playoff picture: Dolphins could be eliminated Saturday

Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel reacts on the field after the game against the San Francisco 49ers at Hard Rock Stadium. Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel reacts on the field after the game against the San Francisco 49ers at Hard Rock Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn ImagesMore

The Miami Dolphins kept their playoff hopes alive last week with a win against the San Francisco 49ers, but there’s a chance they’ll be eliminated before they even play the Cleveland Browns on Sunday.

With two weekends of regular season football left, the Dolphins need — along with a little other help — the Denver Broncos and/or the Los Angeles Chargers to lose their last two games.

On Saturday, the Chargers will face the New England Patriots on the road in a game kicking off at 1 p.m. ET. Then the Broncos will travel to play the Cincinnati Bengals with kickoff set for 4:30 p.m. ET.

If both the Chargers and the Broncos win those games, they’ll both improve to 10-6 and clinch the last two AFC postseason berths up for grabs.

Here’s how the AFC standings currently stack up:

(z) Kansas City Chiefs: 15-1

(y) Buffalo Bills: 12-3

(x) Baltimore Ravens: 11-5

(y) Houston Texans: 9-7

(x) Pittsburgh Steelers: 10-6

Los Angeles Chargers: 9-6

Denver Broncos: 9-6

Indianapolis Colts: 7-8

Miami Dolphins: 7-8

Cincinnati Bengals: 7-8

(x – clinched playoff berth)

(y – clinched division title)

(z – clinched first-round bye)

If one or both of the Chargers and Broncos lose on Saturday, the Dolphins can keep their playoff hopes alive into the final week of the regular season by beating the Browns.

“Regardless if we’re still in it or not, you get to see a lot about who a person is by the way they go about their business,” Tagovailoa said. “You see guys laying down? That tells you a lot right there. You see guys fighting? I mean, that should tell you a lot as well.”

The Dolphins earned a spot in the playoffs in each of the last two seasons, but lost on Wild Card Weekend both times.

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Insider Strongly Responds to Jets Potential $141 Million QB Signing – A Jets Reunion

The New York Jets have some big quarterback questions to answer this offseason. With Aaron Rodgers’ football future up in the air, the team must start evaluating potential alternatives.

One includes former Jets quarterback Sam Darnold who is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent.

ESPN’s Rich Cimini was asked about Darnold during an interview with radio host Jake Asman.

“Sam Darnold, I always thought was a talented guy, he just wasn’t working here in New York. He probably needed a change of scenery.

Good for him, he’s going to get a massive contract from someone this offseason. Good for him. He put in the work, he rehabilitated – I think last year was good for him, just having a year with Kyle Shanahan,” Cimini said on “The Jake Asman Show” on ESPN880 in New York.

“I don’t know where it’ll be. Minnesota? Maybe Tennessee or somewhere like that but I’d be willing to bet anything that he is not going to come back to the Jets.”

For #Jets fans holding their breath about a potential Sam Darnold reunion in 2025, don’t count on it.

ESPN’s Rich Cimini told @JakeAsman, ‘I’d be willing to bet anything that he is not going to come back to the Jets.’

According to Spotrac’s calculated market value, Darnold is expected to sign a four-year deal worth $141 million. That projected $35.4 million annual salary would make him the No. 14 highest-paid quarterback in the NFL, per Over The Cap.

Darnold Might Cost Even More Than That…
The former USC product will hit free agency at the ripe age of 27. If Darnold was told he could sign for that amount of money a year ago he would have taken it.

However, your value includes a lot of different variables. Of course how good you are matters, but it also is important to note who else is available.

It’s a supply-and-demand business. If you’re the only commodity in town, your value increases by default.

When you take a gander at the free-agent quarterback class that is going to be available it leaves a lot to be desired.

Darnold and Russell Wilson of the Pittsburgh Steelers are the only two surefire starting quarterbacks who are scheduled to be unrestricted free agents in 2025. Everyone else who will be available at QB is completely unproven.

Wilson is nine years older than Darnold and he seems to have found a forever home with Pittsburgh. That would leave Darnold as the only top available quarterback with a lot of NFL teams fighting for his services.

All of a sudden Darnold could go from a projected $35 million per year contract to something comfortably in the $45 million per year ballpark, if not higher.

A Jets – Darnold Family Reunion in 2025?
It would be sort of poetic for Darnold to be drafted by the Jets in 2018, struggle, get traded away, and for him many years later to return to the team where it all started.

ESPN’s Rich Cimini is probably right, a Darnold return to the Jets is a longshot. He is going to have a ton of options that include staying in Minnesota or simply going to the highest bidder in free agency.

It should be noted that the regime that drafted Darnold and the one that traded him away is no longer at 1 Jets Drive. The green and white will have a couple of new sheriffs in town by the time he’s making the decision on his football future.

Darnold is having a career season with the Vikings in 2025. The team is 13-2 and has a path to the No. 1 seed in the NFC conference.

He has thrown for 3,776 passing yards, has a 32 touchdown to 11 interception ratio, and has completed 67.2% of his passes. All of those statistical milestones are new career highs for the seven-year pro

NY Jets should target Kirk Cousins as a viable Aaron Rodgers replacement after falcons likely to cut him in 2025 says insider

The NY Jets will have a decision to make regarding the future of Aaron Rodgers in the coming months.

Rodgers has a chance to make one final impression over the last three weeks as he hopes to convince the Jets to keep him around.

The Rodgers decision is a complex one, and it likely will come down to more than just on-field performance. Finances will play a large role in determining what route the Jets take with their quarterback position in 2025.

If the Jets were to move on from Rodgers this offseason, one new name has emerged as a potential replacement. That player is Kirk Cousins, who was officially benched this week by the Atlanta Falcons.

The expectation is that the Falcons will move on from Cousins in the offseason as they usher in the Michael Penix Jr. era. There’s a scenario in which Cousins actually makes sense for the Jets. Hear me out.

Why Kirk Cousins actually could make sense for the NY Jets
Let’s start with Rodgers and his contract situation. If the Jets opt to keep Rodgers in 2025, he will carry a cap hit of just $23.5 million, which is very reasonable. But the financial ramifications extend well beyond next season.

Rodgers has a $35 million option bonus that triggers if he’s on the Jets’ roster come Week 1 along with a $2.5 million base salary. That option bonus is prorated over the remainder of Rodgers’ contract, which includes void years through 2029.

Unfortunately, since every year after 2025 is a void year, that means the Jets would incur a massive dead cap hit in 2026. That cap hit is $63 million, significantly higher than the $49 million if they were to move on this offseason.

The Jets would have the option of taking the full cap hit of $63 million in 2026 or designating him as a post-June 1st cut and spreading it out between 2026 and 2027 ($21 million in 2026 and $42 million in 2027).

It’s likely the next Jets regime will not be very interested in pushing significant dead money into 2027. Doing so would severely hinder the team’s chances of building a competitive roster in 2026 and 2027 and limit the flexibility of the new regime.

This is why moving on from Rodgers this offseason remains the most logical choice. They have the option of absorbing the full $49 million dead cap hit in 2025 or splitting it between 2025 ($14 million) and 2026 ($35 million). There’s a good chance the new regime would choose the former.

That gives the Jets an opportunity to hit the temporary reset button in 2025 and shift their attention to competing in 2026 and beyond. Unless you’re of the opinion that a Rodgers-led Jets team can legitimately compete for a Super Bowl next season, this would be their best option.