Miami, FL
Revisiting five Miami Dolphins to watch vs. the Buffalo Bills
The Miami Dolphins entered their Week 18 matchup against the Buffalo Bills in the same situation as their opponent: win and the divisional crown was theirs. Lose, and they would be traveling as a wild card team for the playoffs. Well, lose they did, as Miami blew a 14-7 lead in the fourth quarter en route to a 21-14 defeat.
The Bills weren’t perfect in defending against Miami’s top players, but in the second half especially, they were about as close as they could have been to perfection. Buffalo’s offense moved the ball at will, and after Miami’s offense was able to do the same in the first half, the Bills clamped down and limited their division rivals in the second half.
Here’s how our five Dolphins to watch performed this week.
QB Tua Tagovailoa
In the first half, Tua was really, really good. He completed 9-of-13 passes for 123 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. In the second half, Tua was really, well… not good. He completed 8-of-14 passes for just 50 yards and an interception. Miami’s offense gained just three first downs after intermission, and they ran 17 plays for a net total of 47 yards when penalties were factored into the equation.
Buffalo wasn’t really able to pressure Tagovailoa, but they did confuse him with coverages. That hesitation led him to hold the ball, which led him to rush his mechanics just enough at times. That rush caused him to miss high all night, which eventually came back to bite him on the game’s final drive. His last pass was a loafer into double coverage that safety Taylor Rapp intercepted, but there were a few passes that he just couldn’t put enough on in order to gain the yardage his squad needed.
On Miami’s first drive, he had Braxon Berrios beyond the sticks for a first down on the left hash. However, Tagovailoa was a little outside the right hash, and his throw hung in the air long enough that Berrios had to come back to the ball to catch it. By coming back to the ball, he ceded the first-down position, allowing Buffalo to make a tackle and force a punt.
These things happen when Tagovailoa is either forced off his spot by pressure or forced to go to a later read, making a throw where he doesn’t quite have his feet and body going in the direction for him to make his strongest toss. Buffalo’s secondary tightened up in the second half, limiting Tagovailoa and keeping the Bills in it long enough for their offense and special teams to score enough to win.
WR Tyreek Hill
Speaking of players who had a big first half, Hill was another one who was killing Buffalo early before the defense settled in and stopped him. Prior to halftime, Hill had five catches for 60 yards and a touchdown on seven targets. After halftime, Hill saw six more targets, but he caught just two more passes for 22 yards. He had opportunities to do more damage, but he either dropped the ball or had one of Buffalo’s safeties (Micah Hyde once on a third down and Rapp later on a first down) jar the ball loose.
It was Hill’s best game against Buffalo as a member of the Dolphins, as he totaled seven catches for 82 yards and a score. Much of that production came in the first half after Rasul Douglas left with a knee injury, as Hill worked on sub corner Dane Jackson. Jackson found his legs in the second half, totaling three tackles and a pass breakup on the night. Hill found himself leaving the field of play immediately after his quarterback’s game-ending interception, as he chose to skip the postgame handshakes in favor of an early shower.
LB Melvin Ingram
The veteran showed up in a big way on Sunday night, as he was a legitimate problem on the blitz all night long. Ingram totaled five tackles, 1.5 sacks, two quarterback hits, and two tackles for loss on his night, turning back the clock and looking like his much younger self — when he was asked to do things that make sense for him to do. I have to add that caveat because, for some reason, Ingram was the man who defensive coordinator Vic Fangio had in coverage against tight end Dalton Kincaid on one of Miami’s blitzes in a tie game in the fourth quarter.
Predictably, quarterback Josh Allen found Kincaid for a huge gain, picking up 26 yards to put the Bills at Miami’s 35-yard line. That call reminded me of some dark times, like when former Bills coach and self-proclaimed defensive genius Rex Ryan had guys like Mario Williams and Marcell Dareus dropping into coverage. Buffalo’s offense saw the matchup, exploited it, and set themselves up to take a lead that they would not relinquish.
LB Andrew Van Ginkel
Miami’s Josh Allen mirror/spy didn’t finish the game, as he left in the third quarter thanks to a foot injury. He was hurt while making his only tackle of the night, stopping running back James Cook on a seven-yard gain. He would have been credited with a pass breakup when Josh Allen dunked a pass off his head in the second quarter but, somehow, the deflection was secured in the end zone by wideout Trent Sherfield — so it instead ended up a “wow” play in a game full of them.
