Times and dates for Miami Dolphins three preseason opponents

The Miami Dolphins will have seven opportunities to evaluate the team’s training camp roster against another opponent.

The Dolphins, which are coming off an 11-6 season that ended with a 26-7 wild-card playoff loss in Kansas City to the Super Bowl champion Chiefs, will kickoff the exhibition season three weeks after the start of training camp by hosting the Atlanta Falcons on Aug. 9 at 7 p.m.

Then Miami will host the Washington Commanders on Aug. 17 at 7 p.m. before closing out the preseason on the road against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Aug. 23 with a 7:30 p.m. kickoff.

All preseason games will be televised locally by CBS 4.

The Dolphins will hold at least one joint practice with all three preseason opponents two days before facing each opponent, and will actually hold joint practices against the Falcons twice during the week that leads up to the exhibition opener.

Whether those joint practices will be open to the public has not been announced, but it’s likely that they will, even if it’s an invite-only crowd.

In each of the past three seasons, the Dolphins also scheduled four joint practices, but it was two practices each against two of the three preseason opponents.

Per terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, teams playing three preseason games can schedule a maximum of four joint practices.

“Each offseason [presents] a different code to crack,” coach Mike McDaniel said about the team’s preseason agenda, which features breaking in a new defense led by newly hired defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver. “I think the specific needs of your team vary. I think in this specific offseason, we had the opportunity to get a couple more valuable practice days against varied looks. Varied techniques. The intensity of practice, in general, is raised to a degree when you’re going against a fresh, new opponent.”

The Falcons are trying to break in rookie quarterback Michael Penix, who will likely serve as Kirk Cousins’ backup all season, so expect the 2024 first-round pick to challenge Miami’s secondary for at least a half of football.

The same can be expected from the Commanders, who are also breaking in a first-round quarterback, Jayden Daniels, who is expected to become Washington’s day-one starter.

The Tampa Buccaneers have a more established quarterback in Baker Mayfield, but Todd Bowles’ team traditionally features a physical style of defense that will test Miami’s trench play.

The Dolphins have the NFL’s eight easiest regular season schedule, according to Sharp Football Analysis, which bases that on its projected win totals for each team.

Miami plays seven games against teams that made the postseason in 2023. Four other games are against opponents that played nearly all of 2023 without their starting quarterback (the Jets) or much of 2023 without their starting QB (Arizona and Cleveland).

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