The following is an excerpt from Warren Sharp's 2026 Football Preview. In addition to Warren's deep, detailed write-up on all 32 NFL teams, each chapter features page after page of full-color charts, stats, and heatmaps, as well as penalty analysis from Joe Gibbs. Click here for a full FREE chapter from the 2026 Football Preview.
Penalties are an under-discussed aspect of NFL success and failure. Average teams can become playoff contenders with good discipline, and good teams can become great simply by winning the penalty battle.
Let's look at how the Miami Dolphins performed from a penalty perspective in 2025 and where they can improve in 2026.
Miami Dolphins 2026 Penalty Outlook: Discipline, Flags & Hidden Edges
The Good
- The Dolphins ranked as one of the least penalized offenses in the NFL on third-down plays.
- The Dolphins generated the most false start penalties per game on opposing teams in home games. There is some randomness in these numbers year to year, but Miami is a deceptively difficult environment to perform in, primarily due to the South Florida heat and humidity. The conditions often lead to mistakes, as evidenced here.
The Bad
- The Miami offense generated the fewest penalties per game on opposing defenses, a major decline from 2024 when Miami ranked fifth overall in this category.
- The offense generated the fewest fourth-quarter penalties on opposing defenses.
- The offense ranked an anemic 32nd in generating beneficial automatic first downs via penalty in 2025 after ranking in the top 10 in this category in 2024.
- The defense co-ranked second (with Detroit) in surrendering automatic first downs via penalty per game.
- The above points added up to the Dolphins recording the worst negative automatic first downs via penalty discrepancy in 2025.
Grade: C
The Dolphins enter 2026 with a new coach and quarterback combination, firmly in rebuild mode.
The Dolphins traded away key players and took on massive dead cap hits in the offseason, primarily via absorbing large portions of veteran contracts, especially the ill-fated Tua Tagovailoa deal.
Although Miami ownership won’t publicly acknowledge it, this season is a full-on reset, with the front office having one eye on the quarterback-rich 2027 NFL Draft.
This analysis continues in the 2026 Football Preview
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Warren Sharp’s 600+ page full-color PDF, the 2026 Football Preview, is unlike anything you have read. Stunning visualizations, including new heat maps and stat pages, are built with the reader in mind. Innovative, next-level thought processes abound in every team chapter and article.
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Warren Sharp's book shares insights into the players, coaches, teams, and philosophies with one goal: to prepare you for the 2026 NFL season with the smartest information delivered in the fastest, most direct way possible for optimal reviewing and retention.
- Team Chapters previews are in-depth, data-driven & full of actionable info
- Fantasy Football player profiles, predictions, and ranks
- Vegas Odds forecast team wins, division rankings, lines for all 2026 games
- Coaching strategic advice for teams, play-calling analysis & team tendencies
- Front Office Analysis positional spending, roster construction & cap analysis
- Reasons to bet over/under win totals & analysis of futures betting market
- Rookie draft class deep dive into impact for every team
- Rankings for every positional unit on every team with analysis
- Penalty analysis for all 32 NFL teams
