Miami Dolphins 2024 Week 13 Rooting Guide

The Miami Dolphins’ hopes of advancing to the playoffs this season took a hit with their 30-17 loss to the Green Bay Packers on Thanksgiving night, but that doesn’t mean the door has closed.

The Dolphins are 5-7 heading into their last five games: at home against the New York Jets, at Houston, at home against San Francisco, at Cleveland and against the Jets.

The Dolphins are currently tied for ninth in the AFC standings with the Indianapolis Colts, two full games behind the seventh-place Denver Broncos.

Heading into Sunday’s Week 13 games, it still appears we’re looking at three tiers of AFC teams, with six teams that appear likely or almost certain to make the playoffs: Kansas City Chiefs, Buffalo Bills, Baltimore Ravens , Pittsburgh. Steelers, Houston Texans and Los Angeles Chargers.

Six teams (the New England Patriots, Tennessee Titans, Jacksonville Jaguars, Las Vegas Raiders, New York Jets and Cleveland Browns) don’t appear to have much chance of making the playoffs.

This leaves four teams likely competing for that final AFC playoff spot: the Dolphins, Broncos, Colts and perhaps the Cincinnati Bengals, despite their 4-7 record.

The Dolphins got a little help last weekend when the Indianapolis Colts lost to the Detroit Lions, but they’ll need more going forward, including this weekend.

Cleveland (in Denver), Monday, 8:15 p.m. ET

The Broncos are the team that seems most likely to stand in the Dolphins’ path to the playoffs. The Browns are coming off a snow night win against the Pittsburgh Steelers, so maybe they can make it two games in a row.

Atlanta (vs. LA Chargers), Sunday, 1 p.m. ET

This one is pretty easy, and the Falcons will have an advantage here facing a Chargers team that will travel across the country after a Monday night game.

New England (vs. Indianapolis), Sunday, 1 p.m. ET

The Colts could be a problem, not because they are a great team, but because they close the season with games against Tennessee, the New York Giants and Jacksonville. This is where the Dolphins would love a big departure for Drake Maye and a big release for Anthony Richardson.

Philadelphia at Baltimore, Sunday, 4:25 p.m. ET

The Ravens have alternated this season between looking like a team that doesn’t know how to finish and one that is a Super Bowl contender. It’s still hard to imagine them not making the playoffs, but the play here is clearly going in favor of the NFC contender.

San Francisco at Buffalo, Sunday, 8:20 p.m. ET

The Bills will clinch their fifth consecutive AFC East title with one more victory, and if it’s not this game, it will be another. But why not support the wildly unlikely possibility of a season-ending accident for the Bills?

Pittsburgh at Cincinnati, Sunday, 1 p.m. ET

This is a little difficult because the Bengals have the talent to make a run down the stretch, and the Steelers have a schedule that could lead to a massive drop, with games remaining against the Eagles, Ravens and Chiefs. Due to the large gap between the teams’ records, it’s more likely that Cincinnati can make a run, so this gives the nod to root for the Steelers here.

Jacksonville (in Houston), Sunday, 1 p.m. Eastern Time

I’m not anticipating a Jaguars upset here, but there’s nothing wrong with a Houston loss here in the event of an unexpected late-season collapse.

Washington (vs. Tennessee), 1 p.m. ET

The Titans have a very good defense, but their offense is not good enough to mount a long winning streak.

Seattle (at NY Jets), Sunday, 1 pm ET

Again, there’s no reason to expect anything close to an end-of-season winning streak for the Jets, but we’re including it here anyway because it’s an AFC-NFC matchup.

These are games for Dolphins fans to watch for pure pleasure or fantasy football because they don’t involve AFC teams or have implications for the future draft.

But here is the rest of Sunday’s programming, for the sake of thoroughness: