Week 7 of 2020 NFL season brings strange conflict for Dolphins fans

Welcome to the ultimate moral conflict, Dolphins fans.

Miami is off this afternoon, enjoying their bye week as they brace for the stretch run to the end of the season. And in surveying the rest of the Week 7 landscape, one clear oddity stands out for Dolphins fans: we ought to be rooting for the New York Jets this afternoon. Sure, it’s easy to root for the 49ers as they face the Patriots, for the Packers as they square off against the Texans and any other number of contests.

But Dolphins fans should also be rooting for the New York Jets this afternoon, which feels strange to read; let alone execute and follow through on. But the Jets are facing the AFC East-leading Buffalo Bills this afternoon and, with a Jets win, the Dolphins would enter Week 8 play trailing Buffalo by just half a game in the AFC East standings. That’s an enticing proposition for a team that is transitioning to a rookie quarterback with all the talent in the world to make this offense more explosive.

Add in that a win by the Jets decreases the odds that the New York Jets end up finishing with the worst record in football and, presumably, Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence. There’s enough here of substance that there should be no “on the fence” conflict with how Miami fans should feel about this Week 7 contest: the Dolphins would benefit exponentially more from a Bills loss. And so we should hope to see it happen.

There’s still plenty of football left to be played, but as we near the midway point of the 2020 season, the margin for error becomes smaller and smaller. Every bounce of the ball in Miami’s favor now weighs significantly more heavily than they did six weeks ago.

So as hard is it may be to say out loud, go Jets!