Miami Dolphins season prediction isn’t as bad as some believe
By Brian Miller
The Miami Dolphins are not supposed to be a good football team but you may not want to tell that to the players who will grind it out this year.
Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores doesn’t want to hear the word “tank”. The Miami Dolphins beat writers use the word daily. The national media believe that Chris Grier has set his team up to fail so they can draft a quarterback number one overall next season.
No one believes that the Miami Dolphins can compete this year and frankly the early thoughts are that they won’t be very good next year either. To be fair to those calling the Dolphins the leagues biggest losers, they have the youngest team in the league, the least amount of experience, an offensive line that has two rookies and big question marks, and a defensive system that is unknown. Will they be that bad?
In a perfect world the Miami Dolphins would make the playoffs and give the Patriots a run for their money. The world isn’t perfect and the Miami Dolphins are far from it. Reality tells us that the holes, the youth, the question marks all add up to a poor showing this season. That is o.k. Miami is rebuilding and they expect to have bad games and no playoffs in 2019. They will fight, they will battle, they will learn. It will be tough.
There are two lines of thinking when it comes to the fan base. Winning eight games would be horrible. Finishing the season with the worst record in the NFL would be horrible unless you are on the “Tank for Tua” campaign and then it will be a perfect season. Somewhere in the middle is where this will land. If Brian Flores gets this team to eight wins, Dolphins fans should rejoice as though they won the Super Bowl. In that case, they found a legitimate head coach. If they get the first pick, then they probably did exactly what everyone thought they would do.
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Personally, there are reasons to believe that this team could win more than most expect. Here are the predictions for this season.
Sept. 8th: Baltimore
Loss: The Ravens are tough to play. The Dolphins are still moving pieces around and this game will show how far they have to go. (NOTE: It would help if I actually checked to see where this game is being played). SHEESH!
Sept. 15th: New England
Loss: The Patriots lose in Miami but it would be surprising given the state of the two teams that the trend continues this year.
Sept. 22nd @ Dallas
Loss: The Cowboys are going to be a tough team this year. They have a very good defense and a solid offense that could be really good. Tough road game for the Dolphins.
Sept. 29th: Los Angeles Chargers
Loss: The Chargers are going to threaten the Chiefs for the AFC West. They don’t play well on the East coast, especially in Miami but the offense is simply too good to think that Miami will pull out a win.
Oct. 6-7: BYE – While the Dolphins can’t lose this week, I do believe that this will be the week that they hand over the team to Josh Rosen to finish out the season. If the Dolphins do indeed start the season 0-4, then Ryan Fitzpatrick needs to be benched.
Oct. 13: Washington Redskins
Win: The Redskins are a mess on both sides of the ball. They will likely be rolling out rookie Dwayne Haskins by this time and we could see a Rosen/Haskins battle coming out of the Dolphins bye week.
Oct. 20: at Buffalo Bills
Loss: The Bills are expected to be the 2nd placed team in the AFC East. There is no love between these two clubs and typically the Dolphins split with their rivals when they are not caving to them late in the season.
Oct. 28: at Pittsburgh (MNF)
Loss: Pittsburgh is tough to play anywhere but they are really good in the national spotlight and at home. This game will be tough for the Dolphins.
Nov. 3: New York Jets
Loss: The Jets believe that Adam Gase will be able to field an innovative offensive system but Dolphins fans know who innovative he was. His return to Miami will be with the hopes of giving the team a big middle finger salute but the Dolphins will be doing the same to their former coach, at least those that still remain from last season. Still, this is going to be a tough game full of emotions and it will be a tough win for Miami.
Nov. 10: at Indianapolis Colts
Loss: Prior to the retirement of Andrew Luck there was no way that I would predict a win but I’m not sold on Jacoby Brisett being that great. Chad O’Shea and Brian Flores know him well from his time in New England and I think that they will be able to throw a lot of looks at him defensively. O’Shea’s offense should be starting to get better but I’m not sure it will be enough. This will be a lot closer than it would have been.
Nov. 17: Buffalo Bills
Loss: Miami splitting with their rival would be great and I think the Dolphins could beat the Bills in Miami. The Bills could easily overlook the Dolphins but I think the Bills will be a better team than most believe.
Nov. 24: at Cleveland
Loss: This is interesting because the Browns are now the NFL darlings and everyone thinks they are going to be contenders in the playoffs. I will believe it when I see it but I still think Miami loses.
Dec. 1: Philadelphia Eagles
Loss: The Eagles are good on both sides of the ball and while they don’t play great on the road, they are still a much better team than the Dolphins.
Dec. 8: at New York Jets
Win: The Dolphins play well in New York and this year’s 10th anniversary of the DolfansNYC MetLife Takeover event is going to be electric and yes, the players can hear the fans who take up almost two full upper stadium sections.
Dec. 15: at New York Giants
Win: The Dolphins will likely stay in New York for the back-to-back games at Metlife and the Giants are not very good. This could be a good game for Miami.
Dec. 22: Cincinnati Bengals
Win: If there is a team that is considered to be worse than the Miami Dolphins, it just might be the Bengals. Now being coached by former Dolphins quarterback coach Zac Taylor, the Dolphins should be able to pull this one out.
Dec. 29: at New England
Loss: A wrap to the season takes Miami North in late December to face the Patriots. That’s all that needs to be said.
While I have predicted the Dolphins will go 4-12. Beating the Jets twice and the Bills once would improve that record obviously. I also think that they will play the Colts tough as well but without knowing what exactly the Dolphins are going to run scheme wise it is too hard to call. We don’t know what kind of team the Colts are going to have this year either and some predict they could finish near the bottom of the league as well.
Miami could surprise people this year if the players can elevate their game. They are a team that most other teams will overlook and that could play to their advantage. Brian Flores wants a physical football team and if he can get the players to buy into what he is teaching, the Dolphins have the ability to surprise a team or two.