Shutdown Corner is previewing all 32 teams as we get ready for the NFL season, counting down the teams one per weekday in reverse order of our initial 2017 power rankings. No. 1 will be revealed on Aug. 2, the day before the Hall of Fame Game kicks off the preseason.

Part of the beauty of the NFL is its unpredictability. Fortunes can change without warning from season to season. Sometimes a team can improve dramatically over the course of a single season.

However, what happened with the 2016 Miami Dolphins was extreme. They went from being one of the worst teams in the NFL to a playoff team overnight. It made no logical sense.

Make no mistake, the Dolphins were horrendous through five weeks. There were zero signs a big breakthrough was going to happen in Week 6. A last-minute loss in Week 1 at Seattle was somewhat encouraging, but nothing else to start the season was. In Week 2 the Patriots – with Jimmy Garoppolo starting at quarterback – had a 31-3 lead before the Dolphins made the score close late. The Browns, who would start 0-14, would have won at Miami in Week 3 had their kicker been a little better. Miami won that game – again, against the lowly Browns at home – in overtime. In uncompetitive losses to the Bengals and Titans the Dolphins had 16 first downs … in both games combined.

Rookie coach Adam Gase looked like he might be in over his head. He has admitted to making early-season mistakes. Miami had nothing on offense and not much more on defense. The Dolphins looked every bit as bad as the 49ers or Browns.



Then it just changed. No warning. No sneaky underlying positive signs that would lead anyone to believe there was a revival coming. The Dolphins just came out in Week 6 and were a different team from then on. Go figure.

Miami blasted the Steelers 30-15 in Week 6. The Dolphins won nine of 10 games, and even an injury to Ryan Tannehill didn’t slow them down. They made the playoffs. It was one of the weirdest, most sudden transformations you’ll ever see in the NFL.

Also, it’s probably unsustainable. The streak was tied together with a lot of close wins (8-2 in games decided by seven points or less), mostly against terrible teams. Of the eight wins after the Steelers game, the Dolphins didn’t beat a team with a winning record. Four wins came against the Bills and Jets, three coming by 4 points or less. They barely held on to beat a terrible 49ers team at home. Their three best opponents after Week 6 were the Ravens, Patriots and Steelers in the playoffs, and they went 0-3 and were outscored by 71 points.

That makes the Dolphins tough to read going into this season. No matter the strength of schedule, winning 10 games in the NFL is hard. It doesn’t happen by accident. Gase did a great job turning things around, and I think he’ll be a fine coach. There’s legitimate blue-chip talent on offense and defense. They’re getting their quarterback back from a knee injury. Still, there’s good reason for skepticism. Las Vegas agrees; the Dolphins over/under win total is just 7.5. One thing that won’t be in the Dolphins’ favor is the schedule. They had the seventh easiest schedule last season, according to Football Outsiders. This season, according to Warren Sharp’s schedule strength metric that uses Las Vegas over/under projections, the Dolphins have the seventh toughest schedule. That’s a big jump up in competition.

The last time we saw the Dolphins, they were getting blasted in a wholly uncompetitive playoff loss at the Steelers. But, making the playoffs at all after that horrific start was a great accomplishment. Now what do we expect from the Dolphins this season?