Starting 2022 the Dolphins had one of the best starts of any NFL team at 8-3. However they started to cool down and barely made the playoffs going 9-8 as the 7th seed. Surprisingly, even with starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa out of the game they kept it close with the 2nd seed Bills team that people were overhyping as contenders. Unfortunately, the Dolphins couldn’t pull it, resulting in a 34-31 loss.

All of that aside, this current Dolphins team are contenders and here’s why.

1. Not much competition in the AFC East

There is not one team in their division that is remotely close to the Fins. Sure, the Buffalo Bills may have the better quarterback Josh Allen over Tua, but the Dolphins are a better team overall. The Jets don’t have a quarterback and it may be trading for Aaron Rodgers right around draft day but who knows if he’ll take a step back and that team still has question marks, as for the former dynasty Patriots they’re still in mediocrity before they’re on the come up.

2. Bringing in elite talent to add more elite groups

The dolphins have multiple elite players in certain positions. They have the best wide receiver duo in the league with Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle, a pass rush with elite defensive tackle Christian Wilkins with edge rushers such as Bradley Chubb and Jaelan Phillips. They also traded for All-Pro Jalen Ramsey from the Rams for almost nothing, pairing him with pro bowler and former 2020 interception leader Xavien Howard. With this, the Dolphins should have a top 2 passing offense with the importance of an elite defense. They also fired their former defensive coordinator Josh Boyer who was atrocious and hired Vic Fangio who is a defensive mastermind.

3. Very little question marks on the Dolphins

There is not any major concern for this team. Sure you can say that they tend to fall off in the 2nd half of the season, but this only happened one time and that was mainly because of Tua being injured. In my opinion, I think this will be Tua’s first healthy season because all of his injuries were unlucky.

Looking at the stacked AFC conference the only two teams that I feel would be better than Miami are the Chiefs and the Bengals the Dolphins also kept it close with the Bengals early in last season too. So for their record prediction I’m leaning towards their ceiling which is 14-3 than their floor 8-9. My prediction for the Dolphins is a 13-4 season with at LEAST a conference championship appearance and division winners.