Dolphins' 2024 season is already lost according to one depressing stat

What a fun season everyone's having in Miami. Barely three weeks ago, the Dolphins were title contenders and considered one of the more fun, watchable teams in the NFL. They had a franchise quarterback, star playmakers, an innovative coach, and a defense that was good enough to survive. The pieces – and expectations – were all there.

Then Tua Tagovailoa suffered another concussion in a home blowout loss to the Bills, and things have been in free fall ever since. It doesn't sound like Tagovailoa's coming back any time soon, and the Dolphins' QB situation is a disaster; you know things are bad when the idea of trading for Bryce Young is considered a good idea.

Things have gone from bad to "get me off this ride right now" in a span of, like, eight days, and it doesn't seem like things are getting better anytime soon.

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ESPN's stat people never miss an opportunity to make you feel worse about your favorite sports teams, so of course they played the hits this week with their latest NFL Football Power Index (FPI) ratings. We'll get to what they mean in a second, but just be warned: the Dolphins are very bad. In fact, the Dolphins are quite literally the worst team in football apparently.

ESPN thinks the Dolphins may end up being the worst team in football this year

FPI is, broadly speaking, a stat that measures team strength and then uses that measurement to forecast future results. For better or for worse, it aims to combine both past performance and future outcomes (I know, I know) to predict how teams are going to look over an entire season.

And if it takes you a long time to find the Dolphins on this list, I can't blame you. But there they are, at the very bottom, behind the Carolina Panthers. Somehow, before the first month of the season even ended, the Dolphins have less hope than the Panthers.

If you ever needed definitive, statistical proof that employing Tim Boyle is how you tank your season, here it is. The Bills are the best team in the NFL and the Dolphins are the worst. Really great stuff. At least the Patriots are terrible too.