For years the Miami Dolphins have been looking for the right practice schedule to optimize peal performance on Sundays -- or Mondays or Thursdays as the schedule dictates.

The point is while most teams have taken Tuesdays off, the Dolphins have at times had Monday off. Or Fridays. Or whatever day coach Joe Philbin thought gave his team the best chance to win.

Well, after investing in and expanding their sport science department, the facts and figures apparently indicate having Tuesday off is best. So the Dolphins will be off on Tuesdays this year, turning a practice day from years past into some down time for players.

"We're going to do a couple of things a little different during the season," Philbin said. "Our game week will be different. I've spent a lot of time thinking about that. We're not looking to cut corners or do less but we are going to have the players spend a little less time on their feet.

"Last year we started collecting a lot of information but didn't have the context to make decisions," Philbin said. "But now we can kind of predict how much player load and volume intensity, based on the practice schedules I give them, how that impacts the guys."

Less time on their feet means less time practicing.

"We're switching the day off from Monday back to Tuesday," Philbin said. "We're not going to really practice Monday. We used to practice Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday walkthrough, a little Saturday as well. So we're going to practice one day less."

The idea behind all this is to keep players fresh so that the team does not wilt late in the season, something that has happened the past couple of years. Miami lost three of its final four games in 2014 and the final two in 2013 -- each time turning a playoff contender into an also-ran.

"I feel good about the schedule we've put in place and how we're going to do that," Philbin said. "We're going to see if that makes a difference."

Interesting perhaps only to me:

I covered this team before sports science was a thing. Don Shula would give his players Tuesdays off. They come in on Mondays to run and get the kinks of the game out or to report for medical treatment. Then they'd begin the practice week on Tuesday. Same with Jimmy Johnson, Dave Wannstedt and Nick Saban. Tony Sparano changed things up at times. Philbin did as well. Now sports science concludes the old school way is probably optimal.