When the Lions won and the Dolphins lost last weekend, Detroit sent Miami something it didn’t want: The status of the franchise that has gone the longest without winning a playoff game.
The Lions’ win over the Rams was their first playoff victory in 32 years. The Dolphins’ last playoff win was 23 years ago, when the Miami team coached by Dave Wannstedt and quarterbacked by Jay Fiedler won in the wild card round.
But while the Dolphins have now gone nearly a quarter of a century without winning a playoff game, Dolphins General Manager Chris Grier indicated that he thinks the team just needs to stay the course.
“Yeah, I mean we feel good about it,” Grier said when asked if he thinks the results will come as long as they continue what they’re building.
As for the Lions finally earning their playoff win, Grier said he’s happy for them.
“First off, congratulations to Detroit and Dan Campbell,” Grier said. “I’m happy for Dan. He was here and is a good guy and a good man. Him and Brad [Holmes] are doing a good job there, so I’m happy for them. But for us, we’re just going to keep grinding, chopping wood. We have a good roster. We know that we’ll keep adding and the team will look different. As we all know every year, 30 or 40 percent or more of rosters change. But we’ll find ways to have good players here and be competitive. We are very excited about our core nucleus players here. We will be competitive. The goal is to win the AFC East and win a playoff game, and ultimately a Super Bowl. That’s the goal of all 32 teams and it’s no different for us.”
The Dolphins certainly have plenty of talent on their roster, and they’ve made the playoffs two years in a row. But there’s mounting pressure on them to get to the playoffs, and win.