Fitzpatrick on why 0-17 is a real possibility for Miami. And Dolphins quick hits

A six-pack of Dolphins notes on a Tuesday:

▪ Amazon Prime analyst Ryan Fitzpatrick, who quarterbacked the last dreadful Dolphins team in 2019, isn’t backing off his prediction that Miami will go 0-17 as it embarks on another major rebuild.

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On a Zoom session to promote Prime’s Thursday NFL coverage that starts this week with Lions-Bills, I asked Fitzpatrick why he believes Miami will go winless. His full answer:

“Part of it is self-inflicted with all the dead money. They’ve got over $180 million in dead cap. Tua [Tagovailoa], Tyreek [Hill], Jaylen Waddle, [Bradley] Chubb, [Jalen] Ramsey, Minkah [Fitzpatrick] — all those guys that are on the books but not on the roster; that’s part of it.

“Jeff Hafley’s comments [to Stephen A. Smith, which he has since clarified] and reading between the tea leaves with him saying success isn’t measured by wins and losses. That said a lot. The amount of guys they claimed off waivers [seven] after that first cut. There’s a lot going on that reminded me of that 2019 season there.

“We started 0-7 [in 2019]. We lost the first four games by an average of 34 points a game. A game! We were not even given the chance to succeed. So 0-17 I feel is within reach and part of it is because of who they’re playing. They’re playing the NFC North and AFC West, which I think is really important.

“Their other games are at San Fran, Indy and Cincy. The Jets look like they’re going to be better. I just started doing the calculations and thought, ‘Gosh, this is a real possibility.’ But the people that can get in the way of a tank are the coaches and the players. And that’s what happened in 2019. So I’m rooting for them to screw it up and get in the way of it. But I think 0-17 is [realistic].”

The Dolphins are not tanking in the traditional sense; they retained several of their best players and signed a legitimate quarterback (Malik Willis) instead of an aging backup retread. But they opted to go with youth at several positions instead of signing potentially better stopgap veterans.

Five teams have gone winless since 1960: the ‘60 Dallas Cowboys (0-11-1), the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (0-14 in their first season); the 1982 Baltimore Colts (0-8-1 in a strike shortened season), the 2008 Detroit Lions (first team to go 0-16) and the 2017 Cleveland Browns (0-16 under head coach Hue Jackson).

▪ Willis, who ran for 39 yards (6.5 per carry) and a touchdown in the opener at Las Vegas, has a chance to break Jay Fielder’s single-season record for rushing yards by a Dolphins quarterback (321 in 2001). As perspective, former Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa rushed for 43 yards all of last season.

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“Any of the great teams, good teams, like most of them have quarterbacks that can extend plays, and make those off-schedule plays,” center Aaron Brewer said Monday when asked about the benefit of Willis’ mobility.

▪ The Dolphins kept receiver/special teams player Ryan Miller active on Sunday instead of Jalen Tolbert, a former Cowboys starter and the team’s most accomplished receiver. But Pro Football Focus rated Miller as Miami’s worst player on special teams on Sunday.

▪ For all of the shortcomings of the Dolphins’ offensive line on Sunday, a decent number of the Raiders’ 17 offensive pressures were the byproduct of Willis holding the ball for a while, sometimes too long. Two or three of the Raiders’ five sacks seemed to be Willis’ fault.

Per Pro Football Focus, Willis had the second most time to throw among all quarterbacks in Week 1, at 3.47 seconds, on average. Washington’s Jaylen Daniels was first at 3.48.

▪ Hafley won his first challenge as Dolphins coach, when a Caleb Douglas catch initially ruled out of bounds was ruled in bounds on replay. Hafley’s predecessor, Mike McDaniel, won only 4 of 21 challenges.

▪ Quick hits: Forbes this week estimated Dolphins owner Stephen Ross’ value at $21.5 billion, which would make him the 56th-wealthiest person in the United States, per Forbes’ calculations….

Fox assigned Kevin Kugler and Daryl “Moose” Johnston to the Dolphins’ game Sunday at the 49ers (4:25 p.m., Fox)… CBS’ No. 3 team (Kevin Harlan and Trent Green) will call Miami’s Sept. 27 home opener against Kansas City….

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Happy birthday to Dolphins legend Dan Marino, who turned 65 on Tuesday.