What happened to the Miami Dolphins?

Failure. Since Jimmy, there has been 10 head coaches. Dave Wannstedt lasted 5 years. Sparano, Jimmy and Philbin stayed four. Gase 3, the rest 1 or 2....Saban bolted after 2. Turmoil, changing rosters, poor drafts......

..all those fricken Cuban cigars.. ...

Fizziksman said:

Marino is the last non Tom Brady franchise QB the AFC East has had. What a disgrace of a division

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It’s crazy, right? Are Pennington and Sanchez the top two non-Brady’s QBs in the division over the past two decades?

Been a downward spiral since Ray Finkle blew that (laces in) field goal.

Buttermaker said:

Been a downward spiral since Ray Finkle blew that (laces in) field goal.

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Finkle is Einhorn. Einhorn is Finkle.

*cries*

Dale said:

It’s crazy, right? Are Pennington and Sanchez the top two non-Brady’s QBs in the division over the past two decades?

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Testaverde count? Better than those two....

Once they got Marino they lost focus on what had made them great before, a good overall team with good coaching. They fixated on the glitz QB even though they never won a championship with their best one. More than a few accuse Marino of being such a diva and having so much power that he ended up costing them more than they gained. Heard it said too that he had more power than Jimmy Johnson when they brought him in. Hard to win like that.

Once Shula and Marino departed, they never stopped looking for the next Dan Marino. Never found him.

Horrific drafting....………..whiff after whiff after whiff, especially on QBs.

Now this year? Its on purpose, they want to lose...………..most blatant tanking move I have ever seen an NFL franchise do.

I would not be surprised if the league didnt institute a lottery system like the NBA has to prevent teams from doing what Miami is doing. Its one thing to play a lot of backups and maybe go conservative in play calling trying to tank, kinda like what the Colts did the year Luck was coming out, but Miami has taken it to an all new level.

Bad leadership and can't put together a roster. Some people on these boards would do a better job than what they have and we would come at a lower cost, much lower.

reddyuta said:

what they are doing is wrong,you can tank for a QB but giving away good players is outright lunacy.who in their right mind will give away a franchise left tackle,the 2nd most important player on the team?

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They got two 1st a 2nd and two players for Tunsil who only had 2 years remaining under team contract control...

Gase was fired cause Ross wanted to tank. He was tired of the 7-9 8-8 seasons.

They went through two bad Gms in Ireland and Mike T, and poor coaches.

Their drafts were poor along with free agent signings.

Ross for his part is willing to spend money. But he got tired of spending money for fa busts like Suh.

So, they are tanking.

At this rate they can get Tua and Lawrence the following year.

Fizziksman said:

Marino is the last non Tom Brady franchise QB the AFC East has had. What a disgrace of a division

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Jim Kelly? I know that he became a joke because of the super bowls but in non super bowl games he was pretty good.

Beast_from_East said:

Horrific drafting....………..whiff after whiff after whiff, especially on QBs.

Now this year? Its on purpose, they want to lose...………..most blatant tanking move I have ever seen an NFL franchise do.

I would not be surprised if the league didnt institute a lottery system like the NBA has to prevent teams from doing what Miami is doing. Its one thing to play a lot of backups and maybe go conservative in play calling trying to tank, kinda like what the Colts did the year Luck was coming out, but Miami has taken it to an all new level.

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The problem was that the Colts suffered no consequences for tanking, so it gave other teams incentive to tank.

Tabascocat said:

Cursed by Hollywood, or should I say Jim Carrey?

They really haven’t been much since the pet detective was on the case!

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Alrightyyyy then.

reddyuta said:

what they are doing is wrong,you can tank for a QB but giving away good players is outright lunacy.who in their right mind will give away a franchise left tackle,the 2nd most important player on the team?

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Because the league rewards that behavior. The worst record to have in the league is probably 8-8. It's worse than 1-15 or 0-16 because there is no light at the end of the tunnel for an average team. No top end draft picks and no chance at a championship. I've said it before, randomly set the draft order for non playoffs teams and this comes to a full stop.

KB1122 said:

This is a sort of macro, long curve of history kind of question for fans who are ..... older.

What happened to the Miami Dolphins?

