The bad news? The Miami Dolphins are now one team closer to owning the NFL’s longest playoff win drought. And by the end of the day today, they may be yet another team closer to the top spot on that list. The Dolphins, who last won a playoff game in the 2000 Wild Card round, have gone two full decades without a single playoff victory. Over that timeframe, the Dolphins only have four playoff appearances: 2000, 2001, 2008 and 2016. That’s what makes Miami’s missing of the 2020 postseason such a drain — the Dolphins haven’t had many chances to compete on the postseason stage; and with 10 wins they certainly deserved the chance to suit up.
But 2020 proved to be a cruel year for Miami’s fate — the entire seven-team (seven!) playoff field in the AFC had 11+ victories, including two teams that entered the postseason with longer playoff droughts than Miami:
The Buffalo Bills and the Cleveland Browns.
The Bills secured a 27-24 victory over Indianapolis yesterday afternoon, ending a 25 year drought of playoff wins for one of Miami’s arch-rivals. And the Browns, who have not won a playoff game since 1994, are up next tonight against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Should the Browns win, Miami would sit third on the list of active playoff droughts behind the Cincinnati Bengals (30) and the Detroit Lions (29). The good news? Miami is much closer than both of those teams to ending their postseason misery. Miami finished this season at 10-6, where as the Bengals and Lions combined to win 9 games in 2020. In 2019, Miami won a paltry 5 games and still the Lions and Bengals combined could not surpass Miami’s win total.
But these aren’t the teams you want to aspire being your rivals across the league. The Lions and Bengals have been bottom-tier NFL franchises for quite some time — effectively the three decades they’ve both gone without a playoff win. And while Miami isn’t on that level, they’re still much to close to the top of this list for comfort; even if the Browns lost to the Steelers this evening in Pittsburgh.
Hopefully Miami can avoid the slow start that killed their 2020 playoff aspirations in 2021 — then and only then can the team focus on ending this abysmal dry spell of postseason success.