The 2008 Miami Dolphins season was the organization's 39th season in the National Football League and 43rd overall. During the regular season the Dolphins completed the greatest single-season turnaround in NFL history, going from a 1–15 regular season record in 2007 to an 11–5 record in 2008. The previous standard for improvement one year after a 1–15 season belonged to the 1992 Indianapolis Colts, who went 9–7. The 1999 Indianapolis Colts were the only other team to accomplish a 10-game turnaround, winning 13 games after winning 3 in 1998. Additionally, Miami won the AFC East, becoming the first team in NFL history to win their division after only having one win the previous season.
The 2008 season was the first with Bill Parcells as Executive Vice President of Football Operations, Jeff Ireland as General Manager, and Tony Sparano as head coach.
With a league-worst 1–15 record in 2007, the Dolphins held the first pick in the 2008 NFL Draft and selected Michigan offensive tackle Jake Long. The offseason also saw the departure of two Pro Bowlers and long-time Dolphins with the release of linebacker Zach Thomas and trade of defensive end Jason Taylor.
Famous quotes containing the words dolphins and/or season:
“headland beyond stormy headland plunging like dolphins through the
gray sea-smoke
Into pale sea, look west at the hill of water: it is half the
planet: this dome, this half-globe, this bulging
Eyeball of water,”
—Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962)
“At this season I seldom had a visitor. When the snow lay deepest no wanderer ventured near my house for a week or fortnight at a time, but there I lived as snug as a meadow mouse.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)