The Miami Dolphins are the exact opposite of fine wine, cheese and that hot cougar who lives down the street. They're only getting worse with age, and it's backed up by data. Data journalist Rob Barry pointed out on his website that the Fins are one of only two teams whose win percentage has gotten worse every single decade over the past five decade (the other being the Oakland Raiders).
Here's the Dolphins win percentage from the highpoint of the '70s (which included that perfect season) to our current decade:
That shouldn't be much of a surprise really. The '70s were the Don Shula and Bob Griese-led unstoppable Dolphins. The '80s were the rise and prime of Dan Marino. The '90s were "Hey, we've still got Dan Marino!" The '00s were "Oh crap, we don't have Dan Marino anymore. What do we do?" And this decade is, well, still kind of "Seriously, what do we do without Dan Marino?"
Barry also breaks down the team's fortunes using the Glicko rating system by coaches. Shula was obviously the best, while Jimmy Johnson and Dave Wannstedt at least managed to keep the team respectable. The carousal of coaches since have been mostly a joke with the best run coming during Tony Sporano's tenure and that one time he made the playoffs.
No one really expects the Dolphins to get much better next season despite having just missed the playoffs this past season.
ESPN's early 2014 power rankings have the team at a lowly 24th (only ahead of the Bills in the AFC East). Meanwhile, Bleacher Report has the team ranked 32nd out of 32nd. Of course, there's always room for surprises but no one seems to have much confidence in QB Ryan Tannehill really developing into an "elite" talent, nor much for head coach Joe Philbin and the team's depleted defense.
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