I dunno, staying relatively healthy would certainly help.

 

And avoiding injury prone players in free agency this time would help that.

 

My view is they are 2-3 years and a head coaching change away from being a playoff team.

Philbin is a mediocre head coach and there just isn't enough talent on the roster for a mediocre head coach to lead this team to the playoffs.
I do believe that a great head coach like Belichick could take this team to at least the first round of the playoffs. He has the ability get the best out of even average players. Philbin isn't able to do that and I just don't see this team being any better than 7-9 next year with Philbin as the HC.

It is a shame Ross forced Philbin on the fans for one more season. He should have made the change after the 2014 season and the new HC could have implemented his system next year and the Dolphins might have been able to make a legitimate playoff run in 2016.

Now the new HC will have to install his system in the 2016 season and we will probably have to wait until 2017 before the Dolphins make a serious run at the playoffs.

 

There is nothing about this team that should make anyone think it's playoffs-bound with any certainty. Contrast this team with Seattle, Green Bay, New England, Dallas, and Indy, for example, and consider how much certainty fans of those teams should have that they'll make the playoffs. With the Dolphins it could easily go either way. With those other teams it'd take something totally unexpected to derail them.

 

not sure how much certainty dallas could have they are far from a slam dunk every year. they were .500 or worse for 4 straight seasons. indy is hardly a slam dunk as well, if houston and the titans can improve it wont be a cake walk for them especially since most of their team is garbage.

 

Does losing seven DBs, 7 LBs, three OL, a TE, and a couple RBs for multiple games all in the same season count as unexpected?

That would be Jones, Finnegan, Taylor, Davis, Thomas, Delmas, and Wilson in the secondary. Ellerbe, Wheeler, Misi, Jordan, McCain, Jenkins, and Freeney at LB. Albert and Pouncey, our best OL, Smith too. Moreno played 1 full game, Thomas was banged up, Clay battled injury all year.

Yeah I'd say that qualifies as somewhat unexpected.

 

Most of these guys suck dude.

 

At the end of the season we were an 8-8 team, with no playoffs. Being that nothing has changed - no draft, no free agents, no coaching changes - I'd say we are still not a playoff team until something changes.

 

We will be in it until the final two games of the season.

And Mr. Clutch will puke all over himself with the season on the line.

Also, unless we pull off some major moves in the right direction between now and day 1 of the season(unlikely), not enough corrections have been made to be a playoff team.

 

If we fix the offensive line, then there is a chance. There are too many decisions this offseason to predict anything.

 

Yep..

Not only am I done predicting any kind of playoffs for this team.....I refuse to even predict record.

If someone asks me....what will the Dolphins record be in 2015...Imma say...."Eh..."

And they will be "Eh"...till they arent

 

I was thinking about this today, actually... I'm done predicting Dolphins records, even though I was never that optimistic to begin with. It's just painful knowing that even though there is hope for us to get better each and every year, something always happens during the season to shatter it.

 

No doubt...I mean...we gotta be the only team in the NFL w/o pro bowlers at every position...depth included.

 

Been beating this drum for awhile, you won't find solid answers.

Best I've gotten, is something along the lines of, "a coach and gm can both suck and the team still be average". No explanation how mind you, just that its possible and I'm probably slow for not realizing it.

 

Pretty amazing that with a team where "most of those guys suck" and a HC that shouldn't be in the NFL, a team goes 8-8 in the toughest division in football. Not saying 8-8 is good...before the trolls chime in...but the sky isn't falling either.

We're pretty close to playoff caliber...just a few key players away IMHO.

 

Mostly back ups at that. If we had a good back up tackle we'd have been in the playoffs.

 

A team with a loosing record made it to the playoffs this past season.

Indy played a schedule that included...

Jacksonville, Houston, and Tennessee each twice.

You can make it to the playoffs and still suck.....

 

We were 8-8. That's the very definition of average. Maybe you don't know this, but average =/= suck.

 

I predict we will kick at least one field goal this year.

 

You know what would suck? Tannehill playing well enough for us to keep getting bounced early in the playoffs and we get Marvin Lewis'd for a decade. :D

 

Or a better HC away. I think it's more the way the players are used rather than the quality of the players that's holding us back.

Since Philbin is staying for at least another year, one good draft and luck with no key injuries might get us in.

 

And...so, thats why you can have a sucky coach and lack some players and still be average.

 

And I predict after said Field Goal...at least one person in the Game Day thread will go..."

"Fist Pump"

 

Suck?
That would actually be an upgrade given the past decade+.

 

Safe bets. Anything else and we're spinning our wheels.

 

Which would mean the GM didn't suck. All but 4 teams lack some players.

The words being used are important.

 

It would keep a mediocre coach around when we have a QB to take us all the way. I'd rather go for broke than be middling. A plateau slightly higher than now is still a plateau. You.d take a decade of no playoff wins? We already have that while Tannys career wastes away

 

The dried tears on my #99 Taylor jersey and sleepless November nights beg to differ.

 

True. But Joe Flacco has played at Andy's level, and they won it all with a much lesser talented team in 2012. And have gotten closer almost every year. The Ravens would love the talent the Bengals have/had.

We might have our Franchise QB. If you are saying the team being relegated to first round knockouts every year doesn't suck, well, I want to shoot higher.

 

2008 was one of those first round exit years. And one of the best (sadly) in my career as a post Marino dolfan.

 

Flacco's a much better playoff QB... Dalton wilts in pressure situations.

 

Bump when free agency and draft are over.

 

Bump when free agency and draft are over

 

Through his first 3 years no he wasn't. He was pretty bad.

 

Toughest division in football??? LMFAO

our division is horrible.

 

Theyre better than the guys who replaced them, and seeing as how we went 8-8 despite all the injuries it's fair to say that with an average number of injuries we could have won a couple more games, no?

 

welcome to the NFL