24. Miami Dolphins
The Miami Dolphins are not the most impressive team in the league right now, but they also might just be a little dangerous. The Dolphins traded away Jaelan Phillips, they fired their GM, and Mike McDaniel was seemingly on the chopping block, the hottest of hot seats.
How has the team responded? After getting blown out by the Ravens in the first game back for Lamar Jackson, they absolutely blew out the Bills (which shocked all of us), and they just grinded out an ugly win against the Commanders in Madrid.
It doesn’t exactly feel like the Dolphins are going to be making the playoffs this year, but they could end up being a thorn in the side of everyone they play the rest of the way. They’ve won three of their last four games with their backs against the wall. McDaniel may be making his best case yet to be this team’s head coach going forward.
23. Cincinnati Bengals
With news that Joe Burrow was making his way back to the practice field, you almost felt like the Cincinnati Bengals were going to have a little extra wind in their sails going up against the Pittsburgh Steelers. That did not happen.
The Bengals got blown out against Pittsburgh, which lost starting quarterback Aaron Rodgers during the game as well. Backup Mason Rudolph came in and kind of carved up the Bengals defense, but who hasn’t done that this year?
This Cincinnati team is now 3-7 and it might just be the wisest course of action for them here in the very near future to just punt to next year. There is no reason to subject Joe Burrow to further injury unless they truly believe they can win the division. The next week or two might be big determining factors for whether or not Burrow will actually play again this season.