The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

We constantly talk about our bad picks or how you can find a stud in the 5th round and so on but the truth is the two biggest sports stars came to Miami by accident. Everyone knows that Dan Marino fell out of nowhere and surprisingly ended up with the Dolphins. They didn't plan for it because they didn't expect it to happen.  

It wasn't until this week that I heard the story of Dwayne Wade ... who is arguably the most successful Miami superstar and bigger than Marino to some. Apparently Pat Riley wasn't even looking at him because he wouldn't have been available but out of nowhere the Detroit Pistons selected Darko Milicic. It was at that point he fell to the Heat and Riley took a player at a position he wasn't even looking at. I've never heard of Darko so I can only assume he was a bust.  The rest is history.

This causes me to wonder about how much "luck" is actually involved in actually obtaining a franchise guy. I mean ... how many people passed on Brady and Aaron Rodgers and look at them. I think it's much easier to screw up and draft a Ryan Leaf. It actually boggles the mind.

Here's to hoping the Dolphins have some dumb luck in the next few years!

I remember Darko, he was supposed to be the next great young prodigy from Europe, and yes, he was a Jamarcus Russel level bust.  I don't know if he gets drafted that high if he isn't a Center

Look at the players that were drafted around him:

"He was selected by the Detroit Pistons as the second overall pick in the 2003 NBA draft after LeBron James, and ahead of players such as Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darko_Mili%C4%8Di%C4%87 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darko_Mili%C4%8Di%C4%87)

darko wasn't a bust .. he was an average mid-level player .. had some good years.. but no where near the other top 5 picks (lebron, carmelo, bosh, wade)

funny tidbit, he won a title before any of the other top 5

I don't know how you can say that, there are more stories and articles than I can count calling him a bust.  He got better in his 5th year from not sucking out loud to an average at best player.

Seconded. I think luck is a lot more responsible for dynasties then we want to believe.

While I agree you can find a stud in the 5th round, neither Wade nor Marino is evidence of that. 

I think the point was that luck may have a lot more to do with how a draft pick works out then we think regardless if that pick is in the 1st round or the 7th. In general we give too much credit to the folks that drafted them as being able to see something that no one else saw. More likely they saw the same thing everyone else did, potential. No one knows whether that potential will actually manifest itself into actual ability or not. If Shula would have foreseen the greatness in Marino when he drafted him he wouldn't have waited 6 weeks to insert him as the starter, he would have done it in the preseason. Shula was as shocked as everyone else how good Marino would become.

I think it's about time Miami gets lucky with a draft pick or 2 again.

^Do you mean at the QB position?  We were lucky that Tunsil and Fitzpatrick dropped to us.

Luck definitely is a major part of the draft.  But that doesn’t mean there aren’t some scouting departments that have better then average skill and others that do a poorer job.  Also different teams value different attributes differently. 

That is why trading down for picks makes sense.  While you have a better chance of drafting a future HoF player in the first round than in the second, you have a better chance of getting 1 future HoF player with 2 second round picks than with 1 first round pick. 

I think people over emphasize Marino dropping to the end of the first round as if i was the same level of miss as Brady going in the 6th or James Harrison going undrafted.  Of the 5 QB that went  ahead of Dan 4 were franchise QBs, 2 of them made the hall of fame and 1 even won 2 super bowls.  Only one of the 5 was an actual miss.  And it is entirely possible that had Miami had the 15th pick they might have taken Eason or OBrian instead of Marino.  Marino is better than either than them, but Marino vs. Eason or Obrian isn’t Manning vs Leaf.

I agree and they are two of our best players but will never have the impact of Dan Marino or Dwayne Wade. It's not like we made any smart moves that landed them either. It was pretty much dumb luck as chips just fell into place where previously it didn't look like we had realistic shot to land them.

I dare say the folks in LA probably feel pretty lucky Miami choose Fitz and let a rookie all pro safety drop to them.

I like James as I'm an FSU fan but I believe Fitz will have the better career in the long run. With that said both are very good so it really doesn't matter which one you take there IMO.

