The 2020 NFL season is officially underway! In last night’s opening contest, the reigning Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs shellacked the Houston Texans — with the final 34-20 score hardly indicating just how far apart these two teams were on the field. But the Chiefs weren’t the only winner of the night: the Miami Dolphins were also a big beneficiary of last night’s result.
If we want to get technical, the Dolphins currently own the No. 1 pick in the 2021 NFL Draft! That isn’t likely to last, but the Texans’ struggles last night aren’t necessarily going to be going away any time soon. And that is definitely good news for the Dolphins. Because while Miami can now set their attention to their own season and building upon the promising finish of 2019, the team can simultaneously cheer for another team: whoever is playing the Texans.
Houston’s 1st- and 2nd-round picks in the 2021 NFL Draft belong to Miami thanks to the trade for OT Laremy Tunsil last August. And with that level of draft capital in Miami’s back pocket entering the season, a bad Texans team could transform a win-win trade into a massive steal for the Dolphins.
The best news of all? Houston’s struggles aren’t going to go away any time soon.
The schedule remains tough for the first half of the season
Houston now sits at 0-1 on the season and will host the Baltimore Ravens next week. Not only is Houston staring at a tough challenge to avoid 0-2, but the remaining first half of the schedule could sent the Texans into a tailspin.
- Week 2: vs. Baltimore Ravens
- Week 3: @ Pittsburgh Steelers
- Week 4: vs. Minnesota Vikings
- Week 5: vs. Jacksonville Jaguars
- Week 6: at Tennessee Titans
- Week 7: vs. Green Bay Packers
This stretch ahead of the bye week is a brutal start to the season and could set the stage for the negativity around Houston to snowball.
The Texans sorely missed WR DeAndre Hopkins
The Texans made the stunning decision to trade DeAndre Hopkins earlier this year and the team looked to have no firm answers for how to replace him in Week 1 versus the Chiefs. If the departure of Hopkins leads to a potential regression of QB Deshaun Watson, the Texans will be in big, big trouble. And with no early draft assets (those belong to Miami) to replace him mid-season or ahead of the trade deadline, the Texans will struggle to pivot and compose themselves on the fly.
The Texans have a lot of work to do based on Week 1. But for Dolphins fans, the hope is that the adjustments take a while to get ironed out — and that the team is in too big of a hole to climb out of by the time they get the answers they’re looking for on the heels of a demoralizing defeat to open the season.
