AFC power rankings: Do Miami Dolphins have playoff roster?

[DKphin]

Is this enough? (Getty Images)

The Dolphins made their way to the playoffs last season for the first time in eight years, a brilliant accomplishment after a 1-4 start and a 6-10 record the year before, and that feat automatically raises expectations for 2017.
“Next year nobody will care about all that,” coach Adam Gase said. “We’ll be 0-0 when we start that first week of the season and nobody will care what we did the year before.”

As Gase, Mike Tannenbaum and Chris Grier look toward a long-term progression, the team hasn’t been making massive offers to outside free agents this year. Their plan is to develop their own talent and keep costs fairly even across key areas, and that led to a quiet free agency. The team kept Andre Branch and Kenny Stills, and its main acquisition was linebacker Lawrence Timmons.
Is that enough to keep them in the playoffs? Yes. The other factor with Miami is health, which was brutal last year. If guys like Mike Pouncey, Reshad Jones and Ryan Tannehill come back strong from their injuries, those will essentially be roster additions as well. The Dolphins certainly would expect to be better than the Bills and Jets, though they’ve got a lot to prove when it comes to New England. Here’s where I see Miami in the AFC at this point:

1. Patriots
2. Raiders
3. Steelers
4. Dolphins
5. Titans
6. Chiefs
7. Broncos
8. Ravens
9. Bengals
10. Colts
11. Texans
12. Chargers
13. Jaguars
14. Bills
15. Jets
16. Browns

http://dailydolphin.blog.palmbeachp...nkings-do-miami-dolphins-have-playoff-roster/

 

[artdnj]

sure we do, we have a fairly strong roster but not sure we are strong enough to play with the big boys (NE) when it means everything. That would take some luck and the opposite of luck for the other top teams in the AFC. I feel we are closing the gap though.

 

[J. David Wannyheimer]

This is actually... a pretty good ranking, in my opinion.

Weirdly enough I like the Titans to win the AFCS next season. The big issue there is that Mike Mularkey is not a good coach, but they have quietly assembled some good football players and I think very highly of Mariota.

Everyone talks about Jameis Winston but in my opinion Mariota has already surpassed him with ease.

 

[DolphinDevil28]

I think we will after the draft. It ain't done yet.

Still need: G, DT, DE, LB and S.

 

[J. David Wannyheimer]

I'd add that the obvious wild card in this ranking is the final destination of Tony Romo. I think he would shoot Houston up the board into the top three in the AFC, while I don't think he moves the needle much for Denver. He'll be on IR by week five behind that line.

 

[artdnj]

and choke like usual in the end of the season when the game is on the line.

 

[VBCheeseGrater]

If we can have just a bit of luck with injuries, that will go a long way. Seems like we've been down on luck in that dept last few years, might be time for an upswing...or even reap the benefits of resting guys like pouncey late last year when they could have played, but risked further injury.

 

[Dsteve]

Room to the Texans would jump them to the 2-3 range until he gets hurt. Should be a hell of a two weeks.

 

[CalDolFan10x14]

If we would've asked this same question exactly one year ago, this would've been laughed off of Finheaven. It's amazing what Gase has done with this team in just one season.

 

[tay0365]

sure we do, we have a fairly strong roster but not sure we are strong enough to play with the big boys (NE) when it means everything. That would take some luck and the opposite of luck for the other top teams in the AFC. I feel we are closing the gap though.

I believe we do, out problem always seems when we play these guys, we are down many key players...Season ending injury seems to happen a bit too often to Miami.

It is not a coincidence that when Miami starting 5 on the O-line, with Tannehill behind center, Miami rarely loses, and also not a coincidence that last in 05, in the last game against a Pats team that needed to win to get home field through the playoffs, Miami beat them pretty easily.

 

[J. David Wannyheimer]

AFC 2017 Power Rankings:

1. New England
2-16. A lot of guys trying to get lucky


The good news is that the Cooks and Ealy moves genuinely look to me like the moves of a team looking to load up for one last 1-2 year push. The bad news is, it's a dynasty team that got better in the short term.

