Posted by ESPN.com's Tim Graham
DAVIE, Fla. -- So much in the AFC East has changed over the past year. That can be summed up by Sunday's game between the New England Patriots and Miami Dolphins.
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The Patriots aren't in first place, and the Dolphins aren't in last.
But what struck me while listening to Dolphins coach Tony Sparano's news conference Wednesday was Patriots superstar who hadn't been mentioned.
A year ago, Randy Moss' name would've been broached within the first couple of questions and related in some way to six of the first eight topics. But when Dolphins public relations man Harvey Greene gave the two-question warning, it dawned on me Moss had become a media afterthought.
So I asked Sparano before he walked away from the lectern after his 17-minute Q&A session.
"With Randy out there right now, first of all he is one of these weapons that you absolutely have to pay attention to," Sparano said. "He's one of these guys that's out there that you know at any moment can hurt your football team and can create a big play. He's doing that more and more."
Moss has been silent for long stretches, but deadly at times.
The New York Jets held him without a first-half catch last week, but he made a scintillating fourth-down grab for a touchdown with one second left in regulation, sending the game into overtime.
Moss over his past three games has 13 receptions for 144 yards and a touchdown. He had single games that resembled that last year with Tom Brady throwing to him.
"I see [Matt] Cassel is trying to get him the ball more and more," Sparano said. "They're trying to get the ball down the field. He's a major weapon right now in the red area.
"So what are you going to do against them? Well, I am not going to tell you that, obviously. But at the end of this whole thing, you have to pay special attention to where he is, and what we're going to try hard not to do is let him beat us."
Moss has 46 receptions for 615 yards and five touchdowns, fine numbers but way off the pace of last year's record-setting season: 98 catches, 1,493 yards, 23 TDs.
Moss also has three fumbles this year, the same number he had the previous seven seasons combined.
Graham joined ESPN.com in 2008 after covering the Miami Dolphins for the Palm Beach Post. He previously spent eight years at the Buffalo News, where he was an award-winning NHL and boxing writer. The Baldwin-Wallace College grad also has worked for the Las Vegas Sun and Boston Herald.
