Can Miami Prick New England’s Darling Bud of Maye?

Can Miami Prick New England’s Darling Bud of Maye?

Miami’s season ends in New England on Sunday, and much like the previous twenty-five, it’s been another roller coaster of disappointment and disillusionment. The last Dolphins quarterback to win a playoff game was born two years after we landed on the moon, and our last MVP winner was more than four decades ago.

Vast decisions await owner Stephen Ross, president and CEO Tom Garfinkel, and SVP Brandon Shore, who, along with Ross’s daughter Jennifer and trusted advisor, son-in-law Dan Sillman, will work through the many layers of issues pertaining to the team to try and navigate a path forward.

But before all that happens, the Dolphins can perhaps gain a very small modicum of satisfaction in an otherwise pitiful campaign: denying the Patriots home field advantage through the playoffs, and puncturing the MVP balloon of quarterback Drake Maye, who’s neck and neck with Matthew Stafford for the award as we enter the final week.

Whilst the Dolphins have been scrambling around over the past five years trying to reboot a franchise already on life support, New England, winner of 30 playoff games and six Super Bowls since Miami last won in the postseason, have found themselves in a similar position during that time: the stuttering end of the Bill Belichick era and the one-and-done reign of Jerod Mayo brought them just a first round playoff defeat at the hands of the Bills alongside three losing seasons, including back-to-back 4-13 campaigns in 2023 and 2024 respectively.

But a first-round pick from North Carolina before that second 4-13 campaign, along with the return of a pair of hugely influential figures in head coach Mike Vrabel and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, has seen the Patriots make the sort of phoenix-from-the-ashes resurrection that Dolphins fans can only dream of. In fact, the last time Miami had the same 13-3 record as New England currently does, Karate Kid was a new release in movie theatres, “Jump” by Van Halen was top of the charts, and Sony introduced the first CD player.

Forty-one years is a long time, people.

Worse still for Dolphin fans is that in Drake Maye, the Patriots have the sort of quarterback the rest of the AFC East – and the wider NFL – should fear. Having watched Tom Brady do so much damage in his 19 years in Foxborough, it’s disheartening to think that New England might have another quarterback capable of dominating the division for a decade or more.

There have been five MVPs from the AFC East since Dan Marino won Miami’s last one back in 1984, and if Maye wins this season, it will be back-to-back AFC East passers who’ve taken home the prize after Josh Allen’s win a year ago. Somehow, with the Dolphins quarterback position so in flux, and the team looking for their 28th starter since Marino retired at the end of the 1999 season, the success of Allen and now Maye somehow makes it all the more galling. Going from Brady to Mac Jones to Maye isn’t quite Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers to Jordan Love, but it’s far from ideal if you’re a Dolphins fan.

What makes it worse is that if the Patriots QB does win MVP at NFL Honours on February 5 at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, he’ll have deserved it.

New England has made a remarkable about-turn in just 12 months, driven by their 6’4 inch signal caller. From the depths of the 2024 season, where they won just four games, they now sit proudly as AFC East champions at 13-3, a game out of home-field advantage. So before I give you some hope for the future, here’s the MVP case for Maye as it stands: He’s been step-for-step with Stafford all year, with significantly worse weapons. And if you’re arguing about TRUE value…..after all, this is the most VALUABLE player award, then Maye doesn’t have a Hall of Fame coach, at least one Hall of Fame receiver with a second already on the Canton fast track, a better OL, and an All-Pro running back in the shape of Kyren Williams . So if we’re taking the VALUE from VALUABLE, it’s not hard to make a convincing case that Maye has been MORE VALUABLE than Matthew Stafford.

The former Tar Heel has a significantly better completion percentage, a better quarterback rating, and he’s 6-0 against common opponents this year, whereas Stafford is 4-2. Maye has better raw and adjusted efficiency numbers and an astronomical completion rate over expected. New England has already won their division, whilst the Rams are going to finish third in theirs. People will understandably argue about the strength of schedule, and there is no doubt that the Rams have had it far tougher – they’ve faced the Texans, Eagles, 49ers twice, Seahawks twice, Ravens, Colts, Jaguars, Buccaneers, Panthers, and Lions – eight potential division winners. But teams can only beat what’s in front of them. New England, on the other hand, has played Pittsburgh, the Panthers, the Ravens, the Bills twice, and the Buccaneers. But parity has been a key part of the 2025 season as a whole: New England beat the Falcons, who just downed Stafford’s Rams on Monday Night Football.

And I say all this as someone who thinks Stafford should edge it.

So what does all this mean, and why should you, as Miami fans, care? Well, two reasons. The first, as aforementioned, is if the Dolphins can play the Patriots close, if they can harry and hassle Maye and stay disciplined to the point where he can’t use one of his superpowers – elite pocket navigation – then a mediocre game from New England’s QB coupled with another grand slam Stafford performance at home against the 3-13 Arizona Cardinals could rob Maye of MVP glory. And if Miami wins and Denver beats the Chiefs, then Vrabel’s men will have to go on the road if they’re to win another Super Bowl, rather than playing every game at frigid Gillette Stadium.

Secondly, and most importantly, whatever happens on Sunday, New England’s rise should also serve to underline how close the Dolphins might be if they could only get the quarterback position sorted once and for all. That may or may not mean Quinn Ewers or Malik Willis should Miami try to bring them in as free agents. More likely, though, that quest may finally end if we find ourselves in a position to select one of what seems like very many potential franchise QBs in 2027’s grand slam Draft, starting with Texas’s Arch Manning.

Sunday may serve as a long goodbye of sorts: the end of Tua Tagovailoa’s stay in Miami, along with that of the head coach who for 18 months turned him into a star. But it could also be the chance for the Dolphins to plant a flag in the ground and, in doing so, deny the Patriots home-field advantage and give Drake Maye the 2025 MVP Award.

In another lost season, these small, perhaps even puerile victories might bring us something to crack a smile about come Sunday night.