First and foremost, we’re all guilty here. Any discussion about the Miami Dolphins’ quarterback situation for the past twenty years (and when looking to the future) is quick to call upon the name “Marino”. Dan Marino energized the Miami Dolphins organization for nearly two decades, his electric arm and sudden release befuddled many defenders for 17 seasons in the NFL. And while Marino never reached the top of the mountain in the form of a championship, his legend is cemented as one of the best passers the league has ever seen — a man before his time and a trailblazer for the league’s wide open passing tendencies that we see today.
And the Dolphins have been stumbling to find their way at quarterback ever since Marino hung up his cleats. There’s been serviceable starters, such as Ryan Tannehill, Jay Fiedler, Ryan Fitzpatrick and Chad Pennington. There’s been draft heartbreaks like Chad Henne, John Beck and Pat White. And we’ve seen a number of disastrous pursuits of top names along the way, including the infamous Drew Brees debacle and the team’s status as an “also ran” in the Peyton Manning sweepstakes.
For a long time, “adequate” was a breath of fresh air for a Miami Dolphins quarterback — but the play of Ryan Tannehill for a majority of the 2010s made “adequate” the standard and has Dolphins fans hungry for something more and something better at the help of their offense.
But we also should be fair to whoever the heir is and not expect the “next” Dan Marino.
For a long time, it has felt as though the Dolphins have been chasing the ghost of Marino and have tried to build this team in his image with an exotic, wide open passing attack. The team tried it with Cam Cameron. They tried it with Joe Philbin and then again with Adam Gase. And each time they did, it failed. Miserably.
These Dolphins now seem to have the right coach at the controls in Brian Flores — but whoever the Dolphins tab as their new franchise quarterback deserves for fans to expect him to be the best version of himself as possible. Measuring him against one of the top five to ten best quarterbacks in the history of the league and a phenom and prodigy rolled into one wouldn’t be a fair standard for anyone, no matter how talented they are.
The Dolphins have a lot of right ingredients in the mix based off how the team finished the 2019 season. There’s more than one way to build a winning football team. And almost all of them require high end quarterback play. But put Tom Brady onto the Seattle Seahawks (another competitive team, mind you) and ask him to play the way Russell Wilson does — how do you think that story would end? What about taking Patrick Mahomes, with all of his glorious and brilliant wizardry with the football, and put him on the Cleveland Browns in 2017 and asking him to play right off the bat for Hue Jackson — does he become the prodigy and star he is today?
The expectation for any rookie quarterback to step into the fray for the Dolphins should be that he becomes the best version of himself as possible and that he fits the cohesive plan this Dolphins organization is putting into play; not that he becomes the next Dan Marino. Because at the end of the day, that’s what made Marino so great: his play couldn’t be replicated. He was one of a kind.