NFL schedule coming, Dolphins have 18th toughest

The NFL is expected to release its 2012 regular-seasons schedule this week, likely as early as Tuesday.

There are no secrets here as far as what opponents will be on the grid, just what order the games will come and what teams will get prime time dates on Monday nights, Sunday nights, Thursday nights and Holidays.

I wouldn't bet the Dolphins get too many prime time games simply because the NFL doesn't consider them a sexy team right now. I would say the Dolphins might get one prime time outing but we'll see this week.

The opponents?

The Dolphins will play the Bills, New England and Jets in a home-and-home series as they always do with their AFC East rivals.

At home, Miami will also play Jacksonville, Tennessee, Oakland, St. Louis and Seattle.

On the road the Dolphins will play Houston, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Arizona, and San Francisco.

The Texans, Bengals, and 49ers made the playoffs last year so, combined with two games versus New England, the Dolphins are scheduled to play five games against teams that made the playoffs in 2011.

Despite the relative lack of playoff caliber opponents, the Dolphins do seem to have a cakewalk if one believes the teams' records. Miami has the 18th toughest scheduled depending on 2011 won-loss records.

One thing that must be pointed out: Look at the home schedule. Yikes! No wonder the club is having trouble selling tickets (aside from their own problems). Seattle is about as far from Miami as one NFL team can get from another. The Jaguars and Titans excite absolutely no one. Oakland does have some following but the Raiders are hardly a marquee team anymore. And the Jeff Fisher revenge bowl simply does not stoke too many flames that I can muster.

The W-L records for opponents for every team is below. The astericks denotes 2011 playoff teams.

By the way, let me warn you before you scan the chart. The easiest schedule belongs to New England. The Patriots were in the Super Bowl last year. Crazy, right?

Rank	Team	Combined W-L Record	Winning Pct.
1	N.Y. Giants*	140-116	.547
2	Denver*	139-117	.543
3	Cleveland	135-121	.527
4	St. Louis	134-122	.523
4	Baltimore*	134-122	.523
6	San Diego	133-123	.520
7	Philadelphia	132-124	.516
8	Minnesota	131-125	.512
8	Arizona	131-125	.512
10	Carolina	130-126	.508
11	Seattle	129-127	.504
11	Dallas	129-127	.504
11	New Orleans*	129-127	.504
14	Jacksonville	128-128	.500
14	Cincinnati*	128-128	.500
14	Pittsburgh*	128-128	.500
14	Indianapolis	128-128	.500
18	Oakland	127-129	.496
18	Miami	127-129	.496
20	N.Y. Jets	126-130	.492
20	Kansas City	126-130	.492
20	Chicago	126-130	.492
20	Detroit*	126-130	.492
24	Washington	125-131	.488
24	Atlanta*	125-131	.488
24	San Francisco*	125-131	.488
27	Tampa Bay	124-132	.484
28	Tennessee	123-133	.480
29	Houston*	121-135	.473
29	Buffalo	121-135	.473
31	Green Bay*	120-136	.469
32	New England*	116-140	.453

Comments

[Sully]

Can someone please explain to me how New England ends up with the easiest f$@#! schedule next year?

[Wahoo McDaniel]

What's an asterick?

[mike]

Am I reading your post correctly that the Patriots have the easiest schedule? If so, that seens a little biased...

[Clue]

That fukkin Kockcocker Goodwell, given the Pats the easiest schedule is BS. Anyways if we had the easiest schedule I still beleiev we'll finish 6 and 10. Im just a realist.

[JS_in_LA]

Guess it's time for predictions then.
Lets say we improve a few areas, but not QB. Here's the prediction:

Jets 1-1
Buff 1-1
Pats 0-2

HOME =
Jax w
Tenn l
Oak w
SL w
Sea w

AWAY=
hou l
Ind w
Cin l
Ari l
SF l

7-9.
Even with a new QB, this may be accurate.
Don't count on playoffs this year gents.

[ALoco]

NEW ENGLAND WENT TO THE SB DONKEYS,THAT'S WHY THEY HAVE IT EASY .....

BUT ,IF YOU R IN THE CELLAR ,YOU WOULD BE THE 18 SPOT ......

[Tim Couch]

I count 13 wins there!

[Chris in CO]

The reason the Patriots schedule is easier than the Dolphins is that if you take New England's win total of 13 and multiply by 2 because they play Miami twice, it is going to be more than Miami's win total of 6 games times 2 = 12 wins. So the Dolphins are automatically playing against 14 more wins than New England would. So if you eliminate Miami and New England playing against each other, New England's schedule is harder.

