Shutdown Countdown: With Suh in place, here come the Dolphins

Shutdown Corner is previewing all 32 teams as we get ready for the NFL season, counting down the teams one per day in reverse order of our initial 2015 power rankings. No. 1 will be revealed on Aug. 8, the day before the preseason begins with the Hall of Fame Game in Canton.

NO. 9: MIAMI DOLPHINS

If you don't think of the Miami Dolphins as one of the NFL's sad-sack franchises this century, maybe you should start.

On Dec. 30, 2000, the Dolphins beat the Indianapolis Colts in overtime of a wild-card playoff game. And that's it. That's their last playoff win. They've played in three postseason games since then and lost all three by a combined score of 74-12.

That's what makes it so hard to say this: I believe in the 2015 Dolphins.

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The Dolphins have won the offseason before, most notably during former general manager Jeff Ireland's #YOLO offseason when he was trying to save his job and made crazy moves like making Mike Wallace the second-highest paid receiver in the NFL. But the Ndamukong Suh thing seems real. Landing the prize of free agency (I'm fine if you think he was second to Darrelle Revis) will make the entire defense better. Suh was a major reason nobody ran on last year's Detroit Lions. He is such a force in the middle. He commands attention and the rest of the Dolphins will benefit. Miami was  tied for ninth in most rushing yards allowed per carry last season. That will change.

The offense will be better too. Quarterback Ryan Tannehill's development has strangely been overlooked. He has improved in just about every key stat in each of the last two seasons, after a decent rookie year. His accuracy is better. His yards per attempt grew last year. His rating has gone from 76.1 to 81.7 to 92.8. He threw for 4,045 yards and 27 touchdowns last year. It seems like 3/4 of the league is hurting at quarterback or planning the retirement party of the quarterback they have. Tannehill just turned 27 on July 27 and the arrow is pointing up. He'll be better in his second year running coordinator Bill Lazor's Eagles-style offense.

Tannehill will be better with this group of receivers, as well. Jordan Cameron is a nice tight end when healthy. Deep threat Kenny Stills comes from New Orleans and hopefully Tannehill has better deep chemistry with him than he did with Wallace. The Dolphins drafted DeVante Parker in the first round. Jarvis Landry will sneak up on some folks in his second season. Landry is a really good player and it wouldn't be a surprise if he caught 100 passes. Wallace is gone, but that seems like addition by subtraction. The run game is pretty good too, with 1,000-yard starter Lamar Miller being backed up by Jay Ajayi, assuming the intriguing rookie wins the No. 2 job. And elite left tackle Branden Albert returns after losing seven games due to a season-ending knee injury last year.

The Dolphins' recent history is worrisome. I'm not sure Joe Philbin can properly manage a season, considering his last two teams have each faded a bit in the end. The roster has some holes that I don't know how they'll address at this point. But I'm in. These Dolphins are going to the playoffs, and might be good enough to make some serious noise once they get there.

2014 review in less than 25 words: They started with a win against the Patriots and finished with a home loss to the Jets. They've been 8-8 two years straight.

Is the roster better, worse or about the same? It's better, of course, though some very good veterans left, like defensive linemen Jared Odrick and Randy Starks, and tight end Charles Clay. It's just that they replaced most of the pieces they lost. Before we get to more on the big fella, don't forget guys like cornerback Brice McCain, receiver Greg Jennings and defensive tackles C.J. Mosley and Earl Mitchell, who help the depth.

Best offseason acquisition: Hope you didn't expect this to be Josh Freeman. The Dolphins worked out a deal with Suh during the negotiating period (technically illegal, but the league was too busy looking into deflated footballs to care) for $60 million guaranteed. Will this six-year, $114 million deal come back and bite Miami down the road? Perhaps. Probably. But for this year Suh makes the Dolphins defense, ranked 21st in yards allowed last season, instantly better.

Achilles' heel: The offensive line isn't inspiring. If Albert returns to full health, that calms things down a bit. So should Mike Pouncey moving from guard back to his natural center position. Both guard spots are a real issue, so much so that fourth-round rookie Jamil Douglas has a chance to start at one of them. Ja'Wuan James, last year's first-round pick, needs to play much better at right tackle in Year 2, as well. When people bang on Tannehill for not being a great deep passer, they rarely mention that part of the reason is he has played behind a horrible line much of his career.

Position in flux: If you could combine Jennings, Still and Parker into one player, you'd have a mighty fine No. 1 outside receiver to go with Landry in the slot. Too bad it doesn't work that way, because what you get is a situation that needs to sort itself out. Jennings didn't get a lot of attention in free agency as he gets set to turn 32. Stills is a great deep threat, with a quarterback who despite his physical skills has not been great throwing the deep ball in his career. Then you have Parker, a rookie who had foot surgery this offseason. Parker's initial timetable had him back for the season opener, but it's tough to count too much on a rookie who is going to miss so much practice time.

Ready to break out: I'd have to say Landry, who proved last year that he can be a nice weapon for Tannehill. Landry averaged only 9 yards per catch, but he grabbed 84 balls and he'll be a high-volume guy again. I assume he'll eat up more yards too, because the talent is there.

Stat fact

: The Dolphins went from 27th in yards and 26th in points in 2013 to 14th in yards and 11th in points last season, Lazor's first as offensive coordinator. Lazor came from Philadelphia and incorporated some of the Chip Kelly/Eagles style, and it brought a big improvement to Miami. Players like Tannehill and Miller took off in the new scheme. It should be even better in year two.

Schedule degree of difficulty: The Dolphins should get off to a great start. Their first seven weeks: at Washington, at Jacksonville, vs. Buffalo, vs. N.Y. Jets (at London), bye week, at Tennessee, vs. Houston. They could be favored in every game. I'm not saying they'll be 6-0 going into a nice Thursday night game at New England on Oct. 29, but it's possible.

This team’s best-case scenario for the 2015 season: The Dolphins have a shot to win the AFC East. It's hard to pick it just because the Patriots own the division, but this is a really talented Dolphins team and we know about the issues the Patriots are dealing with. If Miami gets off to that blazing start with its favorable schedule, it could gain confidence it might turn into a really interesting year for the Dolphins.

And here’s the nightmare scenario: Not everyone is sold on Philbin, and I can't say I am either. You can't expect Tannehill to keep making big leaps every year, so maybe this is the year his play levels off. Miami's offensive line could be a real problem, especially if injuries strike again. And maybe it's unrealistic to expect Suh to fix everything for a defense that was below average last season. The AFC East is tough, and a lot of people are high on the Bills and Jets. If both those teams find some decent quarterback play and the Dolphins are the same ho-hum team we're used to seeing, a last-place finish isn't out of the question.

The crystal ball says: The Dolphins will be this year's "surprise" team. Nobody will be too shocked because they made such a splash in the offseason and got everyone's attention, but I also assume everyone figures this will be the same ol' Dolphins. I'd love to really go all in and pick them to win the AFC East, but I can't. A really good record and a wild-card spot is my prediction though.

Previous previews
32. Tennessee Titans
31. Jacksonville Jaguars
30. Washington Redskins
29. Oakland Raiders
28. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
27. New York Jets
26. Chicago Bears
25. Cleveland Browns
24. Atlanta Falcons
23. San Francisco 49ers
22. New York Giants
21. New Orleans Saints
20. Houston Texans
19. Carolina Panthers
18. St. Louis Rams
17. Minnesota Vikings
16. San Diego Chargers
15. Buffalo Bills
14. Detroit Lions
13. Philadelphia Eagles
12. Kansas City Chiefs
11. Cincinnati Bengals
10. Arizona Cardinals

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab