Dolphins and the Playoff Experience Issue

It's been a while since the Miami Dolphins have been in the playoffs, and it will represent a new experience for more than half the roster.

Cornerback Xavien Howard is the only remaining player from the last Dolphins playoff team, the team that lost against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2016 wild-card round.

All told, 33 of the 53 players currently on the active roster have never appeared in the postseason, and that list includes a lot of prominent players such as Tua Tagovailoa, Jaylen Waddle, Robert Hunt, Mike Gesicki, Christian Wilkins, Jerome Baker, Jevon Holland and Bradley Chubb.

Head coach Mike McDaniel spoke Monday about that issue of playoff inexperience.

“I think the team gained a bunch of valuable experience with this end of the season stretch," he said. "A lot of the team hadn’t been exposed to significant primetime games, so they had not only a lot of exposure, but they had failed expectations, which is tough. And then the biggest thing is win or go home, that you feel in the playoffs. And that’s definitely what they felt (Sunday). They knew that was the case. So those were the biggest mountains that I was worried about.

"Outside of that, it’s going to be important for those guys that haven’t played in a playoff game to remind them of the most obvious thing in the world, that is probably the thing that comes up the strong, especially with young teams and playoffs, is that it’s a football game. So you prepare for it, to give your best effort, but you don’t have to do things outside of yourself for the outcome that you want to exist. So you have to make sure that guys don’t press, I would have been a lot more nervous had we not had a play-in game just last Sunday for at least a taste, because it is different.”

McDaniel certainly makes a good point that the Jets game Sunday pretty much was a a playoff game for the Dolphins because it was a win-or-out scenario.

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DOLPHINS PLAYERS WITH PLAYOFF EXPERIENCE

The other point that's important to make is that it's not like the Dolphins don't have a lot of players with playoff experience.

The Dolphins have 20 players on their active roster with playoff experience, and they have combined for 102 postseason games.

Those with the most playoff experience are punter Thomas Morstead with 15 games, wide receiver Tyree Hill with 13, linebacker Elandon Roberts with 10 and tackle Terron Armstead with nine.

The other Dolphins players with playoff experience are, listed alphabetically, DB Justin Bethel, QB Teddy Bridgewater, WR River Cracraft, CB Keion Crossen, Howard, LB Melvin Ingram, DT John Jenkins, T Kendall Lamm, RB Raheem Mostert, LB Duke Riley, S Eric Rowe, T Brandon Shell, WR Trent Sherfield, C Connor Williams, WR Cedrick Wilson Jr. and RB Jeff Wilson Jr.

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