Dolphins avoid London in ’18
Miami should play all its games in U.S. next season.
There’s good news for the Dolphins today: They are in the clear when it comes to playing overseas next season.
The NFL announced three pairings Thursday for the 2018 London Games, and Miami is not on the slate. The league will stage Seahawks-Raiders, Eagles-Jaguars and Titans-Chargers in the United Kingdom next year.
The Dolphins fulfilled their obligation to play a home game in London as part of the arrangement that will bring Super Bowl LIV to South Florida, but face the possibility of being selected as a road team for an international game next season. With the three London games solidified, the only remaining slots are for the one game in Mexico.
There’s been nothing official on the Mexico game, but multiple media reports say it will be Rams vs. Chiefs.
That means the Dolphins will play all 16 games in the United States next season, a welcome change for the team after last year’s travel schedule. Including giving up a home game to play in London, Miami ventured the fourth-most miles in the league at 27,520.
The most brutal stretch came in Weeks 2-4, when the Dolphins went to Los Angeles, New York and London for consecutive games. Anytime the team plays more than one time zone away, it leaves early (typically Thursday) to acclimate.
Next season, with no international games and a full home schedule, the itinerary is much more manageable. The farthest west the Dolphins will go is Houston, and their most distant game is at Minnesota. Their entire schedule will be played in the Eastern and Central time zones.
Miami has played more games in London than any team but Jacksonville. The Dolphins beat the Raiders there in 2014 but lost to the Giants (2007), Jets (2015) and Saints (2017).
Surprise! Super Bowl odds long: There are only five NFL teams less likely to win the 2019 Super Bowl than the Dolphins, according to the Westgate Las Vegas Superbook.
Vegas expects the worst teams in the NFL, the squads with an impossibly woeful chance to do much of anything next season, to be the Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Buffalo Bills, New York Jets and Chicago Bears.
All those teams are 100to-1 to win it all.
The first bit of good news is Dolphins are scheduled to face three of those five teams next season. In fact, five of Miami’s 16 games, nearly one-third of their games, are against those rebuilding franchises.
Now for the bad news. Vegas expects the Dolphins to be bad again. As bad as the Washington Redskins and New York Giants.
All those teams are 60-to-1 to win it all.
The teams favored to win the Super Bowl are the New England Patriots (5-to-1), Pittsburgh Steelers (8-to-1) and Philadelphia Eagles, Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers (all at 10-to-1).
Of course, four of those teams will be playing this weekend in the playoffs.
There is hope for Dolphins fans that the team will not be the 27th-worst team in the NFL next season.
Why? Ryan Tannehill returns. Raekwon McMillan returns. And it is very unlikely a hurricane will postpone Miami’s season-opener again, a player will go AWOL and a coach will snort a white, powdered substance on camera again.
Oh — and as even Vegas believes, Miami’s schedule will be much, much easier.