The Pistons just won the NBA Championship and through a trade had the #2 overall pick. I don't think the pick was lottery protected and they lucked out. So, instead of selecting a Wade or Carmelo and build a dynasty, they selected Darko and their window closed very shortly thereafter.

I don't mean lucky in the way that they fall to us, I mean lucky in the way they turn out to be hall of fame type players. I'm talking about Zach Thomas and Jason Taylor lucky. And it could be a QB, but doesn't have to be.

Minkah has HoF potential.  Tunsil might too, but yeah I get what you're saying.

I think a successful draft is less about hitting a homerun (drafting a future HoF player) and more about not drafting busts.  A draft with 3 or 4 solid starters that never see a probowl, is superior to a single all-pro and everyone else being a bust.

I don't disagree, but you still need a couple/several pro-bowl caliber players on your roster every year to be in playoff contention. Without that it's very hard to compete in this league. Miami's roster doesn't have enough of either at this point, pro-bowl caliber or just solid starters.

If you can name 4 franchise QBs drafted ahead of Marino, you are using that term too loosely.

John Elway, Todd Blackledge, Jim Kelly, Tony Eason, Ken O'Brien, and Dan Marino

I agree. I only see three there including Marino. O'Brian was decent but not in that class at all.

And as much as I liked Marino as a QB. I would say that of the 3, their performance and careers equated to the order they were drafted in. 1. Elway, 2. Kelly, and 3. Marino

^No fucking way, of the 3 he was the best.  Those other guys had historically stacked teams.

I am not saying there were four QB better than Marino.  Just saying they were franchise quality.  Eason took his team to the SB.  Granted they lost but still, but winning the AFCCG was Marinio and Kelly high water mark too.  OBrian was the starting QB for the same team for a decade. 

Tony Eason started for 3 seasons out of his career. Give me a break.

Take a breath, it's ok to disagree...

Give Marino a RB like Thurman Thomas to hand the ball off to and that early 90's Bills defense and he'd have at least one Super Bowl ring.

You would think that giving Marino 2 HoF coaches, one who was described as “....can take his'n and beat your'n, Or he can take your'n and beat his'n." would be enough to get him a ring.  If neither Shula nor JJ could design a game plan that could make Marino successful what coach of that era could?

Because Marino was stubborn and refused to listen.   He kept convincing Shula he could do it on his own when he couldn't.  JJ tried to build up the defense and add a running game, but by then, Marino was so old he couldn't hand the ball off fast enough.   JJ's downfall in Miami was not getting rid of Marino.   

So those teams who passed on Marino with the scouting report of “great skill set, however his own arrogance, being uncoachable, and his attitude of putting personal stats ahead of winning makes it  unlikely to develop a championship team around him”. Got it wrong?

I like how the Bucs and Patriots guys are talking about Marino like they have a clue. All you had to do was watch Marino play in '84 and you knew right then no one was better at the time. Marino had his chances in '84 and '85 but it didn't happen. Then Kelly was added to the Bills and they started a run of their own because they had a better defense and run game to complement Kelly. Dolphins had some good years but never put together a team with all the pieces in place. Over time the yearly knee surgeries and age started to take away from some of Marino's magic and he was no longer able to put the team on his back. By the time JJ came around Marino was a shell of his former self.

Marino had plenty of natural talent.  Won’t argue that.  But he was also selfish, carrying more about personal stats than the success of the team. He is certainly not the only player like that, Randy Moss was one of the greatest players of all time, but selfish, he broke Jerry Rices single td record, but never got a ring out it.

There you go.   If you could put together the greatest NFL team of all time using only players who don't have a Super Bowl ring, Marino would be my QB and Moss would be one of my WR.

Your opinion. Never heard from a single player that Marino played with that he was selfish and cared only about his stats.

Where did you find this scouting report?

I'll just leave this here.

https://www.reddit.com/r/miamidolphins/comments/bhpxp9/flashbackfriday_fourth_and_five_do_you_go_with_a/