The NFL regular season concluded on Sunday, which means we now have a finalized set of opponents for the Miami Dolphins in 2017. We previously looked at the schedule, with 12 of the 13 opponents for the South Florida franchise known, with just the Indianapolis Colts or Tennessee Titans to be decided. Now, that final opponent has been locked in.
The NFL schedule is based primarily on a rotation of divisions facing off each year. The idea is to guarantee that a team will play at least one game in every stadium across the league every eight years. The AFC East will face the AFC West and the NFC South in 2017 as part of this rotation. That takes eight of the 16 games for each team in the division, then add in six games for the annual home-and-home series, and each team now has 14 games that are identical across the division. The differences in scheduling within the division comes with the two remaining games, which are scheduled against the non-rotation divisions within conference against the teams that finish in the same respective position in their divisions.
For the Dolphins, who finished second in the AFC East this year, that means they will be playing the second place teams in the AFC South (Tennessee) and the AFC North (Baltimore). The full slate of opponents for Miami is below, along with the known information about this year’s trip to London in the International Series and the team’s bye week.
Dolphins 2017 home opponents
AFC East division rivals (home-and-home series)
AFC West
NFC South
New Orleans Saints (in London)
AFC South (Same position in respective divisions)
Dolphins 2017 away opponents
AFC East division rivals (home-and-home series)
AFC West
NFC South
AFC North (Same position in respective divisions)
2017 International Series (London)
The Saints “at” Dolphins game will be played in London in 2017 as part of the NFL’s International Series. This game will fulfill the Dolphins’ (unofficial) requirement to “host” a game in London as part of being awarded a Super Bowl (Super Bowl LIV during the 2019-2020 NFL season will be at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium). The game will be played in either Week 3 (September 24) or Week 4 (October 1).
Bye Week
The NFL season is 16 games over 17 weeks, so at some point every teams gets an off, or bye, week. Typically, if a team is scheduled to play in London, the week following that game will be the team’s bye week. Miami should see that continue in 2017, with their off week coming either in Week 4 or Week 5.