Dolphins and Saints take center stage in Yahoo Sports’ weekly stream-of-consciousness notebook

The NFL week is already long on narratives, but a fresh Yahoo Sports column tried to cut through the noise by leaning into what it called “no good patterns to be found … YET!” The writer’s focus landed on the Miami Dolphins and, separately, on the New Orleans Saints, treating both games as case studies in whether box-score outcomes align with sustainable process.

For Miami, the column’s central refrain was repetition, specifically the repeated emphasis on Jeremiah Smith. The author’s point is less about a single highlight and more about the idea of offensive identity, arguing that Miami may need clearer indicates about who is driving the playcalling decisions and how those choices are translating into targets over time. In this framing, the Dolphins are not just evaluating results, they are also trying to determine whether their best looks are showing up consistently enough to trust.

The notebook then pivots to a different kind of evaluation, one anchored in matchup math. The column notes that the Saints “actually covered” tight end T.J. Hockenson and adds that, during a tackle, he “got hurt,” while also describing a week in which he “didn’t catch all 15 targets” that were thrown his way. Taken together, the writer uses the sequence to illustrate how defensive success is sometimes measured by limiting conversion, not by eliminating involvement entirely.

That approach matters because NFL offenses can look coherent on one drive and chaotic on the next, even when the personnel is stable. The column’s underlying skepticism is that fans, bettors, and even teams can overreact to short samples and miss the difference between opportunity and efficiency. For the Dolphins, that means the “Jeremiah Smith” emphasis is cast as a question about direction, not just usage. For New Orleans, the Hockenson discussion is cast as a question about how coverage responsibilities translate into catch rates and scoreboard impact.

What the column does well is separate the storytelling from the outcomes, even if the reader is left wanting more hard confirmation. The writing does not present a full statistical teardown, and it leans on the idea that better patterns might emerge later, once more games accumulate. That caveat is important, because NFL form can swing due to opponent styles, game scripts, and matchup-specific planning rather than permanent team-wide changes.

Looking ahead, the watch for Miami is whether the offense’s decision-making becomes easier to predict. If “the repeated name” remains a consistent lever in the passing game, it could help turn guesswork into a clearer model of how the Dolphins generate progress. For New Orleans, the watch is whether the method described in the column, limiting conversions while allowing targeted involvement, shows up again against other tight end types. Either way, the column’s central lesson is that “no good patterns” can still be a starting point, not an endpoint, as the season moves deeper into its weekly tests.