Miami Dolphins fans can be a pessimistic bunch. I count myself among the pessimists; too many years have passed with high expectations, and I only see the Dolphins falter on the field. That’s why when I went over the Dolphins’ schedule on my YouTube channel the other day, I left with low expectations for the squad and predicted a 7-10 record for 2025.
While I’m somewhat optimistic about the long-term team building for Miami, I believe in the short term, the team has gotten a bit worse than last season, and the schedule contains some tough matchups. Not to mention, you have to factor in the perplexing losses like the loss to the Titans on Monday Night Football a couple of years ago. These are games that, on paper, the Dolphins should win, but in reality, you know they will find a way to blow it.
The NFL schedule release means more than learning where and when your team will face off with their opponents. It’s generally exciting to see what each franchise’s social media team has cooked up, and it brings with it a sense of excitement as the season grows closer, but you can learn a lot about how the NFL feels about certain teams by where they are scheduled.
Take, for example, the Tennessee Titans and number 1 overall pick Cam Ward. When the NFL is confident in a team or its star, it will want to show them off as much as possible. With zero primetime games in 2025, that tells me that the NFL doesn’t believe the Titans will be very competitive and that Cam Ward is not enough of a draw to put them in primetime anyway.
What this means for the Miami Dolphins is that the NFL has given them six nationally televised games. These consist of five primetime slots, two Thursday night games, one against the Buffalo Bills and the other against the Ravens, two Monday night games with matchups against the Jets and Steelers, and a Sunday night contest against the Cincinnati Bengals.
The sixth nationally televised game is in Week 11, when the Miami Dolphins take on the Washington Commanders in Madrid at 9:30 a.m. Eastern. In short, the NFL believes in the Miami Dolphins; they think they will be competitive and want national fans to be aware of them should the Dolphins make the playoffs.
But don’t just take my word for it, ESPN’s Adam Schefter feels the same way, as he said on his podcast.
“Six of the first eight games are against teams that didn’t make the playoffs last year,” said Schefter. “So there’s an opportunity for Miami to make some noise in a season that they have to win, the other thing is the league obviously feels pretty good about the Dolphins because they scheduled them in prime time 5 times, so the league is telling us we like the Miami Dolphins.”
As Adam Schefter pointed out, the beginning of the season is set up for Miami to get out to a hot start, though I will say that the back half will offer more of a challenge. Games against the Ravens, Bills, Commanders, and Bengals will test whether the Dolphins deserve to be in the playoffs based on their performance.
It feels like they are possibly being set up to break our hearts with another late-season slump. However, it could also give them a chance to rid themselves of the narrative of being soft and unable as the weather grows colder. If I try to be in the mindset of an optimist, at least someone as optimistic as the schedule maker, I can talk myself into the Dolphins going 10-7. Will that be enough to make the playoffs? That remains to be seen, but the NFL is confident, so maybe I should be too.
