Miami Dolphins projected to have fourth most wins in AFC at season’s end by NFL Network

The Miami Dolphins head into week ten of the NFL season with a record of 6-3 after rattling off three consecutive victories against the likes of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Detroit Lions and Chicago Bears. If the season ended today, they would be in the playoffs for the first time since the 2016 season.

However, the season does not end today, so we’re left projecting wins and losses for each matchup left on Miami’s schedule for the rest of the regular season slate.

On Thursday, Cynthia Frelund - NFL Network’s top analytics expert - released her projections for the final records for all teams in the NFL and in somewhat of a surprise, she has Miami finishing with the fourth best record in the AFC while projecting the Dolphins to win 10.9 games.

Since it is impossible to win 10.9 games in an NFL season, we’ll go ahead and round that up to a projected record of 11-6 for the Miami Dolphins according to Frelund.

The only AFC teams to top Miami in this exercise were the Kansas City Chiefs (projected for 13.4 wins), the Buffalo Bills (projected for 13.1 wins), and the Baltimore Ravens (projected for 11.9 wins). Miami already holds victories over the Ravens and the Bills, however they do have to travel to Buffalo for a December game in (potentially) snowy New York.

Miami projects as the top wildcard team according to Frelund, just ahead of the projected AFC South winners, the Tennessee Titans who Frelund predicts will win 9.8 games. However, since the Titans would be a division winner, they would technically get the number four seed and Miami would travel to Nashville for the first round of the playoffs.

Only time will tell if these predictions come true, however, as of right now, Miami has a solid chance of making the playoffs if they continue to play the type of ball they are currently playing, at least according to Cynthia Frelund.

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Do you think the Miami Dolphins will make it to the NFL playoffs this year? What do you predict their final record will be? Can they win a game once they punch their ticket to the dance? Let me know in the comments below or on twitter at @MBrave13! Fins up!