After a couple of his late runs in Saturday’s 34-31 overtime win over the Bills, Dolphins running back Jay Ajayi seemed to be favoring his left shoulder and had it checked out by members of the team’s medical staff.
Ajayi kept going back into the game, though, and finished with 206 rushing yards that were essential to a win that helped the Dolphins book passage to the playoffs. On Monday, Dolphins coach Adam Gase said that Ajayi is “a little banged up,” which segues into the topic of how the Dolphins will approach Week 17.
Gase said he spoke to executive vice president of football operations Mike Tannenbaum and General Manager Chris Grier about whether the team would rest any players against the Patriots and said the team will approach this week like any other.
“We need to do everything to make sure we are 1-0 at the end of this week,” Gase said, via the Miami Herald. “I talked to [owner Stephen] Ross last night and Mike and Chris. We were talking about our plan going forward this week. We have an opportunity to play after Week 17 but our main focus is this week. We are going to stick to plan and not look ahead. This is a team if you look past them, they will embarrass you.”
There’s a chance that the team can move up from the sixth to the fifth seed in the AFC if they beat the Patriots and a trip to Houston would seem to be preferable to facing the Steelers, even with a win over Pittsburgh under their belts this year.
