“You never know when those losses are going to hurt you toward the end of the season.”

Win or lose, there’s a real chance that Sunday will be Bush’s last game in a Dolphins uniform. Same goes for Brian Hartline, Sean Smith, Randy Starks and the rest of the roughly 20 Dolphins players whose contracts expire at year’s end.

Even if Miami somehow gets in, there’s no way the city will host a playoff game in any round. And so, Sunday will bring an end to a Dolphins home season that will likely go down as the least-attended in more than two decades.

Through Week 15, the Dolphins’ average home attendance — 57,795 — was fourth-worst in the league.

Avoiding blackouts

The Dolphins avoided any blackouts by taking advantage of new league rules that consider games a sellout if teams sell 85 percent of non-premium seats.

The organization made it a point to reach that threshold for each game, but often only by buying up remaining inventory to get over the hump. Last week’s win over Jacksonville was played in front of a one-third empty stadium, and even with playoff ramifications, Sunday might not be much better.

As for the pending free agents, it’s too early for the long goodbye. They say there’s simply too much to play for.

“There will come a time for the business side of football, but right now we’ve still got two games left, and I want to finish the season strong,” Bush said.

Added Cameron Wake: “We’re always the best friend and not the date. I want to go out there and play. But at the end of the day, we can’t blame anybody but ourselves. We are where we are.”