 power rankings spots, along with the commentary associated with it:
CBS Sports
Ranking: 8 Previous: 12
Analysis: They are 2-0 and one of the early-season stories of this season. It becomes a much bigger story if they beat the Bills this week.
NFL.com
Ranking: 8 Previous: 13
Analysis: Members of TuAnon! Step out of the shadows of the dark web and be counted! Your hero has delivered! Tua Tagovailoa put up an historic performance on Sunday in Baltimore, throwing for 469 yards and six touchdowns in an epic comeback victory over the Ravens. Tua was unconscious in the game's fourth quarter, throwing four of his scores in the final period, including the game-winner to Jaylen Waddle with less than a minute to play. This was the proof-of-concept game for first-year coach Mike McDaniel, who has an offense that can deliver in a shootout. Tua will need to stack quality games to prove he's the guy, but this was nothing less than a clarion call to the believers.
The Athletic
Ranking: 6 Previous: 8
Analysis: Trailing 35-14, the Dolphins scored touchdowns on all four of their fourth-quarter drives in securing the most explosive of the three crazy, improbable comebacks in Week 2. In the fourth quarter alone, Tua Tagovailoa completed 13 of 17 passes for 199 yards and four touchdowns. Just for fun, let’s extrapolate that one-quarter performance over a 17-game season. That’d be 13,532 passing yards and 272 touchdown passes. Tough news for Peyton Manning, whose 2013 season gave us the current records of 5,477 passing yards and 55 touchdowns. Oh, and Tyreek Hill’s 149 fourth-quarter receiving yards would be good for 10,132 yards over the course of a season. Eat it, Calvin Johnson (1,964 receiving yards in 2012).
Pro Football Talk
Ranking: 6 Previous: 12
Analysis: TuAnon is going mainstream.
Yahoo Sports
Ranking: 6 Previous: 16
Analysis: Well then. Tua Tagovailoa deserves every bit of praise coming his way this week. His 469-yard, six-touchdown game should be a reminder that there should be some patience with quarterback development. Now that he has a coach that believes in him and Tyreek Hill to throw to after a pretty sharp trade, we could see a true breakout season from Tagovailoa. The first two games look pretty good.
Sports Illustrated
Ranking: 6 Previous: 16
Analysis: Why the hell not? There isn’t a team in the NFL having more fun than the Miami Dolphins right now. There isn’t a defensive coordinator who can quite put a thumb on Mike McDaniel.
Pro Football Network
Ranking: 5 Previous: 12
Analysis: It doesn’t matter how good or bad you or I believe Tua Tagovailoa is. All he must do is protect the football. All he must do is take away those two or three boneheaded decisions he makes a game. If he just lets the offense operate, they’ll move the ball consistently. Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle with the ball in their hands are as dangerous a duo as we’ve seen on the same roster. Meanwhile, the defense looked unable to stop anything for most of the game. But a strong defensive performance in the fourth quarter and an incredible offensive effort made all the difference in the game. Will Miami remain this high in the NFL Power Rankings? Only time will tell. Their offense proved today that they can be incredibly dangerous in spurts.
ESPN
Ranking: 5 Previous: 12
Analysis (on the biggest early adjustment (Get Raheem Mostert more touches): Chase Edmonds was Miami's lead back in Week 1 and throughout the offseason as Mostert rehabbed from a left knee injury. But the former 49ers running back gained 47 yards on 10 carries Sunday in the Dolphins' win over the Ravens, and it was the first time in months that Miami's run game looked like it had some bite to it. Edmonds, while versatile and still deserving of a role, was ineffective against a mediocre Patriots run defense in Week 1; he broke off a 28-yard run on Miami's game-winning drive Sunday, but Mostert should get his second start of the season against the Bills in Week 3
The Ringer
Ranking: 8 Previous: 13
Analysis: The gaudy box score statistics (469 passing yards, six touchdowns) for Tua Tagovailoa in the Dolphins’ 21-point comeback win over Baltimore heavily inflate perception of his performance. Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald struggled to dial up pressure consistently, and the Ravens’ young, injury-ridden secondary allowed big plays on multiple blown coverages, including two fourth-quarter touchdowns to Tyreek Hill that Tagovailoa underthrew. And Miami head coach Mike McDaniel, along with perhaps the NFL’s most electric receiving duo in Hill and second-year standout Jaylen Waddle, just created so much easy offense for Tagovailoa—Hill and Waddle each averaged more than 3 yards of separation on 22 combined targets en route to 361 receiving yards and four scores, according to NFL’s Next Gen Stats.
But that doesn’t mean Tagovailoa didn’t still put together the best performance of his young career. He threw two ugly interceptions and led another drive that netted just 2 yards in the first half, but he—surprisingly—didn’t collapse as a result.
The Sporting News
Ranking: 8 Previous: 13
Analysis: Mike McDaniel has proved every bit of his offensive genius in only two games operating with Tua Tagovailoa, Jaylen Waddle and Tyreek Hill. He even got Chase Edmonds and Mike Gesicki involved with key plays. The Dolphins are living up to playoff sleeper expectations on one side but need to get more consistent defense to deliver on playoff promise.
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