The Miami Dolphins are trying to get back on track in home openers this Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs at Hard Rock Stadium, after last year’s streak ended with a loss to the New England Patriots.
That defeat snapped a run of three straight home opener wins, and it also made this week’s matchup a little more notable: the Dolphins will be facing the Chiefs in a home opener for the second time. The first came in Week 7, after a players’ strike erased three weeks and Miami opened with back-to-back road games.
History has still been kind to Miami in these games. The Dolphins are 41-18-1 in openers, and that record comes with plenty of memorable swings, comebacks and one truly absurd marathon.
The wildest of the bunch was the 2018 opener against Tennessee, a game stretched by two lightning delays and dragged all the way to 7 hours, 8 minutes, the longest game in NFL history. The fourth quarter alone was packed with fireworks: Jakeem Grant brought back a kickoff 102 yards, Ryan Tannehill hit Kenny Stills for a 75-yard touchdown, and Darius Jennings answered with a 94-yard kickoff return for the Titans.
Miami’s 2023 opener against Denver belongs near the top for sheer production. The Dolphins piled up 726 total yards and got four touchdowns apiece from De'Von Achane and Raheem Mostert in a 70-20 rout.
There was also the 2001 opener against Buffalo, a game that had to be moved because of 9/11 and carried a different kind of weight from the start. Jay Fiedler finished it with a game-winning touchdown run, and the celebration became part of the memory too, thanks to the famous photo of him with his fist raised after diving into the end zone.
Another Dan Marino classic landed in the 1992 opener against New England. In his first regular-season game since tearing his Achilles tendon the previous October, Marino went toe-to-toe with Drew Bledsoe and delivered one of the defining passing performances of his career. Three of his five touchdown passes went to Irving Fryar, including the game-winner on a fourth-and-5 from 35 yards out.
The 2016 opener against Seattle had its own late-game drama. After dropping their first two games under Adam Gase, the Dolphins won when Jay Ajayi scored on an 11-yard run one play after Tannehill completed a 32-yard pass to Jarvis Landry.
The game also hinged on three missed Cody Parkey field goals, including a 46-yarder on the final play of regulation, and that win helped Miami reach the playoffs. Parkey later became the Dolphins’ kicker in 2017 and missed just two attempts all season.
Ryan Tannehill also starred in one of the more dramatic comeback wins of the group, leading Miami to victory with a late touchdown pass to tight end Dion Sims. Another opener worth remembering came when Ricky Williams announced himself with a dominant performance against Detroit, while Robert Edwards added a feel-good subplot by scoring two touchdowns in his first game back after a devastating injury at a Pro Bowl event.
Not every standout opener had to be close. Beating the Jets by 38 points still earned a place on the list, especially with Miami forcing six turnovers. And one other game made the cut for its sheer chaos: Tyreek Hill was detained near Hard Rock Stadium after a traffic violation, then later turned around and scored on an 80-yard touchdown pass from Tua Tagovailoa as the Dolphins rallied from behind.
The broader history is just as loaded. Miami’s full opener record runs from 1966 through 2025, with results that include ties, shutouts, blowouts and a few asterisk games tied to unusual circumstances. The strike in 1987, Hurricane Andrew in 1992, 9/11 in 2001 and Hurricane Irma in 2017 all affected scheduling in different ways, leaving their own marks on the franchise’s opener ledger.
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