The 2021 AFC Conference appears to be a crowded field — just try your best to piece together which seven teams will be playing in the postseason and marvel at the handful of teams to be left out of the dance and their quality as franchises. The Dolphins learned this lesson all too well last year, finishing 8th in the conference despite finishing the season with 10 wins.
And now the Dolphins are looking to get over the hump; but they’re facing a crowded path to get there. And the folks over at NFL.com didn’t seem too inspired at the Dolphins’ chances. NFL.com pieced together a panel of accomplished personalities within their network to put together their own respective playoff rankings and then subsequently create a set of consensus rankings. The participants included:
Brian Baldinger, Judy Battista, Jeremy Bergman, Ali Bhanpuri, Tom Blair, Gil Brandt, David Carr, Brooke Cersosimo, Jeffri Chadiha, Gennaro Filice, Chase Goodbread, Marcas Grant, DeAngelo Hall, Dan Hanzus, Maurice Jones-Drew, Shaun O’Hara, Dan Parr, Kevin Patra, Scott Pioli, Adam Rank, Chad Reuter, Gregg Rosenthal, Marc Ross, Adam Schein, Marc Sessler, Nick Shook, Matt Smith, Joe Thomas and Lance Zierlein.
Nearly 30 people. And of those nearly 30 participants in the panel, only 9 selected the Dolphins to make the playoffs at all. One, Marc Sessler, picked the Dolphins to win the AFC East. Two, Judy Battista and Jeffri Chadiha, picked the Dolphins to finish as the AFC’s No. 5 seed. Two more still, former NFL general manager Scott Pioli and Jeremy Bergman, chose Miami to finish as the No. 6 seed. And four panelists picked Miami to finish as the No. 7 seed: Lance Zierlein, Maurice Jones-Drew, Gregg Rosenthal and Marcas Grant.
The other 20 omitted the Dolphins, leaving Miami ranked by consensus as the No. 9 team in the conference.
How does Miami get there in reality? Tua Tagovailoa is no better than the irregular performer he was in 2020. And the team’s offensive line suffers the same fate, showing no growth from a 2020 group that was irregular at best. The hope in South Florida is that these outcomes can be avoided and that the team’s coaching can continue to build players into better versions of themselves year over year. And if that happens up front and with Tagovailoa, it is difficult to see a 9th-place finish in the conference for Miami this season.