The males answerable for placing collectively the NFL common season schedule shared some particulars into how they arrived at the 2022 model and revealed some attention-grabbing tidbits about the Miami Dolphins.
In abstract, the Dolphins volunteered to play a house recreation on Christmas Day, requested their video games at San Francisco and Los Angeles (towards the Chargers) be scheduled in back-to-back weeks, and requested to open at residence.
Those had been amongst the revelations throughout NFL Broadcasting VPs Onnie Bose and Mike North’s Zoom session after the schedule was revealed.
Sunday Night vs. the Steelers
The Sunday night time residence towards the Pittsburgh Steelers on Oct. 23 was scheduled largely to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Dolphins’ excellent season, which included a victory at Pittsburgh in the AFC Championship Game.
But North stated the recreation wasn’t cemented till the Dolphins acquired Tyreek Hill of their massive commerce with the Kansas City Chiefs.
“I’m unsure Pittsburgh-Miami was heading for NBC for Sunday Night Football,” North stated. “But when Tyreek Hill joined a workforce that is been superb for a few years, proper? I believe there have been 9 wins final 12 months 10 wins the 12 months earlier than Miami’s performed their method into prime time. Now with Tyreek Hill, considered one of the most enjoyable gamers in the league, and we had the alternative with Pittsburgh going again there, keep in mind, that is the fiftieth anniversary of the undefeated season for the Dolphins. So here is a chance for a Steelers-Dolphins recreation in prime time in October, the place we’ll make an enormous deal out of it. The Dolphins will make an enormous deal about it. I’m positive we’ll see Larry Csonka and all the guys in the stadium that night time, and that is a recreation that we most likely solely felt higher about as soon as the Dolphins went out and made the transfer for Tyreek.”
The Christmas Possibilities
As we have already talked about, the Dolphins volunteered to play at residence on Christmas, however there was no assure that Green Bay was going to be the opponent.
“So they went into the combine as a potential touchdown web site for a Christmas recreation,” North stated. “Didn’t essentially need to be Green Bay. I believe we may have gotten some actual good mileage out of New England in Miami on Christmas if we determined to do this. Buffalo-Miami would have labored. Pittsburgh-Miami would have labored. You most likely noticed we determined to do one thing in another way with Pittsburgh that weekend. They’re taking part in on Saturday night time (on the) fiftieth anniversary virtually to the day of the Immaculate Reception. So that one sort of fell out as an possibility as soon as we sort of locked in on that however, once more, we’re followers like all people else.
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“I’m unsure we all know something greater than anyone else. But we predict the Dolphins are good and we predict they solely acquired higher. And once more, it is a workforce with double-digit wins or near-double-digit wins these previous few years. We suppose they’re gonna be in a playoff chase in December. So having them in the Christmas window felt like an actual good alternative.”
As for Thanksgiving, whereas the Dolphins had been an interesting possibility, North stated Buffalo at all times appeared like the logical goal, which is the way it ended up.
Opening Against New England Again
The Dolphins open the season towards the Patriots for a 3rd consecutive 12 months, however North stated he wasn’t even conscious of that truth.
He was, nonetheless, conscious of Miami’s want to open at residence not like 2020 and 2021 due to the chance of Hard Rock Stadium internet hosting a Lady Gaga live performance in Week 2 and a want to not open with two street video games.
‘We checked out dozens of schedules the place the Dolphins opened on the street for the first two weeks,” North stated. “I believe they like this one. I believe that is higher for them to have that residence recreation in Week 1. If they arrive again to us and say hey, hear, having New England in Week 1 is not one thing we’re searching for in the future, it will need to be one thing we’re gonna have to contemplate trying ahead. … But for all the schedules that we checked out the place the Dolphins began road-road, due partly to the undeniable fact that they actually had been hoping to accommodate this live performance in Week 2, I believe they like this one.”
The Dolphins and Amazon
One of the causes the NFL had no downside transferring away from the Dolphins for the Thanksgiving Day recreation is the concept that they had been going to get a Thursday night time recreation in some unspecified time in the future.
The solely factor is that ideally it might have been a house recreation.
“As I’m positive you have all heard from Amazon, they’re actually fascinated about getting out into these markets the place they’re gonna be broadcasting video games from and actually attempting to have fun, not simply the parking zone and the tailgating expertise but in addition the entire market,” North stated. “Miami was considered one of the locations the place Amazon truly was actually hoping to have a house recreation for them. So they had been rooting for a Dolphins recreation on Amazon they usually had been rooting for it in Miami. We definitely checked out loads of schedules the place that occurred.
“But once more, as soon as this schedule spit out and also you see this Miami at Cincy and you are able to do Tua and Burrow, who know one another clearly, from their days in the SEC, it simply felt like a very good use of that asset and a very good fan-friendly recreation that everyone’s going to wish to see.
“So they may have ended up on Thanksgiving. They didn’t. They may have ended up at residence on Thursday. They didn’t. They may have ended up at residence on Christmas. And on this specific schedule they did they usually’re additionally a type of groups that requested for, , their West Coast journeys to be paired up so we knew they had been going out to San Francisco and LA this 12 months. They requested for them back-to-back; perhaps in a vacuum they’d have most popular that slightly earlier in the season and we checked out ones the place that sort of fell into the October/November vary. But hopefully like all groups, once they have a look at their schedule, they acquired a few of what they needed and perhaps did not get the whole lot. I’m unsure all people ought to get the whole lot they requested for, however I believe for the most half, Miami acquired most of what they requested for.”
https://www.si.com/nfl/dolphins/information/insights-into-the-2022-miami-dolphins-schedule
