The Miami Dolphins have an opportunity to fight their way into the postseason in Week 18. How are fans feeling about the team?
The Miami Dolphins enter Week 18 of the 2024 regular season with an 8-8 record, allowing them to extend their streak of winning seasons to five and their streak of playoff appearances to three with a victory on Sunday. A win over the New York Jets would clinch the winning season piece, but they will also need the Kansas City Chiefs to beat the Denver Broncos to make it to the playoffs.
How are fans feeling about the team heading into the regular season finale? Our SB Nation Reacts poll, brought to us by FanDuel sportsbook, is back to see what the fans are feeling when it comes to the 2024 Miami Dolphins.
Are the Miami Dolphins headed in the right direction? – Week 18 results
The holidays messed up our SB Nation Reacts polls – mainly because I thought I had posted the poll for Week 17, and I never did. That leaves us with Week 16 as the comparison point for our poll, and it is much different now. Heading into Week 16, the Dolphins were coming off a loss to the Houston Texans and it looked like their playoff chances were just about gone. Only nine percent of the fans believed the team was headed in the right direction as the 2024 season looked bleak.
The Dolphins went on to beat the San Francisco 49ers in Week 16, reviving their playoff chances and suddenly opening a path to the postseason that seemed realistic. The Dolphins, at 7-8, did not need a bunch of losses from half the league, but rather were down to needing assistance from the Broncos and the Indianapolis Colts. This would have been an interesting poll to see, but again, we missed the survey between Weeks 16 and 17.
Now, as we head into Week 18, the Dolphins are coming off a victory over the Cleveland Browns in Week 17 and have set themselves up for the playoff berth. A win over the struggling Jets, completing the season sweep over their AFC East rivals, and a loss by the Broncos as they face the two-time reigning Super Bowl champion Chiefs is a realistic result for Miami. Of course, the Chiefs have clinched the top seed in the AFC and are expected to rest most of their starters, so the Broncos will be playing for their playoff lives against a team that has no need to win – not ideal for the Dolphins.
After Week 16’s nine percent mark, the fan confidence poll for Dolphins fans jumped up to 31 percent this week.
How will it all turn out? How will Dolphins fans feel about the team after this weekend’s games? We will be back next week to see where we stand.
Week 1: 85%
Week 2: 82%
Week 3: 15%
Week 4: 9%
Week 5: 5%
Week 6: 8%
Week 7: 20%
Week 8: 22%
Week 9: 7%
1Week 10: 12%
Week 11: 41%
Week 12: 65%
Week 13: 79%
Week 14: 19%
Week 15: 48%
Week 16: 9%
Week 17: —
Week 18: 31%
Dolphins opponent fan confidence: New York Jets
On the other sideline this week for the Dolphins are the Jets, who have stumbled their way through much of the season. All of the preseason expectations and hopes with the return of quarterback Aaron Rodgers have turned out to be nothing more than talk, with the team sitting at 4-12 on the year and holding on to a top ten pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.
The speculation is swirling that this could be Rodgers’ last game, likely as a Jets player and potentially as a player overall. New York has not had the season the fans expected, and the fan confidence poll reflects that. The survey started the year at 84 percent believing the Jets were headed in the right direction, but now has been in the single digits for nine of the last 11 weeks. Heading into this weekend’s game, just five percent of the fans believe the Jets are headed in the right direction.
Jets fan confidence:
Week 1: 83%
Week 2: 45%
Week 3: 59%
Week 4: 84%
Week 5: 24%
Week 6: 17%
Week 7: 28%
Week 8: 6%
Week 9: 3%
Week 10: 28%
Week 11: 5%
Week 12: 6%
Week 13: 6%
Week 14: 7%
Week 15: 8%
Week 16: 20%
Week 17: 8%
Week 18: 5%