End of Season Clears Up Draft Spot, 2026 Schedule, Incentives

The Miami Dolphins wrapped up the 2025 season with a 7-10 record

New England Patriots defensive tackle Cory Durden (94) reacts to a defensive stop against the Miami Dolphins during the first half at Gillette Stadium. | Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images

The Miami Dolphins wrapped up their highly disappointing 2025 season with a thud at Gillette Stadium on Sunday, and it wasn't the only bummer of the day.

The Dolphins entered the game holding the 11th spot in the 2026 NFL draft and they ended the day in the exact same spot after the three teams they could have jumped all also lost. Those teams are the New Orleans Saints, who dropped a 19-17 decision against the Atlanta Falcons; the Cincinnati Bengals, who lost on a last-second field goal against the Cleveland Browns; and lastly the Kansas City Chiefs, who lost against the Las Vegas Raiders on a 60-yard field goal in the final seconds.

The Dolphins ended up as the only team in the league to finish with a 7-10 record, but they would have gotten a higher draft position than any team that could have reached that spot with a win Sunday based on the strength of schedule tiebreaker.

As the only team to finish 7-10, this means the Dolphins will have the 11th spot in every round of the draft.

2026 OPPONENTS SET

With the end of the regular season comes the finalizing of the 2026 opponents, and the last unkown entry for the Dolphins ended up being the San Francisco 49ers.

The Dolphins finished third in the AFC East and will face the third-place 49ers as the "17th game," which next year takes place in the NFC city. So the Dolphins will face the 49ers at Levi Stadium.

The other games that were not pre-scheduled involved the third-place finishers in the AFC North and AFC South, and the Dolphins will face Cincinnati at Hard Rock Stadium and the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium — both exact repeats from this season.

Before the season even began, the Dolphins' other 14 games had been determined, in addition to the six division games: home against the Kansas City Chiefs, L.A. Chargers, Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions, and on the road against the Denver Broncos, Las Vegas Raiders, Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings.

BROOKS, PATTERSON GET IT DONE

Among individual players, it was a good day for linebacker Jordyn Brooks and kicker Riley Patterson.

Brooks won the NFL tackle title, actually increasing the lead over Raiders LB Devin White that he carried into the season finale. Brooks had nine tackles against New England to finish with 183 on the season, while White had six against Kansas City to finish with 174.

Patterson made his only field goal attempt, but the 52-yarder in the first half was big because he needed only not to miss to set the Dolphins' single-season field goal accuracy record.

Patterson finished the season with a 93.1 success rate with his 27-of-29 showing, breaking the team record of .923 set by Jason Sanders in 2020 when he was 36-of-39.

CAN'T CASH IN

Unfortunately, the Dolphins' defensive collapse meant bad news for Bradley Chubb.

As has been widely reported for a few weeks now, Chubb needed for the Dolphins to rank in the top 20 in the NFL in fewest points allowed to cash in on more than $5 million worth of incentives he had reached with his 8.5 sacks on the season and his playing time.

With the 38-10 loss against the Patriots, the Dolphins ended 24th in points allowed, 13 points out of the 20th place, occupied by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers unless the Baltimore-Pittsburgh Sunday night game turns into a wild shootout.

The 24th-place finish was good news for safety Ashtyn Davis, who earned $500,000 in playing time incentives by the team finishing in the top 25.