CB Eli Apple
The veteran started his night off with a bang, securing an errant throw by Josh Allen for an interception in the end zone that ended Buffalo’s first drive without allowing points. From then on, though, things weren’t as good. Allen was able to throw the ball at will as the night progressed, and Apple was on the wrong end of a pair of big pays.
First, he seemed like he gave up on the aforementioned hockey assist from Van Ginkel’s helmet, staring up at the ball while Sherfield positioned himself to catch it below. Apple also was the man in coverage who wide receiver Stefon Diggs burned for a huge gain to set up said touchdown, as Diggs made a brilliant sliding grab with Apple right in his face. He finished his night with eight tackles and that interception.
Miami, FL
Fiery, fatal crash shuts down southbound lanes of Don Shula Expressway in southwest Miami-Dade
An investigation is underway after a man was killed in a fiery crash with a truck on the Don Shula Expressway in southwest Miami-Dade early Tuesday morning, according to officials.
The Florida Highway Patrol said that a white Mercedes coupe was headed south on SR 847 (Don Shula Expressway), near Southwest 104th Street when it crashed into the back of a truck.
A large fire broke out after the crash, and investigators said that the driver of the Mercedes, who was only identified as an adult Hispanic male, died at the scene.
The fiery crash forced officials to shut down the southbound lanes of the roadway, and drivers were being asked to seek an alternate route.
Heavy delays were reported behind the crash, and delays also started to build in the northbound lanes near the scene.
The southbound lanes have since reopened.
No other information was released.
The Miami Heat woke up Monday no longer in control of the chase they had led for weeks. With the 2026 NBA Draft set for Tuesday and the Milwaukee Bucks closing in on a resolution to the Giannis Antetokounmpo saga, Miami suddenly finds itself in a two-team race it is no longer favored to win.
ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Monday that Antetokounmpo is expected to be moved before the draft, with the Heat and Boston Celtics emerging as the two finalists. The Bucks have narrowed their talks to those clubs, sources told Charania, and are weighing two dramatically different packages for the former two-time MVP.
For a fan base that spent the better part of a month believing Miami was the team to beat, the shift landed hard. The Heat are still in it. They are simply no longer the favorite.
A two-team race with a Tuesday deadline
Milwaukee set the timeline itself. Bucks ownership signaled in May that it wanted Antetokounmpo’s future settled by the start of the draft, and Charania reported Monday on ESPN’s “Get Up” that a trade is expected to land in line with that cutoff.
Charania framed the two bids as opposites. One is built around an established star, the other around youth and draft capital, and he described the negotiations bluntly.
“These conversations have been a blood bath,” Charania said.
He also stressed that whatever happens, it will not balloon into a multi-team construction the way other blockbusters have. Whether the deal closes Monday or Tuesday, Charania said, it is expected to be a one-to-one trade between Milwaukee and one of the two finalists, with no third team folded in. That detail matters for Miami, because it removes one of the lifelines the Heat had been counting on.
Boston changed the math with Jaylen Brown
For most of the buildup, Miami held the perceived edge because the Celtics were reluctant to part with Jaylen Brown. That changed over the weekend. The Stein Line’s Marc Stein reported Monday that Boston emerged “with a real shot” to win the race built around a Brown-centric offer, with Milwaukee willing to consider a swap even without a third team to absorb his contract.
That is the development that flipped the race. Brown is a five-time All-Star and a former NBA Finals MVP coming off the best statistical season of his career, having averaged a career-high 28.7 points per game as Boston’s centerpiece. He is also a bona fide star Milwaukee can plug in immediately, which speaks directly to ownership’s stated preference to get a recognizable face back rather than a stack of prospects.
The money works, too. A Brown-for-Antetokounmpo framework lines up cleanly under the salary cap, and from Milwaukee’s vantage point, flipping one star for another carries better optics than entering a full teardown empty-handed.
