When the Miami Dolphins went all in on tanking in 2019, it was the result of years of being in a competitive limbo. Miami won the AFC East in 2008 with an 11-5 record, but lost to the Baltimore Ravens in the Wild Card Round of the playoffs.
Chad Pennington who was cast off from the rival New York Jets in favor of Brett Farve won comeback player of the year and to make the story that much sweeter he defeated his former team in their home stadium on the last night of the season to win the division and punch the Dolphins’ ticket to the playoffs.
For a fan who was too young to see the glory years of Dan Marino, this season stands out as the most exciting season of my Dolphins fandom. We’ll ignore the fact that this was only possible due to Tom Brady being knocked out for the season in week 1.
Instead of setting up years of fielding consistently competitive teams, it was the beginning of a 10-year stretch that saw the Dolphins finish between 6-10 and 10-6 every season. During that time, they made the playoffs once and were easily dispatched by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Wild Card round. Tony Sparano, Joe Philbin, and Adam Gase each brought their own unique styles to the team, but the results were the same: mediocrity.
So after a 7-9 season, Miami fired Gase and hired Brian Flores and began to tank in hopes of securing a high draft pick, likely to turn into Tua Tagovailoa. They also traded standout players like offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil and safety Minkah Fitzpatrick to obtain draft capital to escape the .500 win percentage bubble.
Ultimately, despite a late-season surge that saw Miami win five of their final nine games, the Dolphins were able to secure Tua with the fifth pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. After two more decent seasons from Brian Flores, the team and coach had a messy divorce that resulted in a lawsuit that isn’t the point of this article. As ugly as that situation was, it would allow the team to hire Mike McDaniel, an offensive wonderkid from the San Francisco 49ers.
With their new coach, the Dolphins would go all in on winning now with trades for Tyreek Hill and Jalen Ramsey and the free agent signing of Jonnu Smith. Despite these moves, the Dolphins have been unable to win a playoff game during McDaniel’s time in Miami. Though they would finally match their 2008 win total of 11 in 2023, unfortunately, they were unable to build off of that momentum heading into 2024 due to injuries to Tua, finishing 8-9, mediocre once more.
Now it feels as if their window of opportunity is closing; trade rumors are swirling around Jalen Ramsey and Jonnu Smith. Tyreek Hill might be stuck with the Dolphins due to his monstrous contract, but if it weren’t for that, he would likely also be on the trade block as well.
The rebuild has only brought the Dolphins back to where they started. You would be hard pressed to find anyone who thinks Miami will play above the .500 mark this season. If they are serious about trading Smith and Ramsey, then it feels like they are closer to tanking than competing, a disappointing development in what many thought would be a year that saw the Dolphins go all in.
Prior to the trade rumors, I had stated in multiple blogs that Chris Grier and Mike McDaniel were fighting for their jobs in 2025. It seems that the urgency the fans feel is not reflected by ownership. It would be unfair to expect a hugely successful run from this squad, and as such, I now believe that Grier and McDaniel are safe unless things go wildly off the rails.
So the Dolphins and their fans once again find themselves in NFL limbo, football purgatory, not good enough to compete seriously and not bad enough to hope for a high draft pick. Just mediocre, same as they’ve been since 2008, and same as they will be unless something drastic changes.
