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Dolphins Notebook: Odds, Sieler, a Trip Down Memory Lane, and More

The Miami Dolphins, head coach Brian Flores and rookie Tua Tagovailoa are gaining more and more respect from oddsmakers

The Miami Dolphins keep making believers and earning respect around the country.

That's evident not only from the praise that's been coming their way from national outlets or social media, but also through betting odds.

For example, their odds of winning Super Bowl LV, according to BetOnline (@betonline.ag), went from 60/1 (betting $1 to  win $60) to 40/1 following their victory against the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday.

The Dolphins are 20/1 to win the AFC (down from 28/1 a week ago) and 9/4 to win the AFC East (down from 17/4). The Buffalo Bills, meanwhile, went from 2/13 to win the AFC East title to 4/9 following their last-second loss at Arizona.

Individually, quarterback Tua Tagovailoa has closed the gap on fellow first-round picks Justin Herbert and Joe Burrow when it comes to the odds of winning Offensive Rookie of the Year honors. Herbert now is the favorite at 5/4, followed by Burrow at 7/4 and Tagovailoa at 5/2.

Before Tagovailoa and the Dolphins defeated the Chargers, 29-21 on Sunday and Burrow and the Bengals lost against Pittsburgh, 36-10, Burrow and Herbert were the co-favorites at 11/10 and Tua was 5/1.

Finally, there's the odds for AP Coach of the Year honors and Brian Flores is a solid second choice behind only Mike Tomlin of the Steelers. Tomlin, whose team is 9-0, has current odds of 7/5 and Flores is at 2/1.

The third-favorite is Frank Reich of the Indianapolis Colts at 14/1.

SIELER STAYING MOBILE

The always-entertaining Zach Sieler naturally was happy about his contract extension when he talked to the media via Zoom.

He indicated he might use some of his new money for advertising for his hog and alligator hunting ranch (Clay Gully Outfitters), but he will not be using it to buy a house simply because he enjoys living in his RV too much.

"For me, it’s easy," Sieler said. "It’s simple. Most of my time is spent at the facility anyways, so I don’t see any point in anything else for now. Obviously things can change year to year, but here right now, that’s what I got. Yeah. (laughter)”

Sieler provided a pretty good description of his RV.

"It’s a 35-foot fifth wheel, so it’s got two slide-outs — I don’t even know how wide it is, 10 feet — 35 times 10, so you’re looking at a small space," Sieler said. "It’s a toy hauler, got a nice patio out back. The back door drops down, little patio and then you can go all the way down and there’s a garage. You can put a golf cart or something back there if you do trips with it; and on top of all that, to have a trailer, it’s an opportunity for me to get a truck and build that truck up bigger because you’ve got to tow a trailer. So that’s a nice little excuse for me to work on, to tinker on a truck, because I enjoy doing that kind of stuff.”

GAILEY GOES BACK IN TIME

The last time the Dolphins had a 6-3 record through nine games before this season, which happened the last of the two years of Chan Gailey's first stint as Miami offensive coordinator.

A lot of things have changed since then, in particular the way the game is played.

“That was a strong, tough … I mean, they were tough football players," Gailey said when asked for his recollections of the 2001 Dolphins. "Really tough players. But you had to be. It was more (a) let’s run it down your throat mentality then. Now it’s let’s spread it out and throw it around the park. That group, they were really a strong, tough football team. We could run it. We had a tight end (Hunter Goodwin) that played tackle at Texas A&M and he’s playing tight end for us. We just ran the football and Jay (Fiedler) did a great job and Chris (Chambers) had a good year that year. It was a fun year. Those two years were fun years.”

That two-year stretch, incidentally, marks the last time the Dolphins made the playoffs in consecutive years. They were 11-5 in 2000 before beating Indianapolis and then losing at Oakland in the playoffs, and were 11-5 again in 2001 before losing in the playoffs against the Baltimore Ravens.

NOBODY'S PERFECT

Kudos to Miami Herald beat writer Adam Beasley for opening special teams coach Danny Crossman's Zoom media session with this question: "So ... how many kickers are you going to bring in this week after that miss?"

Of course, it was a joke in the aftermath of Jason Sanders finally missing the kick in 2020. Sanders hit from 50 and 39 yards out to make it 19-for-19 on the season before he was wide right from 49 yards out.

Sanders did come back later to start a new streak, hitting from 47 yards out.

"He’s in a good spot," Crossman said. "Those things are going to happen. The best thing about it would be to come back and get one more after that. I like where we’re at.”

GESICKI'S STRANGE YEAR

Yes, it has been a strange year for tight end Mike Gesicki because of the way his yards have come in bunches.

He's got 371 receiving yards in nine games this season, but almost 60 percent have come in two games.

Gesicki had a career high with 130 yards in the Week 2 game against Buffalo and then had 91 against San Francisco in Week 5 when he had his career-long 70-yard catch.

But in the other seven games, he's averaging 21.4 yards. Against the Chargers on Sunday, he had two catches for 40 yards.

“Each game is a little bit different," tight ends coach George Godsey said. "We had a stretch here where we got out to some pretty big leads early and it wasn’t necessarily turned into a throwing game. But I think we’re always looking to improve and try to get open as much as possible and give the quarterback a nice, clear window to throw the football to, and then we’ve got to make the play when it’s thrown to our direction. I think we’re doing a good job of distributing the ball. I think that’s been a positive. If one of those balls goes to another tight end or a back or another receiver and we’re getting everybody involved to try to keep the defense covering all 53 yards horizontally and as vertically as far as we can throw it, then that’s a good thing. We’ve still got plenty of time left in the season."