Prediction markets moved with the news. Per Kalshi data, Miami’s implied odds slid from the low 60s into the mid-30s on Monday while Boston vaulted toward roughly 70 percent. Those figures shift by the hour and should be read as a temperature check rather than a forecast, but the direction of the swing is the story.
What Miami is putting on the table
The Heat’s pitch leans on volume and flexibility rather than star power. Reported frameworks have centered on Tyler Herro, Kel’el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Nikola Jovic, with Kasparas Jakucionis and multiple future first-round picks also in the mix, and Miami holds the No. 13 overall pick in Tuesday’s draft.
It is a thoughtful offer for a rebuilding team. It is also, by definition, not a star, and that is the gap Boston is now exploiting.
There is a limit to how far Miami is willing to go. Bam Adebayo is the only player truly untouchable in the Heat’s discussions, and Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald reported that the front office does not want to strip the roster and its draft capital down to the studs to get a deal done. That restraint is understandable given the franchise’s history of swinging big and missing, most painfully on Damian Lillard three years ago, but it also means Miami may be unwilling to match a price Boston now appears ready to meet.
The case for the Heat to lose this race
There is a real argument, voiced by some of the league’s most prominent analysts, that Miami should be careful what it wishes for. Zach Lowe and Bill Simmons both cautioned against the Heat gutting their young core for an aging star, with Lowe warning that the long-term cost could hollow out the roster.
“The concerns I think are very real for Miami,” Lowe said.
The basketball context behind that caution is hard to ignore. Antetokounmpo is 31 and coming off the most injury-plagued season of his career, appearing in just 36 games amid groin, calf and knee issues while the Bucks finished 32-50 and missed the playoffs, snapping a run of nine straight postseason appearances.
He still produced when available, averaging 27.6 points, 9.8 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game, but his looming free agency in 2027 is depressing his trade value across the league. For a Heat team that went 43-39 and has been hunting a co-star for Adebayo since dealing Jimmy Butler to the Golden State Warriors, the math of trading a future for a 31-year-old’s prime window is genuinely fraught.
What happens next
The next 24 hours should decide it. Milwaukee has telegraphed the draft as its internal deadline, and the expectation is a resolution before Tuesday night, though multiple insiders have noted the saga could still spill into free agency if the Bucks decide their leverage is better served by waiting.
For Miami, the stakes are stark. Landing Antetokounmpo would end years of frustrated superstar pursuits and reset the franchise’s ceiling overnight. Losing him to Boston, again on the doorstep of a deal, would sting in a way Heat fans know all too well. Either outcome arrives soon, and for the first time in this chase, the Heat are watching it unfold without holding the best hand.
Companies hired by the state to operate Alligator Alcatraz were notified Monday morning to begin “full demobilization” of the facility, quietly bringing an ignominious close a $1.2 billion experiment that had once been hailed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and President Donald Trump as a model other states should pursue, four sources familiar with the operations of the detention center told CBS News Miami.
“All vendors got the notice,” one source explained.
The final few detainees left the facility last week, either being transferred to other detention centers or deported to third countries.
Federal and state officials at the time said it was due to safety concerns over the start of hurricane season.
They even suggested the facility would remain ready to take on new detainees.
In fact, officials familiar with the plan told CBS News Miami that it was always the intention to begin full demobilization by taking down fencing and removing trailers and other structures built at the site located in the middle of the Florida Everglades.
That demobilization effort is expected to take several days, and once it is completed, the site will reopen as a small airport used to train pilots.
The decision to close the facility has been speculated for the past two months, with even DeSantis saying he expected it to close soon.
“If we shut the lights out tomorrow, we will be able to say it served its purpose,” DeSantis said earlier this month during a press conference.
The decision to close Alligator Alcatraz was due primarily to the escalating cost of operating the facility, which was once hailed by President Trump as a model for other states to emulate.
The total cost for the detention is now estimated to be $1.2 billion.
Opened on July 3, 2025, the detention center was the brainchild of DeSantis and Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier and built using state tax money.
At the time, DeSantis maintained that the state would be reimbursed by the federal government for all of its expenses.
However, that funding has yet to come through. State officials submitted a $608 million request at the end of last year.
It was eventually approved by federal officials, but the actual reimbursement has been held up because of court challenges, environmental concerns and other issues.
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