Miami Dolphins 31st Ranked Team In NFL?
By Brian Miller
If you haven’t been following along with the Profootballtalk.com power rankings you should consider yourself lucky. The pre-season rankings of NFL football teams means little to nothing which is the exact reason why I don’t sit here and try and get you convinced that the Miami Dolphins are going to win the division after each and every draft. It’s pointless and so much can happen between now and January. That hasn’t stopped others and PFT continues to rankle a few readers by putting out a power ranking.
Above I say how pointless it is but the hypocrite that I am will try and defend PFT’s placement of the Miami Dolphins.
At 32 sits the Oakland Raiders and I think that is a tad low. Bottom ten? Yes, I would agree with that but 32? Well, I guess someone had to be there. That brings us to number 31 where the Miami Dolphins are ranked. Yes, at 31. Yes that means the Cleveland Browns are ranked higher, the Jacksonville Jaguars are ranked higher, and the Tennessee Titans rank higher than the Miami Dolphins.
I’m not sure if I can justify that ranking for a team that came one game away from making the post-season. Sure they totally collapsed in the final two weeks but does that warrant a drop to 31?
Realistically and this is where the ‘call it like I see it’ side of me comes out, the Dolphins shouldn’t be ranked much higher than say 22. Follow me here for a second before you criticize me to no end in the comments…you know you will.
Let’s start at the top and no the order is not a pre-season ranking of my own doing just simply a statement of who the top teams are in the league. Seattle, San Francisco, Denver, Cincinnati, Baltimore, San Diego, Kansas City, Indianapolis, New Orleans, Green Bay, Philadelphia, Carolina, and Detroit should be higher ranked than Miami.
Simply put the teams above are better coached and have a more well rounded team balance that the Dolphins. There are a lot less questions with those teams. Now consider teams that Miami can beat or have beaten. New England, New York, Buffalo, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, and Pittsburgh. Whether those teams are ranked in the top 10 or the top 20 makes no difference, they should be ranked above Miami.
Buffalo beat Miami twice last year and that warrants a higher ranking. The Jets beat Miami when it counted the most and ending the season on that high note should put the Jets one or two spots over the Dolphins. Not a lot but being realistic that’s a good spot for them. That’s 20 teams that ‘should’ enter the training camp season ranked higher than the Dolphins.
I did say however that Miami should be ranked around 22. I would put the New York Giants ahead of the Dolphins by one spot, maybe two like the Jets. I would also put Arizona above Miami as well. By one spot, maybe the Vikings as I think it’s a push. I also like what I have seen by the St. Louis Rams but not enough to warrant a spot necessarily above Miami. My point is that any of those teams could easily be ranked one spot higher or one spot lower. I would also put Tampa Bay in that category given what they have done this off-season.
So let us say two of those teams rank higher than Miami and the rest rank below. You decide which. Miami, in my opinion still rank higher than the Cleveland Browns. No WR, first time head coach, question at QB, you name it the list goes on. Washington has a lot of holes to fill and there is still questions that surround Robert Griffin, III. Ranked higher than Miami? No don’t buy that one. The Texans finished last in 2013 so should they be ranked higher than Miami? Or anyone really? Probably not. You finished the season dead last in the entire NFL.
That’s 29 of the 32 teams with Jacksonville, Tennessee, and Oakland rounding the bottom out to make the full list.
I’m not a homer who is going to write about how great the Miami Dolphins are. They have coaching questions, scheme questions, TE questions, offensive line questions, will miss Mike Pouncey for three months, Dion Jordan for four weeks, have a coach that should be on the hot seat and the list really could go on.
But they are much better than the 31st team in the NFL. Everyone has their opinions on the subject and PFT has theirs, this one is mine.