The Miami Dolphins have made some great draft picks over the years, but none are as prominent as quarterback Dan Marino and you won’t get much of an argument from Dolphins fans.
Ben Solak of ESPN recently launched an all-time list called “The best NFL draft pick ever at every slot from No. 1 to 262.” This list ranks the best player drafted at their given slot going back to 1967. The Dolphins didn’t enter the NFL until 1966, so that wouldn’t really affect them.
Here is Solak’s rough criteria (before you enter the comments section and unload on the poor guy):
-I took “best” to mean some combination of “most talented” and “most successful.”
-In order to be the best draft pick, you kind of have to play for the team that drafted you.
-There isn’t a bump for QB value (unless it was inescapable).
Dan Marino, No. 27, 1983
“Another wildly easy selection for me. Marino doesn’t have the hardware of the historically elite quarterbacks — only one MVP, no rings, etc. — but he was as talented as any of them. Marino led the league in passing yardage five times, which is behind only Drew Brees’ seven seasons as the most prolific, and he was the first to ever clear 5,000 yards in a season,” Solak writes. “He did it back in 1984, when illegal contact was considered legal contact, too.”
Truly one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, despite the fact that he only played in one Super Bowl and didn’t win it (1984 loss to Joe Montana and the San Francisco 49ers). Please tell me off the top of your head who some of his running backs were. Exactly, but I’ll do it for you. Tony Nathan, Lorenzo Hampton, Sammie Smith, Bobby Humphrey, Irving Spikes, Bernie Parmalee, you get the gist.
How the New York Jets really screwed this up
It’s frustrating to hear fans and media criticize a team’s draft picks retrospectively. Especially when a team passed on a player that didn’t play a position they were looking for. However, what about when a team wanted a certain position and took the wrong guy, like say, twice in a three-year span?
Here’s a fun fact: The only time in NFL history (Super Bowl era here obviously) that both teams in either conference’s championship game selected a quarterback in the first round the following year was 1982. In 1982, the Dolphins beat the New York Jets in the AFC Championship Game and each team took a signal caller in the first round of 1983. Kind of odd, right? Most would think that at least one team in those games was there because their quarterback was so good.
So, the Jets took Ken O’Brien 24th out of UC Davis over Marino. Of course, the Jets fans booed the pick when they made the selection because that’s what Jets fans do. You think Philadelphia Eagles fans boo a lot (and they do)? Watch tape of any NFL Draft and watch the Jets fans unload on their team. O’Brien wasn’t a bad quarterback at all, but he wasn’t Marino.
In 1985, the Jets wanted a wide receiver. Great, go get one! They did, and they took Al Toon with the 10th pick from the University of Wisconsin. Toon was an excellent receiver, but unfortunately his career was cut short by concussions. It wasn’t a bad pick, but guess who was still on the board? Jerry Rice.
So, the Jets could have had Marino throwing to Rice for how many years? That has to sting and, if you’re a Dolphins fan, you have to like their perennial ineptitude, don’t you?
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Miami Dolphins Player On ESPN’s All-Time Draft List Highlights Jets Ineptitude appeared first on Heavy Sports.