This past week, I asked the Phinsider faithful about their expectations vs. their hopes for the upcoming NFL season:
What are your honest, realistic expectations for the team’s final record this season, and how does that compare to what you are personally hoping to see? Are you rooting for a surprise turnaround that proves the doubters wrong, or do you believe a difficult season is a necessary step toward securing a higher pick in the 2027 NFL Draft?
Below are some of your thoughts and answers-
Gllmiaspr always wants at least 10 wins and a possible playoff berth, but expects somewhere in the 6- to 7-win range.
I will never be happy with anything less than 10 wins. Realistically, after they traded Waddle and Minkah the reasonable expectation would be in the area of 6-7 wins this year but that is not the question. I am hoping that they prove the analysts wrong, squeeze 10 wins and sneak into the playoffs. The last thing I am thinking is who they pick in 2027.
Jimmsn61 says it’s 5 wins, but that our roster talent is better than most assume.
I’m using my vast experience as an armchair head coach to say the Dolphins will win 5 games this year. They have better talent than given credit for.
Bill Hazlett expects another perfect season.
I expect the same as I did last year and every year 20 -0.
Saskatchefin is hoping for no more than 3-4 wins and a second overall draft pick.
I hope the defense is tight and our offense will move the chains and eat the clock, winning some low scoring games. I would only hope that we win 3-4 games. It would be great to get that second pick and take WR out of Ohio State that Average Phins Fan mentioned, I think he could be transform the offense with Chris Bell and be a playoff team next year.
thorny just wants to see improvement year over year.
well, I have to say that I am not really looking for wins or loses. I just want to see growth and improvement. Been a Dolphin fan since the 70s as a little kid, and this year from recent years feels different. I like what I am hearing and seeing from the new HC and GM.
Mc Daniels, Im sorry, he was terrible. He was in an Alpha position but he was clearly a Beta. So yeah, I hope this change works out, tired of mediocrity.
Average Phins Fan expects 6 wins and a draft pick that allows the team to pick the star wideout from Ohio State. My guess is that 6 wins is about 2-3 too many if you hope to have a legit shot at picking Smith.
My hope is for the team to be bad enough to get Jeremiah Smith, I truly believe he could single handedly fix the offense. My expectation is a 6 win season with 3 or 4 or those wins coming week 10+ when the team really starts coming together
MIAMI235 just wants to see this team go somewhere around .500.
At least .500ish. Upgrading players, who hopefully want to win !
UpInPensacola expects somewhere between 6 and 8 wins.
Six to eight wins is my expectation. Two wins before the bye. The remainder after. And that’s a bunch of speculative guesswork because of factors like injuries (Dolphins and opponents alike), weather on game day, and arbitrary pass interference calls.
sdphinsfan is another, just hoping for year-over-year improvement.
I’m not really in to predicting what the record could be this year because it literally could wind up to be any combination of wins and losses and nobody would shocked. What I’m looking for is real growth and improvement from the ’25 and ’26 draft classes. An emergence from Brents/Dulcich…If we get that kind of stuff, we’re going to find ourselves in a lot of close games because we’re playing good football. And if we have that, the record for ’26 can be what it’s going to be but the team will have taken a huge step forward.
Phoenix6 has a list of how he hopes to see the team progress over the next four seasons.
Screw the higher pick crap in ’27.
’26 – 7 & 10.
’27 – 10 & 7.
’28 – 11 & 6 Division winners, lose the Conference Championship.
’29 – Super Bowl Champs.
Jptapt wants to see Willis stay healthy all season long and 7 wins.
I would be very happy with 7 wins. To me, that is heading in the right direction. More important to me is seeing whether Willis lasts to the end of the season, or will he get hurt.
PA phinphan sees a year of growth with many ups and downs, but would prefer to see the team run the table somehow.
I believe this season will be full of ups and downs, flashes of brilliance along with bone headed, head scratching plays by the young guys. This results in 5 to 8 wins. I hope I’m wrong and they run the table.
coach k 13 expects 6 wins, wants 20 wins.
I’m thinking 6 wins and hoping for UNDEFEATED!!!
PhinsTifosi has high hopes and open expectations.
My hope is 20-0 Expectation is from 20-0 to 0-17
Urthling expects only enough wins to see the team in the top half of the draft, but hopes to see the team develop a winning culture going forward.
This year my ‘realistic’ expectations are 5-7 wins.
I’m hoping to see at least 8 wins. But more than that, I want to see a few key behaviors that point to development of a ‘winning’ culture.
- Improvement – player development and mistakes get corrected
- Competitive drive – fighting for every win, maximum effort
- Buy-In to the program – Hafley espouses a detail-oriented coaching style featuring clear and direct feedback. Josh Uche compared him to Bill Belichick, which may not be everyone’s cup of tea.
I think we have our long-term solutions at both Head Coach and GM. I’m
excitedvery interested to see how the team plays for and responds to Hafley once the season starts.
That’s our selection of comments for this evening. It seems as if most of us have realistic expectations for this newly rebuilt team, which is still under construction until at least 2027 or 2028. Most of us also hope that the team somehow surprises everyone by winning far more games than anyone would expect. As always, thank you to each of you who answered our Phinsider Question Of The Day, and to those of you who missed the original post, please feel free to share your hopes vs. expectations in the comments section below.