ESPN’s Football Power Index updates Dolphins playoff probabilities

ESPN’s Football Power Index updates Dolphins playoff probabilities

The Miami Dolphins have to be thrilled with their positioning through the first six weeks of the 2020 NFL season. Amid the untraditional offseason and a youthful roster that offers plenty of experience and still needs significant help at certain spots, Miami is sitting at 3-3 entering into their bye week with presumably only minor injuries to tend to and address. Best of all, Miami’s schedule through the next 6 games is more forgiving than the previous six, meaning the Dolphins may be able to align themselves well to be a contender for a postseason berth.

How do the odds favor the Dolphins at this point in time? Not great — but also reasonably well when you consider how many of the football models fancied the Dolphins just a month and a half ago.

For example, ESPN’s Football Power Index has updated the seed projections for the AFC and NFC playoff field after the Sunday slate of action and the Dolphins are plenty in the thick of things as the season braces to roll into November.

Miami is currently ranked with an 8% chance to win the AFC East. Should the Buffalo Bills fall to the Kansas City Chiefs tonight when the teams square off at 5PM EST, Miami will be one game out of the top spot in the division (and a 3rd & 9 stop with 4 minutes left versus the Bills away from possibly holding a game and a half lead over the AFC East) through six weeks. Alas, Byron Jones didn’t play but a few snaps versus the Bills and Miami couldn’t get a stop. So the Dolphins must forge forward and take advantage of their next six games in order to position themselves accordingly before the Chiefs, Patriots and Bills pop up on Miami’s schedule in December.

But between an 8% chance to win the division and nearly 10% odds to be the 7-seed, Miami has viable options and avenues to challenge for postseason play. They can take a day or two to stew over it during their bye week this week — but then Miami must return with urgency, ready to tackle the opportunities that await them over the final 10 games to buck the odds and make the playoffs.