Could you possibly come up with a better script of events for the Miami Dolphins in Week 10 of the 2020 NFL season? There’s a Dolphins win to move the team to 6-3 on the season, the incredibly Hail Mary for the Arizona Cardinals to drop the Buffalo Bills to 7-3 and just a half-game ahead of the Dolphins (plus a head to head tiebreaker) in the AFC East. Add in losses from the Tennessee Titans and the Baltimore Ravens and Miami has found themselves in the thick of things in the AFC playoff race.
Now: take all of that and add in the fact that the Dolphins have actually improved their 2021 NFL Draft standing versus just 24 hours ago. How?! You can thank the Cleveland Browns on that front, who knocked off the Houston Texans by a score of 10-7 in Week 10 to drop the Texans to 2-7 on the season. Thanks to the Laremy Tunsil trade ahead of the start of the 2019 season, the Dolphins have both Houston’s first and second round draft choices in 2021 — and not even the Dolphins could have cooked up a better script for these picks to follow than this.
Houston, with an elite quarterback in Deshaun Watson, can’t seem to get out of their own way and now play two games in the next 10 days — the New England Patriots in Week 11 and a Thanksgiving Day clash with the Detroit Lions (in Detroit) in Week 12. After that? Two clashes with the 6-3 Colts in a 3-week span. This could get ugly for the Texans — even more so than it already is.
The Dolphins will reap the benefits of Houston’s hardship and Week 10 pushed the Texans’ pick to 6th in the 2020 NFL Draft order. With Houston nearly eliminated from owning a .500 record this season, this pick figures to be a top-15 lock. But if the Texans flop from here on out as they did against Cleveland, a top-5 choice isn’t out of the question.
