From lunchtime Saturday to dinnertime Sunday, the Miami Dolphins’ chances of making a third consecutive trip to the playoffs went from a pipe dream to perfectly plausible.
After slapping around the hapless Cleveland Browns 20-3 for their sixth win in eight games — and getting some much-needed help from the Bengals and Giants — the Dolphins (8-8) have a straightforward Week 18 playoff path.
They’re in if they:
~ Beat the Jets
~ Have the resting Chiefs beat the desperate Broncos
If both happen, the Dolphins will then make a fifth trip in three years to Buffalo, where the Dolphins last won in 2016.
“For the first time in my life, I’m going to be a big Chiefs fan — a HUGE Chiefs fan,” Dolphins defensive tackle Calais Campbell said postgame Sunday.
“If it does happen, look out. We’re coming.”
Miami Dolphins Beat Cleveland Browns, Extend Season
Their enthusiasm is justified. The Dolphins were one of 10 teams with six or more losses after Week 9 — which is usually a death sentence for a football season.
Teams four or more games under-.500 at the season’s midway point historically are far more likely to get a top-five pick than make the playoffs.
But the Dolphins didn’t sandbag. They’ve gone 6-2 since, which deserves praise. The other nine teams with six or more losses eight weeks ago have gone a combined 14-50 since.
Hints of improvement on both sides of the ball — not to mention a favorable schedule to finish the season — was enough to convince Dolphins decision-makers prior to the deadline not to trade vets like Campbell, but instead stay the course with the belief things could turn around.
They did.
The turning point in the Dolphins’ season came in Week 10, when they beat the Rams 23-15 on Monday Night Football for what’s probably Mike McDaniel’s best win since 2022.
“As a team, you’re embarrassed of your 2-6 record being on national television,” McDaniel said.
“I challenged guys to own that and do something about it and, and they really have since.”
Certainly, the Dolphins still have doubters — justifiably so. Their strength of victory (.291) is the worst of any of either conference’s top eight seeds. They’re 1-4 against projected 2024 playoff teams; 7-4 against everyone else.
And they weren’t particularly competitive in either of their last two games against teams over .500.
But on the flip side, they’re a Week 18 win over the terrible Jets away from a fifth straight winning season — including the last three with McDaniel as coach.
McDaniel deserves credit for a number of important things.
He kept a veteran locker room together during the season’s darkest days. He made some tough, important personnel decisions.
And behind the scenes over the last three months, his staff diligently developed QB Snoop Huntley so that when his number was called again Sunday, he was a much improved quarterback compared to the one that struggled through his previous three starts with the Dolphins.
Huntley accounted for 258 of the Dolphins’ 280 yards of offense and both of their touchdowns Sunday in the most efficient game of his career.
“I actually know what the motions [are now],” Huntley said with a grin. “I have a good feel of the plays. A couple of weeks in the offense makes a difference.”
Certainly, the Dolphins want their QB1 back next Sunday against the Jets. Tua Tagovailoa missed his fifth game of the season after an existing hip injury got worse throughout the course of last week. The team is hopeful he can play in the finale.
But even if Tagovailoa is unavailable, the Dolphins should have enough between Huntley and a lights-out defense to beat a Jets team that has lost 10 of 12.
On Sunday, the Dolphins limited the Browns to 3.6 yards per play and three points on three red-zone drives. In the middle of it all? Campbell, the 38-year-old defensive tackle who signed with Miami to win a title in 2024 — a dream would have long died without remarkable play by one of the NFL’s oldest players.
“He’s one of the absolute reasons why we’re in a situation where we are still alive for postseason play,” McDaniel said. “We get an opportunity to play one guaranteed game and if we take care of business, we have an opportunity to keep going in the season, which has been the whole motive and point of trying to turn this thing around.”