The Miami Dolphins have one game left to play this season. And with the New England Patriots hosting Miami in Week 17 with playoff seeding on the line, it doesn’t seem likely that the Dolphins are going to get anything other than the Patriots’ absolute best shot. Given how New England’s offense has struggled as of late, it’s likely we won’t see a repeat of the Week 2 rout from when these two teams first clashed this season. But the Patriots will be focused — and that’s not great news for the Dolphins.
One thing Miami can root for with enthusiasm? The Kansas City Chiefs! The Chiefs will have the opportunity in the 1PM slate of contests during Week 17 to lock the Houston Texans out of the 3-seed in the AFC playoff picture with a win over the Chargers. Should that take place, the Dolphins will then shift their attention to a looming playoff matchup between the Texans and Miami’s AFC East rival, the Buffalo Bills.
The best case scenario for the Dolphins is to see the Texans lose in the Wild Card round as the 4-seed in the AFC playoffs. Such a decision would keep the Texans inside the top-24 picks overall. And depending on the other results in the Wild Card round, Houston could even pick as high as 21. How does that happen? Every team with record worse than Houston must win in the wild card round. The Tennessee Titans would need to defeat the Chiefs (for the record, that is an outcome we’ve already seen happen this season). The NFC East division winner (as of now, the Eagles) would have to defeat the NFC West representative for the 5-seed (as of now, the Seahawks).
Should the Dolphins see this materialize, the team could see their third and final 1st-round pick of 2020 land at 21 in the final order. That is, of course, provided the Ravens also beat the Steelers to keep Pittsburgh out of the postseason.
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