The Miami Dolphins have spent the opening stretch of the season walking straight into the NFL’s hardest possible road.
Heading into Week 4, Miami is one of five winless teams in the league at 0-3, but the record only tells part of the story. The bigger issue is who the Dolphins have had to face. Their strength of schedule through three games sits at 1.000 - the maximum possible mark - because every opponent they’ve played has been unbeaten.
That run started in Week 1 at the Raiders, who were 3-0 at the time, and ended in a 27-13 loss. Week 2 brought a trip to the 49ers, also 3-0, and another defeat, 35-13.
Then came the Chiefs, yet another 3-0 team, who beat Miami 24-10 in Week 3. Now the Dolphins go to the Vikings in Week 4, and Minnesota is also 3-0.
The only other undefeated team in the league is the Bills, and Miami will see them twice this season.
There’s some obvious math behind this. A winless team in late September is going to make other teams look better, because those opponents have already banked one of their wins against you. Even with that built in, though, this start has landed in rare territory.
According to CBS Sports Research, only 10 teams in NFL history have opened with three games and a 1.000 strength-of-schedule rating. In other words, just nine other teams have had their first three opponents all enter Week 4 at 3-0.
From there, the Dolphins have taken it a step further. Of those 10 teams, only two have had to face another undefeated opponent in Week 4: the 2026 Dolphins and the 1986 Eagles.
That means Miami’s first four weeks have produced a kind of schedule punishment that only one other team has ever seen, and the last example came 40 years ago. The 1986 Eagles were also 0-3 before knocking off the 3-0 Rams 34-20 in Week 4 as a six-point underdog. So the Dolphins are not the first team to stumble into this kind of start - but they are in extremely unusual company.
Through three weeks, Miami owns the league’s toughest schedule by a wide margin. The Dolphins are first at 1.000, while the Buccaneers, Chargers, Rams and Saints are tied for second at .778.
At the other end of the list, the Raiders have had the easiest slate so far at .111. Their three opponents have combined for a 1-8 record, and they’ve turned that into a 3-0 start. That number will rise quickly this week, though, when they face the undefeated Chiefs.
Miami’s schedule should finally loosen up in Week 5, when the Bengals come to town. Cincinnati is set to play the Jaguars on Sunday, so the Bengals will either arrive in Miami at 3-1 or 2-2.
The Dolphins’ outlook has already been made tougher by another hit to the roster: they lost their best offensive player for the season, De'Von Achane (ACL). With the record, the schedule and that injury all stacking up, it could be a rough year in Miami.
In Other News...
Dolphins Secondary Shakeup Reveals Who Jeff Hafley Trusts Right Now
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Julius Woods role was also worth watching, since he got on the field in a nickel/corner look for the first time. For a team in rebuild mode, those kinds of usage shifts matter because they can quickly reveal which young defenders are moving up the depth chart and which combinations Hafley wants to keep testing as the season unfolds. [Read more 🡒]
Dolphins Just Made A Quarterback Bet That Could Define This Rebuild
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What makes this bet notable is the runway attached to it. Miami is giving Willis at least two seasons to show he can be more than a stopgap, banking on his physical tools and mental toughness to help steady an offense that needs direction. If he can settle in and deliver, the Dolphins may have found a foundation piece for this next phase, and if not, the reset clock on the rebuild could start ticking all over again. [Read more 🡒]
Chargers Already Have A Problem Fans Will Put On Harbaugh
Early-season 0-3 starts always force a hard look at where things have gone sideways, and the Dolphins are part of a strange little group already feeling that pressure alongside Houston, the Chargers, Tampa Bay and Tennessee. In Miamis case, the conversation is less about a single bad quarter than the broader mix of injuries, offensive issues and defensive inconsistency that can turn a promising team into one chasing answers before the calendar has really settled.
For the Dolphins, the concern is not just the record but how quickly a season can start to feel like it is slipping away when so many pieces are not quite holding together. The same theme runs through the leagues other winless starts, with different teams blamed for different reasons, but Miamis challenge is more familiar than dramatic: getting healthy, getting cleaner and finding a level of play that keeps the losses from piling up any further. [Read more 🡒]