The start of the regular season is still five months away but the calendar -- or recent history -- did not serve as a deterrent for wide receiver Jarvis Landry, who boldly declared that his Miami Dolphins will sweep the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots.
Landry made the strong statement over the weekend and followed up his comments in an interview with Peter King of Sports Illustrated's TheMMQB.com.
"If you're a competitor, that's the way you should feel, and I don't mind saying it," the 24-year-old Landry said. "It's time for a change. I have all the respect in the world for the Patriots, and I respect Tom Brady tremendously. But they're not our big brother anymore."
Miami showed improvement last season by posting a 10-6 mark and securing the sixth seed in the AFC playoffs. As for New England, well, it won the AFC East for the eighth straight season and went on to overcome a 25-point deficit and stun the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI.
"Coach (Adam) Gase, he's flipped the switch with us," Landry said of the reason for his strong stance. "New England's won the division 14 of the last 16 years, something like that? It's ridiculous. It's a problem. We cannot let that happen anymore. What I've seen is, when we play that game, sometimes we focus on the guys on the other side of the line instead of just focusing on us. And I want to be part of that change. I want to go into the games against New England expecting to win -- that's something we need to do."
The Dolphins salvaged a split against the Patriots in each of the previous three seasons before getting swept in 2016. For the record, Miami hasn't swept New England since 2000.
Landry ended the regular season with 94 catches for 1,136 yards and four touchdowns. In Landry's first three NFL seasons, he has 288 catches.
