20. Indianapolis Colts (8-9)
The Indianapolis Colts win a meaningless game in Week 18 and improve to 8-9 on the season in another lost year. I don't know if any of you saw it, but former Colts' great Pat McAfee went scorched-earth on his Twitter/X account recently about the state of the Colts, and much of what he said was truth.
Indy does not have a clear vision and have totally botched the QB room ever since Andrew Luck shockingly retired before the 2019 NFL Season. The Colts do have some talent on both sides of the ball and don't necessarily need to rip it down to the studs, but how could they trust GM Chris Ballard to bring in the right QB? I mean, he's failed to do it during his Colts' tenure. Anthony Richardson is most certainly not going to be the guy for them.
I have no idea what the Colts do, and this is a franchise that is just in no man's land. I like to call this group the 'irrelevant middle.'
19. Miami Dolphins (8-9)
Even if the Miami Dolphins had won this game in Week 18 against the New York Jets, they would have still missed the playoffs, as the Denver Broncos left no doubt and beat the snot out of the Kansas City Chiefs. The Dolphins have yet another failed season, and it again ends because of the same people - Tua Tagovailoa and Chris Grier. Tua Tagovailoa simply cannot stay consistently healthy, which is a huge concern.
And a ton of questionable roster moves in recent years by Grier has this team in a tough spot. Paying all that money to ‘Touchdown Tua’ is not a good idea if the offensive line is just OK and the backup QB isn’t anyone special. If you ask me, the Dolphins need to begin forming an ‘exit plan’ to move on from Tagovailoa when they contractually can.
He is not going to lead this team to where they want to go. The Dolphins lose their final game of the 2024 season, and in our final power rankings, come in at no. 19.
Change should be coming for this franchise, and they desperately need it.