The following is an excerpt from Warren Sharp's 2025 Football Preview book. 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 2025 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 2024 and where they can improve in 2025.
How Did Penalties Impact the Miami Dolphins?
The Good
- The Dolphins defense surrendered automatic first downs via penalty at a below average rate. More importantly, 77% of these infractions were committed on less punitive first and second-down plays.
- The defense ranked as the No. 1 home team at generating false starts on opposing offenses. Conversely, they ranked 18th in this category on the road.
The Bad
- The Dolphins ended the 2024 season ranked seventh in penalty per game average on the road.
- The combination of false start and offensive holding accounted for 44% of the team's penalties, above the NFL average of 38.7%. An above average 62% of these penalties were committed in road games.
- The Dolphins ranked second in declined penalties per game (declined by their opposition), with the vast majority being declined on the offensive side of the ball.
- The special teams unit ended the 2024 season as a top-five penalized unit.
Grade: C
The Dolphins offense doesn't scare opposing defenses like it did in the early years of Mike McDaniel’s tenure. For the most part, defenses have solved the puzzle when it comes to slowing this team down.
Add in injury-prone Tua Tagovailoa playing behind a subpar offensive line, and the foundation feels shaky for a Miami team built around a high-octane offense.
Miami does benefit from a manageable early season schedule, and it is essential they get to the midway point of the season with a winning record if they want to have any chance of making the playoffs.
This is not a team built to play in cold conditions, which is a problem with three probable cold weather road games on the schedule in the final month or so of the 2025 season.
The truth is, this Dolphins team may have hit its peak in the Mike McDaniel era.
Heading into 2025, it feels like there are too many points of concern on the roster, and this team could undergo major changes in the offseason if they again finish with a losing record.
This analysis continues in the 2025 Football Preview
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