Turning Point of the Miami Dolphins Franchise - What Started the Spiral into Mediocrity?

But I can look back to Bobby Beathard as being the only moderately successful evaluator of talent we ever had. Why we’ve swung and missed on so many players since then is a mystery. There are very few NFL franchises that are successful on a year-to-year basis and that can be attributed to ownership, FO management and coaching. We’re just not one of those franchises.

 The retirement of the greatest coach in history- Don Shula. He was such an old-school coach but yet he was also player-friendly. All those old years in the NFL the formula was running the ball and defense. But when Marino came along, Shula was smart enough to change strategy and let Dan fly. Now Henne is no Marino by any stretch, but in this pass first league, these idiot coaches need to take the handcuffs off Henne. Week 1 showed us what that can do. Now I understand you need some balance, but if the other team can’t stop you- keep doing it. Perfect example- Carolina is letting Cam Newton loose and look at their offense. I know their 0-2 also, but when you post over 400 yards passing and put up points, it’s mostly your defense’s fault you took a loss.

I think all of your scenarios are certainly contributing factors, but the Marino exit is what I circle on the timeline in big, bold red ink. And it started long before the end of the 1999 season. This franchise never made any serious attempts in the mid to late ’90’s to line up a suitable replacement for Marino. Now there has always been some finger pointing as to why, with many speculating taht the team did not want to alienate Marino in the latter stages of his career and possibly insult him by drafting an apparent replacement. And why not? I love the guy, but if in 1997 or 1998 we drafted a QB and he had a problem with it, Im sorry but that is just too bad. And it is ironic, becasue, as you pointed out, Marino was abruptly shown the door anyway. So if we were going to toss him out, why not have a replacement ready to go anyway? It was poor management, which is what continues to plague this franchise today. Look at the Packers. They knew Favre was sticking around for a while and he publicly stated that he wouldn’t participate in the grooming of a young QB. I believe the quote was “Im not here to be a coach.” But the Packers, perhaps the best run organization in the league, knew what had to be done. And when the time came, they cut ties with their Hall of Fame franchise QB, and quickly won a super bowl, and are set up for the next 10-15 years. And hwat do you think is going to happen if the COlts continue to struggle this year? You better believe that they will draft Andrew Luck, whether Peyton Manning likes it or not. Hell, New England has drafted multiple QB’s over the last few years. It’s as if the there is an arrogance that exists in this FO, and all the former FO’s over the years. The refusal to use a high draft pick for a QB stinks of arrogance. As if they constantly thumb their noses at the league, and say “We know better than all of you. So we are going to find a diamond in the rough in the later rounds.” But it never works, so we are on a seemingly endless search for the next 6th round wonder, which aside from Brady, NEVER happens….

See: all of our QBs

See: Jon Jerry

See: Pat White

See: Gibril Wilson

It goes on and on. We’ll never get better until we evaluate potential stars better. Simple as that.

To draft a QB in the first round is our failure. I hope we draft a first round QB next year regardless of how Henne does. I just want one QB drafted in the first round.

The Dolphins were never more than a hobby for him. IMO, he never took owning the Phins seriously.

He ran Shula off (and Marino) with the hiring of Johnson. He would hire the flavor of the month (Jimmy Johnson, Nick Saban, Cam Cameron) to coach the team. He would hire GM’s that had no interest in building a team for the future (Jimmy Johnson, Dave Wanstadt, Bill Parcells) and they made crappy personel decisions (not drafting a 1st round QB).

All of this mediocrity (I say Piss Poor) started with Wayne Huizenga and his decisions. The current Phins, and Ross, are still trying to climb out of the hole dug by Huizenga.

If Ross wants to turn this organization around, he needs to get rid of any semblance of Huizenga that still exists ie: Sparano and Ireland.

Kareem-Abdul Jabbar? Really? He couldnt hold Emitt Smiths jockstrap yet apparently Jimmy thought he was drafting him again..JJ ran Marino out but all Miami needed at that time was a powerful running back and his 1st pick was Daryl Gardener.Another really.I know him and Tim Bowens were like a better tandem in the league for just a minute but all Marino needed was a running game cuz they had the defense and could have won a championship without Gardener.John Avery? Are you kidding me? JJ had some really good picks but he had just as many STUPID picks that just made no sense.Im not saying this was a major turning point but come on.Jimmy could have done it.

I’ve always said this. Maybe it was just a coincidence but the following year we started 1-8 and never done anything since aside from that surprising Pennington season.

ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGG Drew Brees and Chris Chambers would have been amazing!!!!

and damn you Saban for picking Culsucker over Brees….GREAT MOVE THERE BUDDY

Never won one since…

Oh, I guess we are talking about mediocrity and not just not winning the superbowl. Can’t just pinpoint one thing, but putting Wanny in as GM(not just coach) with repeated trades of draft picks and bad drafting

Suer Marino had a tad bit to do with it, but ‘the Don’ leaving created the vacuum.
Name any coach better that Dob Shula?

Jimmy Johnson quits to go fishing.he did build one hell of a D while he was here.Ricky killed wanny or the other way around. Saban ran back to college after the Brees/Culpepper mess.And a hole mess of other names that could have or would have. Norv Turner was here never got a chance.the defensive coordinator for Green Bay.Dom Capers gone. Mike Malarky.they were all here.

How is this supposed to be inspiring to fans who are on the edge? How is this supposed to help us fans to get excited about this season (which i dont think we have been eliminated from the playoffs yet)?
Seems Morose, seems ill-timed, and seems inappropriate. Timing is everything. This is great topic to discuss when we are not sitting in an 0-2 hole trying to fight our way back into relevancy.

I am sorry to come off so strong on this, but the topic is very defeatist and i remain optimistic. Go Phins! a couple of wins and hopefully we only have to hear about how bad we are form other teams fans.. not the our own fans whom we look up to.

Coaching, talent, schemes, drafting, luck, turnovers, being in the right place to make a big play, the big TD’s are always dropped, the pass protection fails at the most critical moment, the coverage is blown at the most inopportune times…. At some point it has to turn around, it just has to.

Call it ‘The Curse of the Cowboys’. Ever since we became enamored of everything and everyone Cowboy we’ve been on a downhill slide. This is Leon Lett’s revenge. Book it.

Did anyone notice Gruden say in that Monday night game that he," wants to bring the glory days back to Miami, he wants to make this organization glorious again". I think he was sending a clue a pitch for the job. He’s young,smart and has the right attitude to fix this team.

The doctor that convinced ownership not to sign him should be hunted down like a mangy dawg. Nick Saban wanted Brees but was over ruled. That was the beginning of the end!!!!!!

I blame it on a decade of poor drafting and a revolving door of head coaches. You can put some of the blame on Williams because even though Wannstedt was ultra conservative and annoying as a HC, Miami was still winning games. We still had a lot of problems and weaknesses. We may have won 9-10 games if Ricky wasn’t suspended, but we were not a top team.

By 2004, this was a team that needed to be rebuild and restock player talent. We had the chance in 2005 with Saban as a head coach and a high draft pick to use. We failed because Saban left prematurely, even if he did have a chance to rebuild the roster and win. He didn’t stay long enough to ensure it was completed.

You can blame it on not getting Brees or trading for Feeley and Culpepper, but this franchise could’ve still be great even without those moves. Solid drafting in the 2000s would’ve made up for that. As much as Ronnie Brown was a fan favorite, would we still be hurt over not signing Brees if we had drafted Aaron Rodgers #2 instead of Brown? Probably not.

You get a solid coaching staff, eventually they will find you a solid QB you can win with. You find a solid QB you can win with, your coaching staff probably won’t be in hot water. You find neither, you find yourself in the same position Miami has been in for the past several years.

but we were in better shape with Dave “porn-stache” Wanstadt. We had the winning-est QB in a four-year span, the league’s leading rusher, a top-tier defense, a and a “chance” at the playoffs each year (although they slipped which is eventually what pushed wanny out). I wonder what Jay Fiedler would do with the receivers we have now?

The problem with this regime is that it keeps shooting itself in the foot. The offensive line debacle (if it ain’t broke don’t fix it), the offensive system change (which is part of the problem this year), the defense debacle (if it ain’t broke don’t fix it), and just general personnel mismanagement. I mean, we should have kept either ronnie or ricky (ricky was clearly the more productive back even at his age!!!!).

The REAL scary thing is that I have very little confidence (based on empirical data) that the new owner know his arse from a giant sink hole in the ground! We have the opportunity to turn things around after this season. Will we once again be faced with a quick-fix solution? Or, will Mr. “players have no rights” Ross do what needs to be done and perhaps reshape the organization and bring in someone like Cowher to reinvigorate this dying organization?

