NFL: Can Bills/Dolphins Renew An Old Rivalry?

It’s been some time since both the Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills looked like legitimate contenders in the same season. What’s even worse was the stretch where neither looked competitive let alone playoff hopefuls for the better parts of two decades. Fast forward to 2022 and the Bills are early favorites to play in the Super Bowl and the Miami Dolphins are surprising in the NFL right now. Can the AFC East opponents renew their rivalry with these two young quarterbacks?

First there’s Josh Allen. The Bills struggled with their franchise quarterback seemingly forever in search of Jim Kelly’s replacement after his glory days. Allen has been the payoff in the end for Buffalo as he not only is looking like the top QB out of his draft class, but he’s approaching the top QB in the NFL level. With weapons like Stephon Diggs at his disposal, his career did a complete 180. He went from people having their doubts, to regularly being brought up as an MVP candidate. On the other side of the ball, the Bills have quietly built a contender on defense as well. When they signed 2x Super Bowl champion Von Miller the veteran presence they needed to improve the play on defense.

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Then there’s Tua Tagovailoa for the Miami Dolphins. Just the same as Allen, Tua has faced his doubters in the first few seasons of his career. Insert the talented WRs like Jaylen Waddle and Tyreek Hill and his production is blowing up. He’s thrown 8 TDs to just 2 INTs and is taking care of the football as he’s done throughout his career. Now he’s got the weapons to throw downfield and he’s taking advantage of it. The Dolphins are taking the NFL by storm as it seems they can now score at will. Then they’ve also got a top-notch defense that, much like Buffalo, isn’t at 100%.

The Dolphins and Bills don’t need the toxic rivalry that poked its head out from time to time. However, there’s nothing wrong with each trying to one-up the other when they face off. Buffalo has led the division the past few seasons but Miami has been assembling its pieces to challenge them. We may never see the glory days of Dan Marino and Jim Kelly again, but these two teams could renew a rivalry that will make the division fun again.