I grew up in the Seventies and Eighties. In that period, the Dolphins were definitely one of the NFL glamour teams. The Perfect Season. Championships. Legendary coach. Superstar quarterback. Exciting city.

It would be interesting to see who were the most popular teams in that era. But I would guess the Cowboys, the Steelers, the Raiders, and the Dolphins (maybe the Packers and obviously the 49ers in the eighties).

I'm not sure they're in the top 20 right now.

What happened?

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Same for me. You're probably right on the teams, maybe add Rams and Vikings to some extent. But the Packers? They were not that good at all. I was too young to see the first two Super Bowls. They started to emerge in the 90s. And that Cowboys team beat that Packers team every time they played. Even in '96 the year they won the Super Bowl. As far as what happened to the Dolphins, Lets see what happens to the Patriots when Belichick and Brady leave.

John813 said:

Gase was fired cause Ross wanted to tank. He was tired of the 7-9 8-8 seasons.

They went through two bad Gms in Ireland and Mike T, and poor coaches.

Their drafts were poor along with free agent signings.

Ross for his part is willing to spend money. But he got tired of spending money for fa busts like Suh.

So, they are tanking.

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Just doesn't work in the NFL. Hell in the NBA, you only one or two dominant player makers for a Championship. Not to mention top college basketball players can easily translate their game to the NBA. Not so much for college football players to the NFL. In most cases, there's a huge curve. So rebuilding a team via tank will take at least what two, maybe three drafts and still likely not enough and worst part of it all is you've set your franchise/team back a min 5 years.

KB1122 said:

This is a sort of macro, long curve of history kind of question for fans who are ..... older.

What happened to the Miami Dolphins?

I grew up in the Seventies and Eighties. In that period, the Dolphins were definitely one of the NFL glamour teams. The Perfect Season. Championships. Legendary coach. Superstar quarterback. Exciting city.

It would be interesting to see who were the most popular teams in that era. But I would guess the Cowboys, the Steelers, the Raiders, and the Dolphins (maybe the Packers and obviously the 49ers in the eighties).

I'm not sure they're in the top 20 right now.

What happened?

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Marino got old, they've never replaced him with!

To expand on my previous post, they've lacked proper vision and talent acquistion for decades.

Before Parcells and Co took over they had Wannstadt following Johnsons departure. The team couldn't draft well. They had a great defensive core, but couldn't find a Quarterback. Their best QB of this century is either Fiedler or Pennington for reference.
Wanny gave up the farm for Ricky Williams who was a great addition until he got suspended multiple times for weed. Then when he was suspended indefinitely/retired the bottom fell out.

Then they hired Saban, and had the Brees/Culpepper debacle which of course they blew. Saban bounced in year two.

They hired Cam Cameron who went 1-15, which led to Parcells and Sparano.

They had early success with the wildcat but their downfall was wasting a draft class on trying to improve the gimmick.
The league figured out the wildcat by year two, and they wasted a second on Patrick White who quickly flamed out.

They had no development from Chad Henne either, which prevented the offense from evolving. Their defensive core was aging and they did hit on Vontaze Davis and Sean Smith to replace Madison and Surtain.

Ireland was given the greenlight to spend, which he did, but failed to hit on the midrange to high free agents. He also didn't have the same draft success as he did in Dallas (Barber, Canty, Ratliff, etc) and of course had the infamous Dez Bryant question.
His final disaster was trading up for Dion Jordan, who was out of place from day 1 for the team's scheme.

With Sparano fired, they got Philbin, a spineless coach who um-ed his way around for years before trying to backstab his QB in Tannehill before getting canned 2 years too late.

Gase had another vision, but grew extremely arrogant from the get go. Got into arguments with Ross and was just an *******.
He led a purge of talent for players who didn't fit his views. Didn't believe in finding good guards and of course the offense struggled to make holes for the run game. Kept his buddy too long at DC which lead to the defense being exploited in the wide 9.

And here we are.

With every coach was a new vision or change in scheme. Sparano brought in the 3-4 which took years to build, and Gase brought back the 4-3(IIRC). They could never find a good QB since Marino. Either failed draft picks, older FA's, or bad trades for QBs. Draft classes that failed and overpaid FAs.