Dolphins 2024 NFL Schedule Released for Tua Tagovailoa, Tyreek Hill's Super Bowl Push

For two straight seasons, the Miami Dolphins have gotten off to a red-hot start before floundering down the stretch.

With Super Bowl aspirations coming from the top down, simply making the playoffs won't be good enough in 2024.

The Dolphins enter next season with rising expectations. They've been the darlings of September, going 6-1 in the first month of the season over the last two years. They've also been the sport's biggest disappointments of December and January, posting a combined 4-8 record in those months the last two years.

The high-powered Miami offense froze up in last year's playoff appearance against the Kansas City Chiefs, scoring just seven points in a 26-7 rout by the defending champs.

2024 Miami Dolphins Schedule

Analysis

The Dolphins are tied with the Arizona Cardinals and Seattle Seahawks for the 24th-hardest schedule in the NFL, with their 2024 opponents boasting a .488 winning percentage. Ten of their games will come against teams that went above .500 last season, but only seven of those contests are against playoff teams.

The AFC East's common non-divisional opponents are the NFC West and AFC South, which isn't the easiest go of things.

The San Francisco 49ers, Los Angeles Rams and Seattle Seahawks were all above .500 last season, and the Arizona Cardinals should be vastly improved with Kyler Murray back to full health. The AFC South is filled with upstart teams trying to build Super Bowl contenders. The Houston Texans put one of the NFL's best rosters around second-year quarterback CJ Stroud, the Indianapolis Colts could take a leap with quarterback Anthony Richardson returning, and it's time for Trevor Lawrence to ascend in Jacksonville.

The Tennessee Titans are the lone doormat on the common-opponent slate.

Things don't get much easier for Miami in its non-common games, as it'll take trips to a pair of Super Bowl contenders in Green Bay and Cleveland. There's a winnable game against the Las Vegas Raiders mixed in, but this isn't an easy slate.

Pivotal Matchups

The Dolphins' success will come down to winning the games they're meant to while competing with the Buffalo Bills and New York Jets at the top. The New England Patriots are in the early stages of a full-scale rebuild and probably won't need to be paid attention to until at least 2025.

Miami needs to sweep New England, take care of Las Vegas, Arizona and Tennessee at home and then play .500 against a difficult schedule elsewhere. That gets the Dolphins to an 11-6 record and a playoff berth; what they do from there is up to them.

Tagovailoa needs to take a leap. There's no other way around it. Mike McDaniel's scheme and the elite skill position players around him have propped up Tagovailoa's numbers, and he's struggled in big games.

Tagovailoa's quarterback rating was 14 points lower on the road than at home and nearly 30 points lower in losses than wins. Those aren't the splits of an elite quarterback.

With a new contract likely coming down the pike, it'll be up to Tagovailoa to prove himself capable of winning big games or he could wind up playing the franchise tag game in 2025.

Just making the playoffs won't be good enough in 2024. Tua Tagovailoa has an elite supporting cast on offense with Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle at receiver and the fastest running back room in football with Raheem Mostert, Devon Achane and Jaylen Wright.