2009 NFL season in review: Miami Dolphins


In the end they were 7-9 not to bad but not that good. It seems that the 2009 version of the Miami Dolphins were a very streaky team. They started the season with three straight losses, then lost QB Chad Pennington to an injury. In steps Chad Henne, and they win seven of the next ten games, only to end the season losing three straight. Hard to explain, but it seems this team just goes through streaks, streaks where the Wild Cat offense works very well, and streak where it just doesn’t.

Their offense scored 360 points, 15th best in the NFL, and 22.5 points/game. Henne completed over 60% of his passes, and threw for 12 TD’s but had 14 INT’s. Some of that gets explained away since he was essentially a rookie QB. On the ground they did gain over 2,000 yards as a team, led by Ricky Williams with 1,121 yards. It is kind of hard to evaluate their offense since they do so many different things, but it does not seem that the offense is the primary problem on this team.

Their defense gave up 390 points or 24.4 a game. That means that they were out scored on average by a little less than a field goal. On top of that their take away differential was -8, which means the Offense gave up a lot of turnovers, but the defense failed to make turnovers. This defense gave up 5,589 yards from scrimmage, and that simply will not do.

It seems that the Dolphins will use their 12th overall pick in the 2010 draft to start building on their defense. They need a run stopper in the middle of that defense and could use play makers along their defensive line. I would suspect they will use the draft and free agency to add a few linebackers before any moves are made to upgrade their offense.

Related Links:

Miami Dolphins news and notes
2010 NFL Draft news, notes, and rumors
•NFL Complete.com

Share this article: 2009 NFL season in review: Miami Dolphins
More from Inquisitr