What to Make of Fitzpatrick's Bold (And Ugly) Dolphins Prediction

If there's something the media and NFL fans alike enjoy, it's some bold predictions, and former Miami Dolphins QB Ryan Fitzpatrick had a doozy this week.

It involved his former team — we should specify the Dolphins because Fitzpatrick had a lot of former teams — and he stated plainly that if Miami can't defeat the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant Stadium on Sunday, they're headed for a winless season.

"If the Dolphins lose to the Raiders in Vegas on Sunday, I think they're going to go 0-17 this year," Fitzpatrick said during an episode of his Fitz and Whit podcast with former NFL tackle Andrew Whitworth. "I think they'll be the first team in NFL history to go 0-17."

Three NFL teams have gone 0-fer since the 1970 merger — the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (0-14), the 2008 Detroit Lions (0-16) and the 2017 Cleveland Browns (0-16).

The Dolphins came close to achieving the dubious distinction already, going 1-15 in 2007 with their only win coming after starting the season 0-13.

In making his prediction, Fitzpatrick points to the Dolphins roster and also their 2026 schedule, which features games against every team in the AFC West and the NFC North, along with San Francisco, Cincinnati and Indianapolis.

Fitz thinks there's a possibility the Dolphins become the first team to ever go 0-17 👀

"I don't see a whole lot of wins in there... look at the way that their roster is constructed this year, you feel bad for them" pic.twitter.com/qCcyAahqvu
— Fitz & Whit (@fitzandwhit) September 10, 2026

From this vantage point, Fitzpatrick is a great analyst, but there's a lot of pick at when we unpack his comments and reasoning for his bold prediction.

DID FITZ FORGET 2019?

The biggest thing that jumps out about Fitzpatrick's comments might be the fact he himself was part a team that at some point seemed destined to have a shot at an 0-fer season, the 2019 Dolphins.

Fitzpatrick actually was the starting quarterback when the Dolphins were humbled by a combined score of 102-10 in losing their first two games that season, 59-10 against the Baltimore Ravens and 43-0 against the Patriots.

The Dolphins eventually got to 0-7, and yet went 5-4 down the stretch.

Oh, and that included the stunning upset against those very same Patriots in the season finale.

Fitzpatrick also mentioned the Dolphins' current roster, including the seven waiver wire pick-ups after the cuts to 53.

"That's also not a good sign," Fitzpatrick said. "That shows you a little bit about where your roster is if you're picking up that many guys on the waiver wire now."

Here's the thing, though: Those 2019 Dolphins picked up not seven, but six players off waivers between the cuts to 53 and their season opener that year, so what's one more guy?

It also says here the Dolphins' roster, while indeed very young, should be much better than the one who produced that big upset win at New England in that 2019 season finale.

Here's the list of every starter from that day: Ryan Fitzpatrick at QB, Patrick Laird at RB, Albert Wilson and DeVante Parker at WR, Durham Smythe at TE, and six offensive linemen, Julian Davenport, Michael Deiter, Daniel Kilgore, Shaq Calhoun, Jesse Davis and Adam Pankey.

On defense, the starters were John Jenkins, Davon Godchaux, Christian Wilkins, Calvin Munson, Andrew Van Ginkel, Jerome Baker, Trent Harris, Nate Brooks, Nik Needham, Eric Rowe and Adrian Colbert.

Again, with all due respect to those 2019 starters, was that really a better group than what the Dolphins will be putting on the field in 2026?

ANY GIVEN SUNDAY

The bottom line is just because the Dolphins are going to be underdogs practically every week, it doesn't mean they can't pull off an upset or two.

When Whitworth mentions the schedule, Whitworth brings up the Colts and how that matchup changes if Indy has to play without Daniel Jones, who is coming back from an Achilles tear.

There's no two ways around it, the Dolphins do have a difficult schedule to navigate, but injuries always can change the outlook — and we've already seen some significant injuries around the league, with Sam Darnold and A.J. Brown both leaving the New England-Seattle kickoff game early.

The Raiders and Jets look like the two teams the Dolphins are most likely to defeat at this time, though Fitzpatrick says he expects them to be much improved. Perhaps, but the Dolphins still are 16-4 in their last 20 matchups against the Jets and haven't been swept by them since 2015.

"They're playing the Jets twice, and that's their shot," Fitzpatrick said. "That's their shot. And as I talked about last week, I think the Jets are much improved this year, and they're going to show it on the field. So I'm sitting there looking at it, going, I don't see a whole lot of wins in there, Whit. I really don't. So let's make the bold prediction: 0-17."

Props to Fitzpatrick to being bold and not merely saying that the Dolphins will have a bad record, which pretty much seems a universal national prognostication.

It's just that if anybody should know not to count ount a talent-deficient team going through a rebuilding project after dumping a bunch of high-profile veterans (like the Dolphins did in 2019 with Ryan Tannehill, Cameron Wake and Robert Quinn), well, it's Fitzpatrick.

Add us as a preferred source on Google