The late, great Don Shula remains the only head coach to lead a team an entire NFL season — regular season and playoffs — without a loss.
The famed 1972 Miami Dolphins remain the stuff of lore for that feat, one that has stood the test of time.
Shula himself has outlasted time itself. He died in 2020, yet he looms large over the Dolphins and the entire NFL.
He’s still the all-time winningest coach in league history, and he put together a kind of legacy in Miami that everyone who has followed him could only hope to replicate.
As for the 2026 Dolphins? Well, they won’t be going undefeated. They’ll mainly be hoping to avoid a winless season.
This year’s team has begun 0-3, and they just lost star RB De’Von Achane to a season-ending torn ACL injury.
Things are so rough in Miami that it’s been pointed out that Shula could win more games than the Dolphins this season despite having passed on to the great football stadium in the sky.
It’s not a joke, though. Shula’s record could improve by as many as two wins this year for one specific reason.
How Don Shula Can Out-Win 2026 Dolphins
Shula finished his career with 347 coaching wins, but there’s an investigation being done to see if he should actually have two more.
That’s because Shula’s record doesn’t include two games in which he coached the Dolphins to wins.
Back in the day, they had what was called the “Playoff Bowl.” It was a third-place game, for the two teams that didn’t make the championship. Shula won the “Playoff Bowl” twice while coaching the Baltimore Colts in the 1960s.
The NFL used to count those wins before removing them from Shula’s record.
“Shula twice won Playoff Bowl games as the Baltimore Colts’ coach in the 1960s, back when the NFL had a third-place game,” The Athletic’s Mike Sando wrote in his Monday column. “The league counted those victories in its official records until inexplicably removing them in 1982. Shula, ever the competitor, thought his widely cited win total (347, counting playoffs) should actually be 349.”
It’s not clear from Sando’s column whether the NFL is close to making a decision on this verdict, but it apparently is still up for debate.
“How many wins are enough? All of them,” Sando writes. “And if the NFL revisits the matter, after (columnist Dave) Hyde reached out to the league and competition committee, Andy Reid could become an even longer shot to overtake Shula, who currently has a 347-310 lead over him (Bill Belichick is second at 333).”
Current Dolphins Struggles
Miami actually has had a worse start to a season in the last decade.
“They are 0-3 for the fifth time in franchise history after losing 24-10 to Reid’s Chiefs,” Sando writes. “Their -50 point differential through three games isn’t close to the -117 margin through three games in 2019, when the team started 0-7, then won five of its final nine games under first-year coach Brian Flores.”
That strong finish in 2019 can leave a bit of hope here, but it’s not clear the Dolphins have enough talent to turn this ship around.
Even the late, great Shula might struggle to pile up wins with this roster.
How Don Shula Can Win More Games Than Dolphins This Season