Still some hope that Dolphins can get their top choice

Nineteen consecutive seasons without an NFL playoff victory establishes beyond reasonable debate that the Dolphins have been averse to winning for, well, for pretty much the entire 21st Century.

Now here comes the scary part.

After two decades of not winning anything, the Fins are now even failing at failing.

Here is the franchise that boldly and strategically decimated its roster — swapping talent for future draft picks — to be bad enough to select high enough to get its magic quarterback.

To abide pain and embarrassment now in exchange for big winning down the road.

And what do they do at the midsection of the season? They suddenly forget to fail. They win their way out of the top of the draft.

And the Weirdest Season gets weirder as Dolphins fans who rationalized seeing the

good in being 0-7 now wring hands nervously at 2-7 after Miami stacked Sunday’s 16-12 victory at Indianapolis on top of the previous week’s win over the rival Jets.

“We’re going out to win every game. Period,” said coach Brian Flores from Indy.

As fans wondered if that’s a good thing or not.

I mean, one win, I get. Accidents happen. But a winning streak!?

“People get mad when we win,” said veteran center Daniel Kilgore, mad at that attitude. “We got 53 guys busting their ass every day, competing, trying to win . ... ”

Here is the thing. Flores, his staff and players — they aren’t tanking.

Owner Stephen Ross and personnel boss Chris Grier are tanking. Grier is the guy who implemented Ross’ initiative to sacrifice 2019, to be bad now, in order to stockpile high draft picks for 2020 and ’21.

So Laremy Tunsil, Minkah Fitzpatrick, Kenyan Drake and others are traded away. Oops: The grand plan didn’t count on the new head coach inspiring a bunch of prideful players to take all the tanking talk as a personal insult, as galling disrespect.

But have two consecutive wins really jeopardized Miami getting the QB it needs? Let’s analyze.

Miami at 2-7 is now tied for the fourth-worst record, trailing the 0-9 Bengals, 1-8 Redskins and 2-8 Giants. Joining the Fins at 2-7 are the Jets and Falcons.

(Five other teams are lurking around with three wins).

It cannot yet be said the Grand Tank has failed, of course. Too many head-tohead games left among the contending losers:

Bengals play the Jets and Dolphins. Redskins play the Jets. Giants play the Dolphins and Redskins. Dolphins play the Jets, Giants and Bengals. Jets play the Redskins, Bengals and Dolphins.

This is the No. 1 Draft Pick Tournament, the winner (loser?) yet to be determined. Hope is not lost!

The imperative, for Miami, is to end up with one of the top three QBs: Alabama’s

Tua Tagovailoa,

LSU’s fast-rising Joe Burrow and third choice Justin Herbert of Oregon (who ESPN draftnik Mel Kiper Jr., for what it’s worth, still ranks as his No. 2 passer to Tagovailoa, just ahead of Burrow).

The Dolphins sent the most representatives — including Ross and Grier — to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to scout Tagovailao and Burrow in Saturday’s LSUAlabama game.

It’s a steep drop-off after that to guys such as Washington’s Jacob Eason and Georgia’s Jake Fromm.

So the balance of the season turns for Miami and Dolfans on whether the Fins end up with a topthree pick, not overall but among teams that need a quarterback.

Unfortunately the Bengals

(with Ryan Finley) and Redskins (with Dwayne Haskins) might decide they do. The Giants (with Daniel Jones), Jets (Sam Darnold) and Falcons (Matt Ryan) are less likely.

Two wins in a row have left Miami still with a realistic shot at Herbert or Burrow, but officially concerned the Bengals or Redskins could end up poaching Tagovailoa — or demanding a stockpile of Miami picks to not.

Clearly, the Dolphins need one of them (I still prefer Tua), and need that person to not only be really good, but to be a dynamic difference-maker such as what Kansas City has with Patrick Mahomes and what we are seeing from Lamar Jackson in Baltimore.

Per ESPN’s Football Power Index estimation, two wins in a row have sent Miami’s likelihood of having the overall No. 1 pick plummeting from 66 percent to 12 percent. The Bengals and Redskins are now favored.

But the Dolphins play December 8 at the Jets, December 15 at the Giants, then host the Bengals on December 22.

Those are the three games in a row that realistically will answer the question that the past two wins in a row have cast in doubt:

How badly do the Miami Dolphins want the quarterback they prefer in the 2020 draft? And how far will they go to get him?