The Early Line on the Dolphins' 2021 Games

The Miami Dolphins have an even split of being favorites or underdogs in 2021 based on early betting lines

The early view of the Miami Dolphins is much more positive than at this time last year, based on projected betting lines, but it still doesn't necessarily reflect the progress they made in 2020.

The Dolphins are favored in eight of their 17 games, based on early lines produced by VSiN, a sports betting network, with another game set up as a pick 'em.

The pick 'em game is the Week 3 matchup against the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant Stadium, site of last year's miraculous Dolphins finish that produced a 26-25 victory.

That is, per VSiN, the only one of the first five games where the Dolphins are NOT underdogs.

Based on these early projections, the Dolphins' toughest game will be Week 5 at Tampa Bay when VSiN has them as 7.5-point underdogs against Tom Brady and the defending Super Bowl champion Bucs. The Dolphins also are 7-point underdogs at Buffalo on Oct. 31.

RELATED: Ranking the Dolphins 2021 Schedule by Degree of Difficulty

The most favorable matchups, based on the early VSiN projections, will be home games against the Houston Texans (Dolphins are -7.5) and New York Jets (-6.5).

The Dolphins have a stretch of four games where they're early favorites: at the Jets (-3), vs. Carolina (-4.5), vs. the New York Giants (-3.5) and vs. the Jets.

The early lines around this time last year had the Dolphins favored in only three of their 16 games, which was understandable coming off their 5-11 record in 2019.

Things change obviously throughout the course of a season and the Dolphins ended up being favored in seven games on the final lines, including double-digit spreads against both the New York Jets and Cincinnati Bengals, something that had happened only once since 2009 (vs. Cleveland at home in 2016).

It obviously would be a positive sign if the Dolphins ended up being double-digit favorites at any point in the 2021 season.

For now, this is what it looks like:

EARLY DOLPHINS LINES (per VSiN)

at New England — Patriots by 2.5

vs. Buffalo — Bills by 3.5

at Las Vegas — Pick 'em

vs. Indianapolis — Colts by 1.5

at Tampa Bay — Buccaneers by 7.5

vs. Jacksonville (at London, England) — Dolphins by 1.5

vs. Atlanta — Dolphins by 3.5

at Buffalo — Bills by 7

vs. Houston — Dolphins by 7.5

vs. Baltimore — Ravens by 3

at N.Y. Jets — Dolphins by 3

vs. Carolina — Dolphins by 4.5

vs. N.Y. Giants — Dolphins by 3.5

vs. N.Y. Jets — Dolphins by 6.5

at New Orleans — Saints by 3.5

at Tennessee — Titans by 3

vs. New England — Dolphins by 2.5