The Dolphins Fallout From the Big AFC East Trades

The Miami Dolphins saw their main competition for the division title, each picking up a star wide receiver.

Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Davante Adams (17) runs with the football as Miami Dolphins safety DeShon Elliott (21) attempts a tackle during the fourth quarter at Hard Rock Stadium. / Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

The AFC East landscape certainly got a new look Tuesday with not one but two major trades, with star wide receivers being sent to the Buffalo Bills and New York Jets.

The quick reaction from a Miami Dolphins standpoint is that their hopes of winning the AFC East — assuming they fix their issues in the first place — took a bit of a hit with Davante Adams joining the Jets and Amari Cooper heading for Buffalo.

Even from a wild-card perspective, the trades should make things harder for the Dolphins. They have two games remaining against the Jets, who should be more difficult to defeat with the addition of Adams, and one against the Bills, who already were a problem for the Dolphins even without Cooper.

On the flip side, the Dolphins' matchups against the Las Vegas Raiders on November 17th and the Cleveland Browns on December 29th should swing even more in their favor than they previously did because those two teams already had offensive challenges with Adams and Cooper, respectively.

Another effect of the Cooper trade is the increasing possibility that the Week 17 game at Huntington Bank Field will be flexed out from its current Sunday night slot — because the Browns look like a dumpster fire right now, and they don't look like they're going to get better anytime soon.

The two wide receiver trades will make the Dolphins' remaining schedule tougher. The games against Las Vegas and Cleveland already looked like matchups the Dolphins should win.

TOP WIDE RECEIVER ROOMS

With the addition of Adams to an offense that also includes Garrett Wilson and Allen Lazard, the Jets now have one of the top wide receiver trios in the NFL. If Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle can get going and Odell Beckham Jr. can start making the impact it was hoped he could make, the conversation could include the Dolphins.

Other top trios would include Seattle with DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett, and Jackson Smith-Njigba; San Francisco with Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk, and Jauan Jennings; Houston with Nico Collins, Stefon Diggs, and Tank Dell; and Tennessee with DeAndre Hopkins, Calvin Ridley, and Tyler Boyd.

But, as stated before, Hill and Waddle have been pretty quiet since the Dolphins opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars, and they'll need to get back to their highly productive ways if Miami is to get things back on track and make a push for the playoffs.

The Cooper and Adams trades came exactly three weeks before the NFL trading deadline, and it certainly would make sense to anticipate more moves around the league.

The Dolphins potentially could be involved in one of those, but if they were, it certainly would be for something other than a big-name wide receiver like Davante Adams or Amari Cooper.