I think I did a crappy job explaining that...

[Oh Really?]

I count 13 wins there!

Posted by: Tim Couch | April 16, 2012 at 01:59 PM

You also think players still get paid the remaning years on their contracts after they get cut.

Forgive us if we take what you say with a grain of salt.

[gv]

Or they have the 16th easiest. I am starting to agree with most people on here...you are glass half empty almost all the time when it comes to the fins.

A little ++ spin, can sometimes be re-freshing.(It is closer to being one of the easiest vs hardest...yet hardest is the way you describe it)...

[tnhillbilly]

Don't see the DULLfins winning a game, 0-16, go DULLfins. Who would go see them play unless it was free and that would include parking, hotdog, beer, and a Tebow shirt. Oh he plays for the JETS, got to have someone to cheer for. Jets 10-6, NE 13-3 and another trip to the SB.

[tnhillbilly]

WOOPS, sorry buffalo, forgot about the bills, be happy they play the DULLfins twice thats good for 2 so lets go 6-10.

[JS_in_LA]

tnhillbilly
I have us anywhere from 6-10. to 8-8 depending on if we get a new QB, and he manages to pull an Andy Dalton for us.
That and maybe some rookies step up and Wow some folks.
But, realistically, with rookies learning, we'll be less then 500.
And if the rookies don't pan out, less than 500 is absolute. We have very few playmakers.

but, the good ol' draft is here to give us hope. And disappointment. More HOPE less DISAPPOINTMENT is my wish.

[Don's Shula]

Easy schedule is due to the crappy records of the other 3 AFC (L)east teams, there's a lot of losses in Buffalo, Miami, and the sucky Jets lost 8 last year. So is this blog run by 1 troll with many names? Seems to be the case not worth reading anymore. Go Fins (sigh)

[ralph ortega]

Armando you managed to sneak in some snark on a post about schedules. You're not completely artless!

[Ithaca phin fan]

Sully

The Patsies can end up with the easiest schedule because since 2002 (I think), only 2 of each team's 16 games is based on their regular season performance from the previous year. Each team plays 6 games in their division, 4 games against an entire division within their conference, 4 games against entire division in other conference, and then 2 games in-conference based on previous year's performance.

And to say those 2 games are "performance based" is only somewhat true. More specifically, those two games are based on where a team places in their division (rather than outright W-L record), then plays the teams that placed in the same position in their respective divisions (those two divisions being the 2 of the 3 in-conference that they're not playing that year.

So for example the AFC East plays the entire AFC South, so Miami (finished 3rd in AFC east 2011) will play the 3rd place teams in the AFC Central (Bengals) and AFC West (Raiders). Make sense?

Basically 14 of 16 games have nothing to do with last year's performance- some are the annual in-division games, and others are based simply on the year-to-year rotation of which AFC & NFC divisions they play. So the Pats schedule includes 6 games against the three pitiful in-division opponents, 4 games against a relatively weak NFC West, 4 games against a so-so AFC South, then the 1st place Broncos in the West [sic] and the 1st place Ravens.

[We Have Draft Picks]

"You also think players still get paid the remaning years on their contracts after they get cut.

Forgive us if we take what you say with a grain of salt."

LMAO@OhReally. Great point.

[We Have Draft Picks]

Mando,

We already know which teams we're going to play so big f#cking deal. How about getting us some information about whether the Jaguars are seriously considering Stephen Gilmore @ 7??? Or what our plans are at Number 8. Tannehill ain't happening & if it does then let's go Niners!!! LOL!!!

[We Have Draft Picks]

Ithaca,

You just gave me a head ache. Thanks. :)

[Shawn]

The Dolphins and Patriots schedules are almost the same, except the Dolphins play the Bengals and the Raiders while the Patriots play division winners Baltimore and Denver. So why the disparity - easy. the dolphins play the patriots and the patriots play the Dolphins. lol. win looking at their opponenets W-L the Dolphins play a 13-3 team twice (patriots) and the Patriots get by with playing a 5-11 team twice (dolphins). no conspiracy.

[JackSparrow]

Yeah, New England should have the easiest schedule each year playing in the AFC East.

[JackSparrow]

Asterisks are playoff teams.

[Ryan Leaf]

If they had guaranteed money they do. Depends on the contract.

[ericatl]

NEw England is blessed by the NFL Gods. We will just have to deal with it ;((((

[JackSparrow]

The only game I want to see is the Seattle game.

