AFC Outcomes Turn Bye Negative for the Miami Dolphins

In the NFL, a bye week is supposed to be a strategic advantage—time to heal, refine plays, and reset for the stretch run. But for the Miami Dolphins in 2025, their mid-November bye week turned into a liability, thanks to a cascade of unfavorable results across the AFC. AFC Outcomes Turn Bye Negative for the Miami Dolphins isn’t just about one bad game; it’s about how every key matchup during their rest period shifted against them, narrowing their playoff path and erasing the momentum they’d built earlier in the season. Before their bye, the Dolphins sat at 7-3, tied for first in the AFC East and in control of their playoff destiny. By the time they returned to practice, they were staring at a crowded AFC field, a division deficit, and no margin for error in their final five games.

AFC Outcomes Turn Bye Negative for the Miami Dolphins began with the Buffalo Bills—their biggest divisional threat—securing a dominant 31-14 win over the New England Patriots during the Dolphins’ bye. The Bills’ victory pushed them to 8-3, giving them a one-game lead in the AFC East and handing the Dolphins their first taste of division pressure since Week 5. What made the loss sting more was how easily the Bills won: Josh Allen threw three touchdowns, the defense held the Patriots to 214 total yards, and Buffalo looked like the Super Bowl contender many expected them to be. “We thought the bye would let us catch our breath,” said one Dolphins assistant coach, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Instead, the Bills used it to pull ahead, and we couldn’t do anything to stop it. That’s the worst part—watching your rival build momentum while you’re on the sidelines.” The Bills’ win wasn’t just a divisional setback; it also gave them the tiebreaker edge over the Dolphins, who had beaten Buffalo earlier in the season but now faced an uphill battle to reclaim the top spot.

AFC Outcomes Turn Bye Negative for the Miami Dolphins worsened with results from other AFC playoff contenders. The Baltimore Ravens, who would later face the Dolphins in Week 16, crushed the Cincinnati Bengals 34-17, improving to 10-2 and solidifying their hold on the AFC’s top seed. The Cleveland Browns, meanwhile, upset the Kansas City Chiefs 27-24 in overtime, moving to 9-3 and jumping ahead of the Dolphins in the wild-card race. Even the Jacksonville Jaguars—who had been struggling midseason—won their bye week game against the Tennessee Titans, pushing to 8-4 and adding another team to the crowded wild-card mix. “Every game that weekend went against us,” Dolphins general manager Chris Grier admitted in a post-bye press conference. “We knew the AFC was tough, but we didn’t expect so many contenders to win big while we were off. It changed the entire landscape—all of a sudden, we were fighting for a wild-card spot instead of leading the division.” The Dolphins’ playoff odds, which had been 78fore the bye, dropped to 52% by the time they returned to the field, according to ESPN’s Football Power Index.

AFC Outcomes Turn Bye Negative for the Miami Dolphins was compounded by the team’s own inability to fix key issues during the rest period. The Dolphins had hoped the bye would let tight end Darren Waller (calf strain) and defensive end Jaelan Phillips (ankle injury) return to full health, but both suffered minor setbacks in rehab, keeping them sidelined for at least another two weeks. Without Waller, the Dolphins’ passing game lacked a reliable secondary target, forcing Tua Tagovailoa to rely too heavily on Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle—who defenses could now double-team with impunity. Without Phillips, the pass rush, which had already been inconsistent, became even less threatening, allowing opposing quarterbacks more time to throw. “We planned the bye around getting those guys back,” head coach Mike McDaniel said. “When that didn’t happen, it threw off our entire strategy. We had to adjust on the fly, and that’s never easy in the NFL.” The Miami Dolphins’ offense, which had averaged 28 points per game before the bye, scored just 21 points in their first game back—a loss to the Jets that pushed their record to 7-4 and further damaged their playoff chances.

AFC Outcomes Turn Bye Negative for the Miami Dolphins also exposed a critical flaw in their schedule: their bye week fell at a time when most of their direct competitors had favorable matchups. The Bills faced the Patriots (a team the Dolphins had beaten twice), the Ravens played the Bengals (who were missing star quarterback Joe Burrow), and the Browns took on a Chiefs team that was dealing with injuries to their offensive line. The Dolphins, by contrast, returned to a brutal stretch: back-to-back games against the Jets, Ravens, and Bills—all teams fighting for playoff spots. “The schedule didn’t do us any favors,” Dolphins cornerback Xavien Howard said. “We came back to a gauntlet, while everyone else got to pad their records against weaker teams. It’s hard to compete when the deck is stacked like that.” The Miami Dolphins’ remaining schedule, which had looked manageable before the bye, now seemed like a death sentence—especially with their key players still injured and their confidence shaken by the AFC’s shifting landscape.

AFC Outcomes Turn Bye Negative for the Miami Dolphins wraps up with the team fighting to stay relevant in the playoff race as the regular season winds down. While they’ve since rebounded to 9-5, the damage from the bye week lingers: they’re still a game behind the Bills in the AFC East, and they face the Ravens and Bills again in their final two games—two must-wins if they hope to make the playoffs. For the Dolphins, the bye week serves as a cautionary tale about the NFL’s unpredictability: even the best-laid plans can be derailed by external results, and momentum can shift in an instant. “We learned a hard lesson,” McDaniel said. “You can’t control what other teams do, but you can control how you prepare. We didn’t use the bye as well as we should have, and we’re paying for it now.” In the end, AFC Outcomes Turn Bye Negative for the Miami Dolphins is a story of missed opportunities—on the practice field, in the training room, and in the AFC’s weekly matchups. And if the Dolphins don’t win their final two games, it will be the bye week that ultimately cost them a playoff spot.