Why Miami Dolphins history should have predicted this season’s outcome
By Brian Miller
The 2021 season isn’t over, yet, and the Miami Dolphins will have a shot to turn their season around and make a run for post-season conversation. Still, if we would have paid attention to history, this season shouldn’t have been unexpected.
No one entered training camp this year saying the Miami Dolphins were going to be one of the worst teams in the AFC East, let alone the AFC. Yet here we are. Scratching our heads, hurling expletives at our televisions, and reminding ourselves that it is just a game.
Two wins in a row has brought some hope. Thursday night showed Dolphins fans exactly what level of talent we actually have. As a result, we are looking at the next four games with the realization that we can win four and maybe six.
All that being said, we should have expected this. We should have known. The Miami Dolphins are a cursed franchise and the only thing that consistently happens is our hopes go up and get ripped back down.
2003
The last Miami Dolphins head coach with a winning record was Dave Wannstedt. In 2003, he led the Miami Dolphins to a 10-6 record but like Brian Flores last year, missed the playoffs. The following year, we expected a repeat of 10-6 if not better. Instead, the Dolphins finished 4-12 and Wannstedt resigned during the season.
2008
Dolphins fans endured one of the worst stretches in franchise history that included a 1-15 season in 2007. They went through Nick Saban and Cam Cameron but ushered in a new era with Bill Parcells and Tony Sparano.
The Dolphins didn’t disappoint and were one of the biggest surprises in NFL history having gone from worst to one of the best. Miami’s 11-5 record was good enough to make the playoffs for the first time since 2001.
Miami entered the 2009 season ready to fire on all cylinders. Everything was good to go and Miami had finally turned the corner. They finished 7-9 as monumental disappointments.
2016
Through the remainder of the Tony Sparano years and the Joe Philbin years, the Dolphins couldn’t produce better than an 8-8 record. But in 2016, the Dolphins added Adam Gase and in his first season, he led the team to 10-6 and the post season.
Gase was able to turn Ryan Tannehill into something positive but at the end of the year, it was Matt Moore at the helm after Tannehill hurt his knee.
Tannehill was back in 2017 and fans expected the Dolphins to challenge the Patriots for the division but he blew his knee out again and Gase turned to Jay Cutler who couldn’t care less about being on the football field. The Dolphins in 2017 finished 6-10 and Gase was never getting close to 10 wins again. He was gone after the 2018 season.
2020
After an expected bad season in 2019, the Dolphins were supposed to continue the rebuild but Brian Flores got his team to play much harder than anyone expected. Miami finished the season 10-6 and narrowly missed the playoffs.
Miami fans obviously, expected this season to be at least an 11 win year but that has not been the case and 10 weeks into the season Miami finds themselves in the same position they were in after the last four 10 plus wins. At the bottom wondering what went wrong.
Maybe this one will be different. Maybe this is a hiccup. Maybe this one won’t be a part of Dolphins history as another coach he couldn’t replicate the success from one season to the next. Maybe.