Let’s be honest: It hasn’t been a whole lotta fun being a Miami Dolphins fan in the 21st century. Sure the team might have flirted with a run into the Playoffs now and again over the last two decades, but more often than not, fans looked back on each season with the team posting a losing record and a lot more questions than answers.
But was there a bit of a shift last season? Most pundits thought so, and the Dolphins were mightily unlucky not to sneak into a Wildcard position with a 10-6 record. Any improvement on that record in 2021, which features the new 17-game regular season format, will surely be enough for the Dolphins fans to taste postseason football for the first time since 2016.
Can they do it? Experts and sportsbooks are thoroughly undecided. The latest sports betting odds from 888 Sport online puts the Dolphins at 6/5 (+120) to make the Playoffs. That’s almost a coin flip, although the odds do lean slightly towards missing out. Of course, you can back the Dolphins at +2500 to win it all at Super Bowl LVI. And while many fans will think that touches upon miracle territory, it’s still a ‘respectful’ price from bookmakers. Teams – plenty of them – have won the Super Bowl at higher odds before.
Dolphins open season against New England
Super Bowl LVI is a long way off, of course. And Brian Flores and his team will know that they must concentrate on getting a good start (Miami opens its season against the Patriots on September 12th) to campaign before any ambitions of playing football in late January and February can be realized.
The good news is that most pundits have predicted a winning season for the Dolphins, although, as with the betting, it’s touch and go whether the team can get enough wins on the board to grab a spot in the Playoffs. We have seen forecasts for the Dolphins having a 9-8 season (not good enough for the Playoffs), 10-7 (a small chance, but still unlikely) and 11-6 (highly likely).
But a lot needs to go right for the Dolphins. And while the preseason warmup games are not always an indication of how the season will pan out, there were both positives and negatives for Flores and his staff to mull over before the opening game with the Patriots.
Tagovailoa has a big season ahead of him
Much of the burden will be put upon the young shoulders of Tua Tagovailoa. The quarterback shared playing time in 2020 with Ryan Fitzpatrick, and it helped Tagovailoa ease into the big leagues for his rookie season. It hasn’t been smooth sailing for far, and he will know that he will not have the luxury of the veteran Fitzpatrick (who signed for Washington) this season.
But for Tagovailoa and the rest of the team, it is clear the potential is there to build something solid around Miami football again. Achieving consecutive winning seasons for the first time since 2003 is the first order of business. And making the Playoffs would be fantastic. But after all that, the key is to create an organization capable of competing every season over a sustained period. We haven’t seen that since towards the end of the Dan Marino era. Can the good times return to Miami? We shall soon find out.