MIAMI _ The Miami Dolphins are opening their 2020 season in much the same manner they ended 2019. Well, sort of.
They travel to New England for their regular-season opener. And while they will be on the road, where they finished last season, they aren't certain of beating their opponents as they did at Gillette Stadium as they did last year.
Oh, and one more thing has changed: Tom Brady won't be the New England quarterback.
The NFL, by the way, is having teams open the season with divisional games. The Jets are playing the Bills in the season-opener for those two teams. So Dolphins vs. New England makes total sense.
The rematch will happen in Week 15 when the Patriots visit Miami. So the Dolphins and Patriots will not see a cold weather game against each other in 2020.
The Dolphins will begin their home schedule in Week 2 of the season by hosting the Buffalo Bills. The Bills, who went to the playoffs last season, are the only AFC East team to sweep the Dolphins in 2019 and are favorites to win the division this season, according to some pundits. The rematch against Buffalo will come in the season-finale at Buffalo.
The Dolphins will play only one prime time game, barring a late season flex. The prime time game we know of is at Jacksonville for a Thursday night game the third week of the season. The Dolphins have lost four consecutive games on Thursday night, all on the road. The combined score of those games dating from 2015-18 was 140-37.
There's a couple of big matchup of rookie QBs in the offing when the Dolphins play the Los Angeles Chargers and Cincinnati Bengals.
The first opportunity for that match is happening on Oct. 25 _ when the Dolphins host the Los Angeles Chargers at Hard Rock. The Chargers selected Justin Herbert with the No. 6 overall selection after the Dolphins selected Tua Tagovailoa with the No. 5 pick.
Neither quarterback is guaranteed of starting for their team by then.
The Dolphins are scheduled to play the Cincinnati Bengals at home on Dec. 6 and everyone is wondering whether that will be the first matchup between quarterbacks Joe Burrow and Tagovailoa in the NFL. We know Burrow is the Bengals' expected starter.
Tagovailoa? We'll see.
The Dolphins have a long home stand scheduled from late November to mid December. Miami will play three consecutive home game against Bengals, Chiefs and Patriots from Nov. 29-Dec. 13.
The Dolphins have a long road trip to San Francisco on Oct. 11. After playing the defending NFC champions the team can either trek back to South Florida, gather themselves, practice all week, and then fly back west to play the Denver Broncos Oct. 18.
Or the Dolphins may opt to stay out west, likely in the Denver area, the week before that game.
The Dolphins will conclude their season with consecutive road trips. The team will visit the Las Vegas Raiders either Dec. 26 or 27, depending on NFL flex decisions. And then Miami will be at Buffalo on Jan. 3 for the season-finale.
So, yeah, it's going to be cold in Orchard Park, per sources. With this game, the Dolphins will have played the Bills in their regular-season finale three of four seasons.
The Dolphins were scheduled to have a "home" game again in London but that was changed when the NFL decided to bring all of its international series games back to the United States as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
So the Dolphins will have 10 instead of nine home games in 2020, including two preseason games.
And while that's disappointing for Dolphins fans in the UK, it's good news for domestic Dolphins fans because the game that was being exported was going to include a premier team. A league source tells the Miami Herald the Dolphins would have played either the Kansas City Chiefs or Seattle Seahawks in London had the original plans remained.
That game against either the Super Bowl champion or the NFC West power will obviously now be played at Hard Rock Stadium.
