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The Miami Dolphins’ 2019 season ended with end of the NFL’s regular season. It was a year in which the team only won five games, but it was a year in which fan confidence in the direction of the team grew throughout the year. While most teams in the midst of a losing season see their fans loose confidence in the team, the Dolphins were declared the worst team in NFL history before the season started, lost seven straight games to start the year, then rebounded to win five of their last nine. It was a season in which the coaching staff and the young players seemed to figure out some things.
Which would explain why the fan confidence grew. It was never a perfect growth, with some dips throughout the season, but it was growth. After the end of the regular season, fan confidence in the Dolphins hit an all-time high, with 81 percent of the fans in our weekly FanPulse survey saying they were confident in the direction of the team. The Dolphins had just beaten the New England Patriots and the fans’ confidence jumped from 67 percent of the base to 81 percent.
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Then, oddly, without the Dolphins playing between the Wildcard weekend and this weekend’s Divisional round, the confidence fell. This week, 74 percent of the fans say they are confident in the direction of the Dolphins. Did the change of offensive coordinator, offensive line coach, and safeties coach have a 7-point impact on the fans’ confidence?
Miami is still in the top ten in fan confidence, sitting at nine heading into the Divisional weekend. They were eighth before the Wildcard round, so the drop was only represented in a one-position slip.
This was our last weekly confidence poll. The FanPulse survey will still be set out weekly through the remainder of the season, but there will not be a confidence poll included until we get closer to free agency in March. We will also have fan confidence checks around the NFL Draft in April, and then will see them again as training camps start in the summer.
How do you feel about the direction of the Dolphins? Let us know in the comments at the bottom of the page and make sure you join our FanPulse survey. It is a weekly email survey sent on Mondays with 2-3 questions that takes about 2 minutes to complete.