The games of the final week of the regular season were not kind to the Miami Dolphins in terms of positioning for the first round of the NFL draft in April.
Miami entered Sunday with the No. 11 pick, with a chance to move up, at most, to No. 8 with a loss to the New England Patriots and other results going its way.
In the opening slate of NFL games Sunday, the Cincinnati Bengals lost to the Cleveland Browns and the New Orleans Saints lost to the Atlanta Falcons. That meant the Dolphins could no longer move ahead of the Bengals and Saints with a loss to the Patriots.
The highest Miami could move up is to No. 10, with a loss to New England and a Kansas City Chiefs win over the Las Vegas Raiders. But the Raiders defeated the Chiefs late Sunday afternoon.
The Dolphins did indeed lose to Patriots. A win would have had them fall behind the Dallas Cowboys, to the No. 12 pick.
The Dolphins have eight selections in the draft including their first-round pick, one second, three third-round rounders, one fourth, one fifth, and one seventh rounder.