Which team should be the Dolphins' target in the offseason?

As the NFL heads towards free agency and then the draft there will be three types of teams in the mix. There are teams that are at the top and only need to continue to improve where they can in an attempt to stay on top or are already close enough to the top that they don’t need to add much more than the right player or maybe a couple of key players to get there. On the flip side, there are also the teams that are horrible and are in full rebuild mode. Often time this means that they will try and trade away anything of great value to horde all the draft picks they can while also dumping any of the high-cost vets that they cannot trade that they also do not see as part of the long-term future. Then there’s the rest of the NFL.

The rest of the NFL are the teams that are not rebuilding but are chasing the top teams. Each of those teams has some team in mind that they are chasing or building to beat consistently or when they ultimately have to face off. It may be the top team in their division or another top team in their conference. The thinking of course is if you can’t get past one or both of those you are not going to achieve your ultimate goal, which for every single NFL team should be making it to the Super Bowl.

Our Miami Dolphins are one of those “rest of the NFL” teams. Sure they made the playoffs but some glaring weaknesses are still obviously there. We have already covered what needs to be fixed/upgraded as far as the roster is concerned but what about the team they should be gunning for? For what seems like ages it was the New England Patriots and they managed to most years over the last two decades check both boxes as the top team in the division and the top team in the conference.

Things have obviously changed. The Patriots are no longer king of the hill in the AFC nor even the AFC East where the Buffalo Bills seem to have taken that spot for at least now. While Buffalo still seems like a more complete team overall the Dolphins the Phins did show that they are not that far off from the Bills this past season. Miami split their series during the regular season with each team winning their home game. Miami then faced Buffalo a third time in the playoffs, a game that was closer than even most of us thought it would be given the fact that the Phins entered the game with a third-string rooking seventh-round quarterback as the starter.

So this evening's question is what teams should the Miami Dolphins front office be building to beat now and in the future? Is it still the Bills? Will it once again be the Patriots? What about the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs? Maybe you think it's another team entirely.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below-

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