I realize that there are people on this site that do not appreciate, what they perceive to be, negativity. However, some of us saw this coming and I would just like to remind those of you who preach the “never-say-bad-things-about-your-team” attitude that things don’t get fixed if you pretend, in a haze of optimistic delusions, unless you talk about them honestly and without restraint. THIS HAS TO GET FIXED B/C I WANT TO SEE THE PHINZ WIN A SB BEFORE I DIE. (did you hear that Ross?). I am 35 now so we have, maybe, 30-40yrs to turn this ship in a new and hopeful direction.

Give me a reason to believe again. Cause this is the first year in my 20+ yrs of fin-fandom that I simply cannot muster optimism no matter how hard I try (sad really).

We were pretty much the last AFL Franchise to be made in 1966 (For a historical side note, we were the Miami Seahawks (1946) before they turned into the Baltimore Colts). For you Madden players, im sure you noticed that we werent on the Anniversary AFL mode that was available to download. Like most expansion teams, we had a losing record for the first few years, but unlike most before, and nearly all since, this was about to change!

After only 4 seasons, in which we were a losing franchise, we got Don Shula to be our head coach, and lost our first round pick in 1970 to the Colts for him. But I’d say he was well worth it! We got a frachise QB, Bob Griese, a first round pick, and made the playoffs our first season under Shula! Then, unlike almost any “newer” franchise in history, we made the Super Bowl in our 6’th season! We also won the Super Bowl going undefeated through out our 7’th season, and won it again in our 8’th season as a franchise.

We only made the playoffs 2 more times during the 70’s, and would not appear in another Super Bowl untill 1982. That same year (1983 as we all know SB’s are played at the start of the new year), we drafted another franchise QB in the first round, by the Name of Dan Marino. Marino’s 2’nd season saw all kinds of records being made & broke, also with us go to another Super Bowl in 1984, but we lost to the Redskins. So by then we had made 5 Super Bowls in 13 years with Shula as our HC. We would make it to the playoffs 5 more times under Shula, And he retired following the 1995 season. His all time record coaching the Dolphins for 26 seasons is 257-133-2.

The next 15 seasons, as this is our 16’th without Shula, would not be great for us. While we have made the playoffs 6 times during Shulas depature, nothing came from those. I really would have thought we would have drafted another 1’st round franchise QB to groom after Marinos season ending injury to groom. We have had 2 HOF Franchise QB’s, both selected in the 1’st round, and we had a beautiful winning history!

Counting this year (16’th without Don Shula), We are now 125-126 since Don Shula retired following the 1995 season. Our record while Shula was the coach for 26 seasons is 257-133-2. Out of the 26 seasons he was our coach, we had ONLY 2 losing seasons! In the 16 years since he retired (counting this season) we are only 7 losses away from matching the number of losses we suffered during a 26 year span! This could happen this season (allthough, I hope not!).

Maybe all of the early success is haunting us. We were not used to losing, and never had to endure what the likes of the Bucs, Jags, Texans, etc; Have really had to go through! Also, not drafting another franchise QB since 1983, has hurt us tremendously! Under all 7 coaches since Shulas depature, counting Interim Jim Bates; we have traded picks, used free agency, But have never “really” found our top 5-10 QB! You can’t really put the blame on Shula, as when he retired, it was only Marinos 12’th year & Scott Mitchell proved to be a good back-up to Danny Boy.

I think one of the main reasons is not having another franchise QB! Our favorite team, that we bleed Aqua & Orange for, is not really used to being a “losing” or “mediocre” franchise that it is today. There will always be arguments about things like you need a O-Line before getting a QB, Believe in Henne, etc; BUT if history in the NFL as a whole has taught us anything, A franchise QB is needed to become a winning franchise. This being 99% all 1’st rd picks! I hate to say it, or the name, But Tom Brady is the exception! Drew Brees is one of the only other ones.

To be truly legit contenders again, we need a franchise QB! We went from 1978 untill 1996 without a 1,000 yard rusher, this proves that even before the league went so “pass happy”, you dont need a super RB to get to the playoffs every year! A great QB makes average WRs look great!

This is just all IMHO.

AJ Edds. Pro Bowl LB in 2013. Leads league in interceptions and tackles.

Four letters baby!!!

I – G – O – R

call it a hunch, a gut feeling or intuition if you wish. I can see IGOR taking this organization back to the glory days and to top it off AlajandroN writing a book about it entitled “Back to the Glory Days with Igor” the story of how one player returned an entire organization back to greatness!!!

The spiral started when we started wearing Orange Jersey’s … Ha ha ha ha ha … but, yeah … that did it.

Changed the name of the stadium from Joe Robbie.
Everything started going down. Change it back NOW!!!!!!!