[Brandon from Omaha]

Mando,

Every team in the league gets at least one prime time game this year.

[Lotsathings]

The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that the NFL is a joke. Nothing could be more FIXED than this scam. We've seen horrendous officiating against the fins in close calls. We've seen the takeover of our fins by a NY Jets and a Gator fan, and the ensuing destruction of the team underneath all the sweet talk. We've seen deliberate torpedoing of fins draft picks in the last decade. Now we see the enabling of an incumbent SB team that gets "carried on shoulders" to their next SB appearance via the easiest schedule. Nothing more than a farcical entertainment machine for fools willing to part with their time and money. There, I said it.

[Ryan Leaf]

Aaaaw yeeeah. D Thomas going for 1500 yards this year. 800 rushing. 700 receiving.

[Clue]

Where are the regulars? I'm about to dump this blog for Ohio Dolfan for good.

[2 watt]

clue, it's like this before the draft.

[JS_in_LA]

not many today clue.

Smattering.

[Oh Really?]

If they had guaranteed money they do. Depends on the contract.

Posted by: Ryan Leaf | April 16, 2012 at 03:32 PM

If they had guaranteed money, it would be paid(VERY FEW PLAYERS HAVE THESE CONTRACTS EXCEPT ELITE PLAYERS) or it would've been paid out in the first 2-3 years of the deal. While the player is still young & playing at a high level & worth the $$.

Most of todays contracts are back loaded(latter years, most money). Not guaranteed. For a reason. As players get older, teams can easily cut them rather than pay out the bulk of the contract. All they have to do is take the cap hit & not pay.

A 7 year $90 mil deal for example might only really cost about 20-30 million over 3-4 years because the 60-70 million is all due in the final years of the deal.

Like Y. Bell got for example. He ISN'T making the $6.75 million he was slated to. He made a couple million each of the first 3 years of the deal & then BOOM. Big Money in the final year & he gets cut. He was no longer worth it or affordable.

Tim Couch suggested guys like him still get paid & they don't. Guys like that get cut so they wouldn't get paid!

I really don't understand how some of you are confused by this very basic principle.

[Mike]

The Dolphins played Arizona on the road and Seattle at home in 2008. I though this cycled - why is it the same in 2012?

[ismael]

ahahahah!!!! with this S-H-I-T roster against this schedule, our record will be 3-13.... but hey the positive thing is that may be with this record finally Jeff Dumberland´ll be FIRED and we´ll have our franchise QB with selecting Matt Berkley next year!!! ahahahhah!!! Steven Ross PIECE OF S.H.I.T!!!!!

[thepirate19]

Every game is tough if we can't stop the pass like every yr and we fail to put up points like most yrs

[Poizen]

I'm here, but what to say?

[Ryan Leaf]

Boring schedule.

[jeff]

10-6. Book it

[Ripp]

Difficulty of schedule is such an overrated thing. Teams rise and teams fall. One of the great things about the NFL is that you just can't predict what is going to happen.

[ismael]

come on!!! with this trash players that we have in Miami, is so predictible that we´ll fail AGAIN!!!!!

[Tracy474]

9-7.

[JLO]

Y'all craaazeee! <3

[Nikki Minaj]

It's only so much one black woman can handle!!!

[Brandrop Marshall]

1) don't be surprised by our home slate: when your team stinks, you play other stinky teams. that's NFL scheduling.
2) New England plays in a bad division: no surprise their schedule is soft.

[Harold]

The scheduling hoopla is nonsense for a couple of reasons. Miami plays the same schedule as every other team in the division, with the exception of 2 games. Every year. Second if you go by previous year W-L records, how many teams had penciled in W's that had games against Miami in 2008. Then you factor in injuries etc, and it really is pointless to speculate. That is why they play the games.

[cowkilla]

How the heck does The darn Patty's get the easiest schedule? Is it a lotto drawing or something like that? How is that fair?

[fyi]

the reason the pats have the easiest schedule is becasue they get to play bills jets and dolphins twice. than they play nfc east and the afc south. aout of all those teams only two made. so that is 14 games and out of those 14 games only two have reached the playoff. SF and Houston. so if we want pats to play harder schedule the AFC east hast to get alot stronger

[jduke]

Well said fyi. Simply pu,we (and the Bills and Jets)are the reason the Pats have an easy schedule.

[oscar canosa]

Hell, I wouldn't dare to make W/L predictions at least until the 3rd Game into the Season. I guess you People have more balls than I have, or less Reason.