When head coach Nick Saban was in Miami, the team made a decision that would change the trajectory of the Dolphins, Saban’s career and the NFL forever. The Miami Dolphins, fresh off a 9-7 season in Saban’s first year, were in desperate need of a quarterback and Miami was interested in signing free agent quarterback Drew Brees. But the Dolphins’ medical staff failed Brees on his physical for a throwing shoulder injury and the Dolphins instead acquired QB Dante Culpepper.
As we all know, that decision crushed and crumbled the Dolphins, helped prompt Saban to bail for the University of Alabama and Brees went on to win the Super Bowl and set passing records in New Orleans. It’s about as badly as a decision could possibly go. The Dolphins have never been the same. Miami’s search for a quarterback has seen them try anything and everything under the sun. Team success has not followed.
Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino retired in early 2000. In the immediate aftermath, the Dolphins enjoyed five winning seasons in six years (45-37 overall) between the regime of Dave Wannstedt and Saban’s first season. The only losing year was a 4-12 campaign the year RB Ricky Williams abruptly retired on the eve of training camp.
But once the Dolphins bagged the addition of Brees and Saban bailed the following winter, the Dolphins have enjoyed just two winning seasons in the thirteen seasons since. And Miami’s only two NFL Draft selections before the 2020 draft from Saban’s Crimson Tide have been just as cursed as the rest of the franchise.
Running back Kenyan Drake was a 3rd-round pick in 2016 and certainly had his moments. But the consistently was too infrequent and Drake failed to earn favor with two separate head coaches in Adam Gase and Brian Flores in 2019. He was traded for a conditional Day 3 pick at the NFL’s 2019 trade deadline and promptly ran for as many yards (643) in 8 games with Arizona as what his previous career high was for a total season (644 yards over 16 games in 2017).
Meanwhile, 2018 1st-round pick Minkah Fitzpatrick endured a promising rookie season for the Dolphins in 2018 but got cold feet of the task awaiting the Dolphins in the 2019 season. Fitzpatrick demanded a trade after just 17 games in Miami and was traded after 18 — being flipped to the Pittsburgh Steelers despite being considered one of the more high football character individuals and safest players in the 2018 NFL Draft. Fitzpatrick cited usage concerns, but by the end of his season in Pittsburgh he was complaining about his usage there too, despite being named 1st-team All-Pro in his first season away from Miami — Fitzpatrick didn’t want to be a Dolphin due to the challenging season ahead.
All of this mess makes it all the more poetic that the answer to Miami’s quarterback troubles comes after thirteen years of Nick Saban’s curse lingering over this team. Because not only did Dan Marino wear #13, so too did the Dolphins’ new quarterback while playing for — you guessed it — Nick Saban.
This is it, Dolphins fans. The end of Nick Saban’s curse.
Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is the olive branch from the football gods. Saban publicly called for teams to not make the same mistake that he and the Dolphins did in passing over Brees for a medical question. The Dolphins listened. And now, hopefully, the Dolphins and Saban can coexist in a world where both are successful at the same time and the Dolphins’ long miserable quarterback situation — exacerbated by the decision made under Saban’s watch to pass on Brees — can be resolved as well.
Or, in a worst case scenario, Tagovailoa is a trojan horse meant to provide optimism and hope, only to further fan the flames of Saban’s curse but setting back the Dolphins’ search for a quarterback once again. But let’s not jump to conclusions just yet. Now is the time for optimism!