Pro Football Articles Opinion & Fantasy – Football Diner

The Football Diner All-Time Draft
Pick # 1 – Miami Dolphins
by Sam Monson
12/6/2008
 
To kick off this series, we start by looking into the past of a once-great franchise. The Miami Dolphins are still the only team to have gone through an entire season undefeated, and yet they found themselves picking #1 overall this season. The Dolphins are a team in need of a lot of help, and whilst Bill Parcells is on the case, we here at the Diner are going to give him a helping hand, and let him delve into the history books, to select one player from the franchise’s past.
 
The Diner spent a long time trying to find a reason not to go with the obvious choice here. Miami has lots of holes, in crucial areas, and maybe their biggest needs could be solved. How much would Parcells love a guy like Nick Buoniconti, who could step in and fill the hole left by Zach Thomas’ departure?
 
Miami has also had a long line of Hall of Fame O-linemen who could step in and bolster what is a pretty shaky unit. Guys like Dwight Stephenson, Bob Kuechenberg, and Larry Little would all go a huge way to beefing up the front 5 and making life easier for the entire offense. But Miami just spend its #1 overall pick on their franchise left tackle (at least if you listen to them…), and in reality picking a guy at any of the other 4 spots on the O-line somehow seems a waste of an opportunity like this. O-linemen can be found without too much trouble by a team who knows what to look for. The same can’t be said for other positions.
 
Miami’s defense last year was nothing if not leaky. In 2007 they managed to rank:
 
32nd – Rushing Yards Allowed
30th – Rushing Touchdowns Allowed
30th – Rushing Yards Allowed Per Carry
30th – Points Allowed
 
Numbers like that cry out for a big body in the middle. A strong case could be made for a guy like Manny Fernandez. The Wild Man himself might be the best player never to have been invited to the Pro Bowl. He was the embodiment of the famous ‘No Name Defense’ that Miami had during their Super Bowl era, a truly dominant player, who for whatever reason never enjoyed the recognition that a player of his calibre deserved. The entire Defense was like that, a top unit that revelled in the fact they were never given the credit or recognition of the Steel Curtain or Purple People Eaters. Fernandez showed in games like Super Bowl VII that he could step up and destroy an offense virtually on his own. This is a player who makes an entire defense better, and the kind of guy Bill Parcells would love to form his team around.
 
Another hole in the Dolphins crying out for attention is wide receiver, so what about giving John Beck or Chad Henne somebody to throw to? Miami has a pair of young QBs, but are they likely to ever succeed throwing to the likes of Tedd Ginn as a #1 WR? Miami has had some all time greats at wide out. How about adding Mark Clayton, Paul Warfield, or even Mark Duper?
 
But after trying to find another player to select, the obvious choice is obvious for a reason. Dan Marino doesn’t deserve the selection because he’s an all-time great quarterback on a team with no clear, viable solution at the position. He doesn’t deserve it because of the age-old adage that you never pass on a franchise QB unless you have one. Dan Marino is the selection because he doesn’t need the things that a lot of quarterbacks need to succeed.
 
Marino has the fastest release of any quarterback to ever play the game. Clearly no scrambling QB, Marino was also blessed with an uncanny pocket presence an ability to move, slide and feel the pressure in the pocket, which allowed him to buy time even under huge pressure, time other quarterbacks couldn’t find. His quick release allowed him to stand in the face of the pressure, knowing he could get the ball away with barely a moment’s notice. In short, Marino wouldn’t need the O-line that Chad Henne or John Beck need to have a chance in this league.
 
Marino was one of the few who could make his O-line look better than they were.
 
Marino was the total package at quarterback. He had an arm that could make any throw in the book, he had a lightning release, the perfect pocket presence, had prototype size, and could read defenses with the best of them. If you were to start with a blank sheet of paper and some coaches, and draw up the perfect quarterback, he would look like Dan Marino.
 
In the end the Dolphins just can’t turn down a guy who was that good, and would immediately solve the toughest position in football for the next 15 years. The added bonus is that in Ronnie Brown and a potentially weedless Ricky Williams, Miami already has the thing they could never reliably give Marino for the duration of his career a solid running game.
 
Dan Marino gives Miami a chance to win games, immediately, and that puts him at the top of the list.
 
With the #1 pick in the ‘The Football Diner 2008 All-Time Draft’, the Miami Dolphins select: