Forecasts for last year's 8-8 teams (nfl.com)

[spiketex]

im sure our linebackers are who they are by now lets not act like these guys just came into the league. Ellerbee and Wheeler have proven over time that they are not good enough to be starters

We might find that different players like Jelani Jenkins and Jordan Tripp get opportunities if the incumbents don't improve. Ellerbe should be OK, maybe Koa Misi can make a difference in the middle? Wheeler was a major disappointment last season, but he too was played out of position. The linebackers are by far my biggest concern on the Defense.

 

[bird33]

how can any dolphin fan be happy with 9 wins? 5 straight years without making the playoffs, 1 playoff appearance in 13 years, no playoff wins in 14 years...wow are the standards around here pathetic. people want to see the team going in the right direction huh??? a qb in his 3rd year and a hc in his 3rd year and 9 wins is perfectly fine for most of you? absolutely unbelievable.

 

[CalDolFan10x14]

how can any dolphin fan be happy with 9 wins? 5 straight years without making the playoffs, 1 playoff appearance in 13 years, no playoff wins in 14 years...wow are the standards around here pathetic. people want to see the team going in the right direction huh??? a qb in his 3rd year and a hc in his 3rd year and 9 wins is perfectly fine for most of you? absolutely unbelievable.

Of course, if someone DID predict 11 or12 wins, you'd be right there to slam for being overly optimistic, amiright?

 

[MercMan]

We have a tough schedule this year. Nine wins would be a pretty good season, if you ask me. Playoffs would be great, but it's going to take an easier than average schedule (like last season's) to get us in until we have the winning habit and better consistency.

Anything between 6 and 9 wins is believable to me. I'd lean towards 8 or 9, but who knows with the calibre of opponent we face?

Good point. The schedule would be tougher this year if we were playing the 2013 version of those teams. However, every year teams that are expected to do well tank (see Falcons), and others that fly under the radar end up surprising everyone (see Eagles). Just saying that SOS is difficult to determine ahead of time so I'm not sure how you factor that in before the season even starts. All you can do is focus on getting better as a team each year.

 

[AFCMiamiEast]

how can any dolphin fan be happy with 9 wins? 5 straight years without making the playoffs, 1 playoff appearance in 13 years, no playoff wins in 14 years...wow are the standards around here pathetic. people want to see the team going in the right direction huh??? a qb in his 3rd year and a hc in his 3rd year and 9 wins is perfectly fine for most of you? absolutely unbelievable.

 

[bird33]

i wouldnt be slamming anybody if they predicted 11 or 12 wins. there is plenty of talent on this team, they should have won at the very least 10 games last year. if tannehill is as good as finheaven makes him out to be, we should definitely win at the very least 10 games and make the playoffs. it just seems like for the past 10 years all i read is 8 or 9 wins would be a start in the right direction. its pretty sickening.

 

[Digital]

I'm predicting 9 wins this year. But, we should have won our final two games against Buffalo and New York to take the final playoff spot and finish strong. We should have been playing at Cincinnati with a solid chance to beat them for a second time. We hold have been in the AFC playoffs against teams we had played and beaten at least once that season and maybe face one team we had yet to play.

But ... it didn't happen. Our team collectively failed to show up at crunch time, losing both final games, and crumbling under the weight of a controversial season losing to two poor teams.

We were and still are one of the youngest teams in the league ... and we are inconsistent.

Lots of things need to improve this year, some we can control like the OL, and some we can't control like losing our TE and slot WR for the season. Regardless, the rest of the roster need to step up.

I think this is the year we sink or swim with Philbin and Hickey. Either we win at least 9, make the playoffs and start wearing rose colored glasses; or we fire everyone, get a new GM and let him clean house and rebuild once again.

Winning 9 isn't just a goal, it's the mandatory minimum for this regime I think.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

 

[LANGER72]

I am all for keeping expectation low this year. I think 9 wins is realistic with this schedule.

 

[z926538]

I think I posted elsewhere that with a harder schedule, a defense that may not be as good as last year, and an offense with so many changes in personnel that they are essentially a question mark we could anywhere from 10-6 to 5-11. There are too many open questions to be answered to be able to give a good prediction at this point in time.

I am intrigued by the big picture of this debate. Two years ago when Philbin was hired if someone said to you that in three seasons he was going to improve the team from 7-9 to 9-7 and no playoffs would you have been satisfied with that? In some ways its the "worse" good case scenario, progress but at a glacial rate of speed. Board, what do you think?

 

[Daytona Fin]

IMO , 9 wins would be disastrous for us. That would more than likely mean no playoffs and we still can't overcome inferior teams in the AFC east. So the end result will be the firing of Philbin and probably a good portion of is coaching staff. 9 wins would also signify that Tannehill isn't the future QB of our Dolphins, so then we're back to spending a first round pick on a QB. Hickey's fate would be dependent of the 2015 season being a success with a new coach. This team has to get past the prior mistakes in the East to get to 10 wins or it's back to the drawing board.

 

[TheJetsBlow]

how can any dolphin fan be happy with 9 wins? 5 straight years without making the playoffs, 1 playoff appearance in 13 years, no playoff wins in 14 years...wow are the standards around here pathetic. people want to see the team going in the right direction huh??? a qb in his 3rd year and a hc in his 3rd year and 9 wins is perfectly fine for most of you? absolutely unbelievable.

Because the team has ****ing sucked for the last decade and a half. Prolonged mediocrity tends to lower standards among a fanbase.

 

[Mike13]

Considering that we could have easily had 10-11 wins last year(Yes we could, we should have beaten Baltimore, Tampa and Buffalo). 9 wins is reasonable.

 

[SoCal Finatic]

We have a tough schedule this year. Nine wins would be a pretty good season, if you ask me. Playoffs would be great, but it's going to take an easier than average schedule (like last season's) to get us in until we have the winning habit and better consistency.

Anything between 6 and 9 wins is believable to me. I'd lean towards 8 or 9, but who knows with the calibre of opponent we face?

Its extremely hard to predict how "tough" our schedule is based on last years win totals. There will be some teams that appear "tough" that end up being labeled soft at seasons end. 10 wins (Kool Aide tastes good! but come back to me by week 4 and i might have spit out the kool aide)

 

[PJack]

I have to agree with your premise of bird33 here. 8-9 wins should not be acceptable. It's flat out ridiculous how mediocre we've been for the last 10-15 years. Even when we suck and get good draft picks we've flat out blown the picks.

However, I think most people are being realistic in their predictions based on last year and the current talent on the team (at least as they've played to date). Now if Tannehill, Jordan, Taylor, Wallace and some of the young guys step up big, we could win 11 games and shock most of us. Having seen the last 10 years and it's pretty easy to pick 7 to 9 wins.... because that's how we've been for a long time.

Do I find that acceptable.....Hardly.

 

[roy_miami]

Nobody is going to predict you will win 10 or 11 games unless you prove it over time, even the Panthers and Cardinals are 8 and 7.5 respectively according to Vegas. In fact Vegas predicts only 4 teams will have double digit wins. So depending on how you read into it a 9 win team is effectively a top 10 team in the NFL, which means he's effectively saying we are a playoff team but not a powerhouse, which is fair.