The Dolphins’ potential playoff opponents have been reduced to three

The Jacksonville Jaguars have been eliminated as a potential first-round playoff opponent for the Miami Dolphins even though they didn’t play Saturday. After the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 17-10 victory against the Baltimore Ravens, the Dolphins are now down to three potential playoff opponents — the Steelers, Buffalo Bills or Kansas City Chiefs.

The scenarios are very simple: — If the Dolphins defeat the Bills on Sunday night to clinch the AFC East title and the No. 2 seed, they will face the Steelers in the first round of the playoffs if Jacksonville defeats the Tennessee Titans to win the AFC South title.

Those results would make Jacksonville the No. 4 seed, the winner of the Houston-Indianapolis game the No. 6 seed, the Steelers the No. 7 seed, and the Bills would be out of the playoffs.

— If the Dolphins defeat the Bills on Sunday night, they will face the Bills again the following week in the first round of the playoffs if Tennessee defeats Jacksonville. Those results would make the winner of the Houston-Indy game the No. 4 seed, the Steelers would get the No. 6 seed, and the Bills would wind up with the No. 7 seed.

— As has been the case since last week, if the Dolphins lose against Buffalo, they will play at Kansas City in the first round as the No. 6 seed. Given the potential opponents, the best-case scenario for the Dolphins clearly is winning Sunday night and having Jacksonville win at Tennessee to get a first-round date with Pittsburgh, which saw its best player (linebacker T.J. Watt) leave the game Saturday with what NFL reporters Adam Schefter and Ian Rapoport both said after the game was a grade 3 MCL sprain.

That’s usually a multi-week injury, meaning the Steelers very likely would be without him for their first playoff game and star safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, the former Dolphins first-round pick, missed the final three games of the regular season with a knee injury.

Obviously, the Dolphins will know all of the possibilities before they kick off at Hard Rock Stadium at 8:20 p.m. Sunday night.