Nobody wants to go into the season thinking they got no shot to win the division or dethrone a stacked team, even if the consolation is that they lost some long term resources.

 

[BlueFin]

This is actually... a pretty good ranking, in my opinion.

Weirdly enough I like the Titans to win the AFCS next season. The big issue there is that Mike Mularkey is not a good coach, but they have quietly assembled some good football players and I think very highly of Mariota.

Everyone talks about Jameis Winston but in my opinion Mariota has already surpassed him with ease.

More than fair...I think the Steelers may be overated a bit.

 

[Snoop]

We're probably not better than the Chiefs

 

[39wildman]

these will be team fighting for that last 2 spot for playoff.right now I think they are all even.
1 n.e
2 pitt
3 oakland
4chiefs

dolphins
7. Broncos
8. Ravens
9. Bengals
titans
10. Colts
11. Texans
12. bills

 

[Digital]

IMHO, it is too early to rank. The draft makes a huge difference, and without plugging certain holes it's very hard to rank any team. For instance, we don't have any coverage LB's, so the strategy the Ravens used on us will still work ... and we paid $11M guaranteed to make sure it works this year and next year with Timmons in the lineup. Also, we have ZERO starting caliber guards. That means we will waste a dominant running back, Ajayi, with a new stench of guard play. Without a running game, we can't kill off games, we can't wear teams down in the 4th quarter, and we can't get good matchups in the red zone and on short yardage. These holes are not filled.

But, if we draft a good guard or two, our offensive outlook changes dramatically, and our offense looks very good. Suddenly, we become a complete team with power running for short yardage and red zone, and have the threat of a running game to allow Tannehill to pass against 4 and 5 DB's instead of 6. We are able to effectively incorporate the play-action. We can dominate clock and keep our defense fresh (and Wake is OLD). That one change will be transformational for us. IF we get good guards in the draft.

If the draft brings another rotational DL, we should have a good DL. If we can draft at least 1 LB who can cover at least we will have a shot at stopping the Ravens' strategy of consistently throwing short to expose our horrible coverage LB's. If we can add 1 more pass rusher (at DE or LB) we may be able to get pressure on the QB more consistently and prevent our secondary from getting so exposed. If we can get a starting caliber S to pair with Reshad Jones (since it appears IAQ is done), at least we will have a starting caliber secondary.

The most important ability is Availability. Reshad Jones was playing at a dominant level before his injury, and he rarely misses games to injury. So, I am counting on him to be back healthy. But if he's not, we have a disaster at S with nothing but scrubs back there meaning we need to protect our safeties and that cripples our defense. I'm hoping we can snag a starting safety, because the dropoff is dramatic.

Likewise, we jettisoned Albert so our OL is far less talented now, but we're depending upon having healthy players to build chemistry ... which means we are doubling-down on Mike Pouncey's health. That worries me, because he says he's 100% healthy every offseason only to miss a significant amount of games to hip problems most years lately. He got his contract and now ... has health issues. But, when he played last year (if you can remember those few games), he was excellent, so there is hope.

Jordan Cameron was a bust last year, poor when he played, dropping crucial balls, then out for the season very early. Julius Thomas looks like the same sort of thing to me, but I'm really hoping I'm wrong. Over the last few years Thomas has been MORE injury prone than Cameron ... and more than even Koa "Captain of the Injured Reserve" Misi. So, I can't really depend on Thomas, and even if he is healthy, is he going to try? Best TE draft ever .... just sayin'.

We saw what our team looked like when Wake was injured the year before last ... and at his age, I worry about that happening again. IMHO, we need to draft an edge rusher, preferably in the 1st round.

How can we rank teams when they all still have so many holes? If we had ranked them before free agency, I would have been fairly confident that we would have obtained two competent guards so we could concentrate on defense in the draft. That would have been the logical thing to do. But, we 'went oppo' and filled every free agency hole except guard, setting us up to bypass all this defensive talent and draft two guards from a very shallow pool. How can we realistically say we're the 4th best team in the conference with zero guards, zero coverage LB's, zero FS's, only 2 pass rushers (neither young), and huge injury concerns at C, TE, SS, CB1 and CB2? IMHO, that's a lot of holes.