This year’s NFL season will be unlike any in memory. There will be ups and downs and the ever-looming presence of a global pandemic playing out in the background. Early returns on COVID-19 testing across the league are promising, indicating that the league and players have found proper protocols and discipline to see this season get started on schedule.
But what will the results on the field look like? The offseason preparations are effectively the wild, wild west this year — players are scrambling to make up for lost time and the NFL is just weeks away from the first scheduled game and have had two days (three today) of padded practices.
The lack of reps could not have come for a worse time for the Dolphins. This is a young, hungry team — but with so many new pieces they desperately need as many reps as possible to help establish chemistry between the old and new pieces alike.
Forecasting this season is a chore because of all the unknown — but USA TODAY has done exactly that. The Miami Dolphins? The forecast is calling for a 3rd-place finish in the AFC East, a full four games ahead of the hated New York Jets (and three games out of first place in the AFC East).
With NFL training camps getting started, it's time to roll out record projections 2.0, courtesy of @ByNateDavis. https://t.co/gHnqYuYVIy pic.twitter.com/XlG7UJPOx9
— USA TODAY Sports (@usatodaysports) August 19, 2020
The Jets have lost notable talent this summer — leaving them primed to finish in the cellar when you add in the worst coach in the division in Adam Gase. For Miami, the team would finish outside of the top-10 teams in the conference; which would be circumstances that see the ball bounce against the Dolphins’ fortunes several times despite the 2-game improvement in wins from 2019.
On the bright side, the forecast also calls for the Texans to finish the season at 7-9 — the Dolphins own their first and second round picks in the 2021 NFL Draft. If the USA TODAY forecast becomes reality, Miami would own two top-12 picks in each of the first two rounds next April. But that is a ways away, and we have a season to play. Here’s hoping the Dolphins can overachieve versus expectations, much like they did last year. Doing so would give Miami important games in late December for the second straight year, although this time around for a very different set of reasons.