Strength of victory is an NFL tiebreaker defined as the cumulative record of opponents defeated by an NFL team. It also accounts for the cumulative lack of respect teams have for the Miami Dolphins, according to Jeff Howe of The Athletic.
“While they’re 20-14 with gaudy offensive numbers in head coach Mike McDaniel’s first two seasons, they’re also 0-2 in the playoffs,” Howe wrote. “They’re fun and McDaniel is doing some innovative things in Miami but the feeling among rival teams is the Dolphins need to start proving it against higher-quality competition before they’ll be viewed as a threat in January.”
Last season, Miami went 11-6 and secured the No. 6 seed in the AFC playoffs. However, teams the Dolphins defeated combined to go just 67-120 (.358), the worst winning percentage among the 14 NFL playoff teams in 2023.
During the regular season, Miami was just 1-5 against teams that went on to make the playoffs, their only win a 22-20 home victory over Dallas in Week 16. The Dolphins were 10-1 against non-playoff teams, including a 70-20 win over Denver. Their season ended in a Wild Card loss on a frigid field in Kansas City.
The Dolphins have gone 23 seasons without a playoff victory, the longest active streak in the league.
McDaniel, who this week signed a contract extension that parallels the new contract of starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, through 2028, knows that creampuffs don’t exist in the NFL. After a shaky start to Tagovailoa’s career, Miami certainly has the right leadership in place.
“We shouldn’t feel entitled to high opinions from the masses,” McDaniel said after the team’s first loss to the Chiefs in Germany last season.
But Tagovailoa is entering the prime of his career and the Dolphins are still arguably the fastest team in the NFL. The window to win games against the NFL’s best teams won’t last forever. And Miami can erase that narrative right out the gates in 2024.
Two of the team’s first three opponents – vs. Buffalo in Week 2 and at Seattle in Week 3 — made the playoffs last season. Miami opens at home against Jacksonville, which finished 9-8, barely missing the postseason, on Sunday (1 p.m. ET, CBS).