NY Jets: Scouting the Miami Dolphins ahead of Week 6 matchup

The NY Jets will travel to Miami to take on the raging Dolphins at Hard Rock Stadium this Sunday.

First, an update on the Le’Veon Bell situation. On Tuesday night, the NY Jets made the decision to release running back Le’Veon Bell. The team is now in position to start Frank Gore against his former team on Sunday. Rookie La’Mical Perine will likely be the backup.

It’s been yet another eventful week for the Jets. If Tuesday night was any indication of how the Jets will perform against the Miami Dolphins, fans will be in for another long afternoon.

The Le’Veon Bell release hadn’t come as much of a surprise for those close-knit to the situation, as there were rumors circling the Jets in regard to potentially searching for a trade partner to remove Bell’s contract from the books.

After failing to find a team willing to comply, the Jets released Bell in an effort to shed this team of any talent it had left.

Disregarding the Le’Veon Bell circumstance, the Jets play a football game this week. The team is slated to fly to Miami to take on the red-hot Dolphins who this past week, annihilated the San Francisco 49ers.

If the memory relays itself, the Jets were at the tail-end of that Week 2 matchup against the 49ers, in which they couldn’t slow down Jimmy Garoppolo who was playing on one leg for the majority of the outing.

The Dolphins have surely improved over the first five weeks of the season. Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick has been completing 70 percent of his passes and has led the Dolphins to two wins over the past three weeks.

The NY Jets haven’t had the same success that the Miami Dolphins have had.

The Jets, on the other hand, have been bottlenecked by coaching incompetence and injuries that have derailed this team yet again to an 0-5 start for the first time since 1996.

Quarterback Sam Darnold is out yet again on Sunday. Darnold suffered a shoulder injury that was later revealed to be an AC joint sprain against the Broncos in Week 4.

Appearing on “The Michael Kay Show,” Darnold stated that he has started to throw, but is still in some pain. The smart move is to rest Darnold.

Understandably, the Jets need Darnold to play as much as he can to eventually determine a full evaluation of the third-year quarterback before this season comes to an end.

The Jets may be in line for some positive injury news, though, as they’re expected to get back wide receiver Vyncint Smith who is now eligible to be activated from short-term IR.

Smith, 24, suffered a core muscle injury in training camp that had him sidelined for an expected five-to-eight week period due to surgical repair.

Wide receiver Denzel Mims, who suffered multiple hamstring injuries in training camp, has yet to take any meaningful snaps in regular-season practice thus far. Although he practiced in limited fashion this week, anticipating him to be ready soon may be a bit optimistic.

The Jets are heading into this matchup against Miami knowingly pessimistic. Considering their defense wasn’t able to put a stop to an undrafted rookie quarterback from embarrassing them on national television, a red-hot Ryan Fitzpatrick will only add fuel to the burning fire of agony at One Jets Drive.

The Dolphins have been able to establish a few weapons on the offensive side of the football in running back Myles Gaskin and tight end Mike Gesicki. Slowing these two down will be crucial if the Jets want any chance of flying home from Miami with their first win of the season.

Fun-fact: One bright spot on the Jets thus far has been the performance of kicker Sam Ficken, who is perfect on both field goals made (9) and extra points (6). It will be interesting to see if Ficken can stay flawless kicking down in that humid Miami heat.

Score Prediction: Dolphins 26, NY Jets 17