After being discarded by the Bears this offseason, the Miami Dolphins turned to Jay Cutler as their quarterback when Ryan Tannehill was lost for the season with an injury. Cutler had one of his finest years statistically when Adam Gase was the offensive coordinator in Chicago a few seasons ago. Now, the two are reunited to try and keep the Dolphins afloat. Both teams enter Week 1 with lofty expectations after solid 2016 campaigns, but the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have their man in Jameis Winston.
Don't miss any of the NFL Week 1 action on Sunday, September 10, 2017 at 1 p.m. ET. This duel from Hard Rock Stadium will be televised on FOX.
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Jay Cutler vs. Tampa Bay Defense
The future of the Dolphins season will be riding on Cutler and how well he performs. Cutler retired from the game after being released by the Bears during the offseason, but he was brought in after Tannehill was lost. Cutler has a history with his new head coach that dates back to the 2015 season.
The enigmatic signal-caller enjoyed one of his best seasons under the tutelage of Gase, who was the Bears coordinator for that one season before taking the Dolphins job. Cutler had a season career-best passer rating, completed over 64 percent of his passes for 3,659 yards with 21 touchdowns. More importantly, he did a better job of protecting the football. He did throw 11 picks, but the fumbles were down and he played in 15 games.
Cutler was tormented by opposing defenses last season, which was a big reason for his decision to retire. One of his worst games came against the Bucs when he threw two interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown, and lost a fumble on one of the four sacks he took. Gase needs to extract the good Cutler for the Dolphins to move the football and have a chance of defeating Tampa.
Jacquizz Rodgers vs. Miami Run Defense
Doug Martin will miss at least the first three games of the year as he finishes serving his suspension, leaving Rodgers as the likely starter once the season begins. And Rodgers is fine with that. He took over last season when Martin and Charles Sims dealt with injuries and the Oregon State product was a blessing to Dirk Koetter and the offense.
Rodgers led the team with 560 rushing yards last season and added 13 receptions. He was thought to be too small to produce as an every down back, but he blew those notions away with his performance. Rodgers started five of the 10 games he played, twice ran for over 100 yards and averaged 4.3 yards per carry.
The Bucs will need similar if not better production from the run game to complement the passing attack. Keeping Winston out of long yardage situations in obvious passing downs is critical to their success. Rodgers can help by taking advantage of a Dolphins run defense that allowed over 140 yards on the ground last season.
Nick Folk vs. Roberto Aguayo
It’s up to Folk to put the kicking nightmares from last season to rest. Obviously Aguayo is no longer on the Bucs after the team cut ties with last year’s second round pick and that leaves the veteran to pick up the pieces.
Tampa admitted the mistake and cut Aguayo after a disastrous preseason where he showed no signs of improving on his awful rookie season. He made a league-worst 71 percent of his field goals last year, connecting on just 22 of 31 attempts. More disturbing for the Bucs’ kicking game is that Aguayo’s longest make of the year was 43-yards. The coaching staff lost confidence in their kicker and simply stopped attempting three-pointers.
Tampa Bay is a legitimate playoff contender in the NFC but their one area of weakness is kicking. Folk is a veteran who has proven to be above average in his field goal production, but he’ll be kicking with the shadow of Aguayo hanging over him for the first few games at least.
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