Can Dolphins win highly competitive AFC East? Do they have a path to the Super Bowl in 2023?
The AFC East is as competitive from top to bottom as it has likely ever been.
In a year where the Miami Dolphins have hopes of winning a playoff game for the first time since the 2000 season and maybe making a deep postseason run — possibly to the Super Bowl — they’ll get all the challenges they can handle in the regular season, especially within the division.
Following two decades of New England Patriots dominance in the AFC East and a three-year stranglehold the Buffalo Bills have had in the division entering 2023, the Dolphins, New York Jets and even the Patriots can push Buffalo for that crown.
The Dolphins enter the new season on a three-year winning-season streak and off a return to the playoffs for the first time since the 2016 season. A postseason victory would be the next step after an offseason where Miami addressed its troublesome defense from 2022 and hopes a second year in coach Mike McDaniel’s offense will only expand on last season’s success.
And McDaniel believes having to get through a tough division in the regular season could lead to better preparation for the postseason gauntlet.
“It does make it more difficult the better your division is and I think our division appears to be building towards potentially being one of the better divisions in football,” he said this offseason.
“That being said, if your goals in football are not to just get to the playoffs, if your goal isn’t to just get to the playoffs; it’s not the worst thing in the world to have a very strong division. Granted, it still makes it more difficult to get to the playoffs, but if you are able to within that very good competitive division, you are much more battle-tested for the games that really, really matter.”
McDaniel knows. Before he joined the Dolphins last year, he was offensive coordinator of a San Francisco 49ers team in 2021 that finished third in the NFC West but ended up pulling off two playoff upsets and fell just 3 points shy of a trip to the Super Bowl against the eventual champion Los Angeles Rams.
The Jets made the AFC East’s biggest headline-grabbing move of the offseason, trading for future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers and then followed that up by adding running back Dalvin Cook, who had been link to his hometown Dolphins for months.
That said, Miami landing defensive coordinator Vic Fangio could prove just as — if not more — impactful, and the Dolphins’ trade for Jalen Ramsey would’ve been up there too before his training camp knee injury and ensuing surgery that could sideline him until December.
The acquisition of the 39-year-old Green Bay Packers great has many believing it could put New York in contention as a revamped offense meets an already-stout defense with young, developing talent on both sides of the ball.
The Bills, though, still have to be considered the top dog in the division until someone knocks them off. Quarterback Josh Allen and wide receiver Stefon Diggs are back together leading one of the league’s most high-powered offense, as long as Allen can keep his turnovers down. Buffalo’s defense could get right back on track with the health of Von Miller to spearhead the pass rush and the safety combination of Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde.
The Dolphins already proved competitive against the Bills last season, winning the Week 3 home game in the sweltering heat, dropping a tight one in snowy western New York last December and then nearly pulling off an all-time playoff upset with a third-string rookie quarterback at Highmark Stadium.
The Patriots, while failing to make the playoffs in two of the three seasons since Tom Brady left the organization, can never be counted out under coach Bill Belichick. They have taken measures to improve third-year quarterback Mac Jones’ surroundings, although probably not to the level of what the Dolphins did for quarterback Tua Tagovailoa ahead of last season, bringing in Tyreek Hill and McDaniel’s system.
It’s usually the case that teams’ six division games will be some of the most hard-fought. That notion is only amplified in 2023.
On top of that, Miami will be more battle-tested by facing what are probably the second- and third-toughest divisions, the AFC West and NFC East. Between those two, the Dolphins get regular-season meetings with the two reigning conference champions, the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles. That also means coming to blows with the Los Angeles Chargers, Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants. A New Year’s Eve trip to Baltimore thrown in leaves very few soft spots on the 2023 schedule.
If the Dolphins can come away with a division title, that would allow them to host their first playoff game, which would go a long way in nailing that coveted postseason victory. A wild-card berth again would have Miami hitting the road in January — and likely to a cold environment if not against an AFC South champion.
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