The Miami Dolphins successfully collected a win in Week 1 of the 2021 NFL regular season, escaping a defensive struggle with a 17-16 victory over New England. And while the nature of Sunday’s win over the Patriots made it somewhat unlikely that the Dolphins were ever going to run up the score, it is at least worth mentioning that the Dolphins were without a number of significant pieces on offense.
Left tackle Austin Jackson was available but did not play after a bout with COVID-19 protocols during the week of the game. Wide receiver Will Fuller served the final game of a 6-game suspension. And tight end Adam Shaheen was shelved as a positive case of COVID-19. Shaheen is unvaccinated, which NFL protocols automatically locked him out of playing in Week 1 once he tested positive early in the week of the game.
Shaheen may be the least ‘high-impact’ player of this trio, but he was still very much someone who found a niche for Miami during the summer as a red zone target.
And now we know that Shaheen will be back. The Dolphins activated Shaheen after his mandatory 10-day isolation period and the big pass catcher returned to the practice field on Wednesday for Miami.
How much the tight ends are going to be a part of this offense is still something of a mystery — the Dolphins were a heavy 12-personnel grouping offense against the Patriots. But that very well may have been a scheme specific decision that allowed the team to get extra bodies on the blocking surface. The biggest evidence of a scheme specific approach for Week 1 can be found in tight end Mike Gesicki — who doesn’t offer value as a blocker in general and found the field for just 21 snaps against the Patriots. He was held without a reception.
But Shaheen will undoubtedly provide another big target in the red zone and he seems to be someone that Tua Tagovailoa trusts; given the action they’ve gotten together in the redzone during training camp. Here’s to Miami have a plethora of reps in the redzone on Sunday against the Bills so we can see that chemistry manifest itself in a few scores.
