What is the biggest mistake in Dolphins history?

[Dave Gray]

It could be a missed draft opportunity, a free agent that got away, a particular play, a bad hire, or a guy that we let go but shouldn't have.

[JVides]

Wow...out of all the mistakes, which has been the most crippling?

Hiring Wannstedt has to be right up there.  It led to 6 solid years of bad drafts, from which we are really still recovering.  Further, his hiring and subsequent bad drafts led to the waste of a team that had been built around a solid, if not necessarily spectacular, young defense.  Had six straight drafts not been botched so badly, Miami might have built an offense to match its defense, and been in position to be the dominant AFC East team this past decade.

[dolphins4life]

^^^^

Not to mention his poor coaching cost some of our talented teams

[YoFuggedaboutit]

Hiring Wanny and hiring Cameron were the two biggest mistakes I can think of.  I'll have to lean in favor of Wanny because he did a lot more damage.  Management realized the mistake they made and dumped Cameron after one year.

[doctord56]

I'll list my top four:

Instead of acquiring Drew Brees as a free agent, Nick Saban's deciding to trade a second round pick for Dante Culpepper, because Brees was damaged goods as a QB with his shoulder injury. Brees turned out OK, as we all know.

Certainly this is the worst call personnel wise of the past decade, if not in all of dolphin history. The fins struggled for years with lousy QB play, and we can only hope Henne turns out to be the answer Brees would have been.

Another candidate for awfulest mistake in dolphin history might be Joe Robbie's penny pinching in 1975, which led to Csonka, Kiick and Warfield leaving for the WFL, resulting in the end of the early 70's dynasty.

 I agree with JVides that hiring Wannstedt and letting him take charge of drafting, with horrific results and the resultant decline of the team, ranks highly (or lowly).

Fourthly, Don Shula great coach that he was, insisted that he could evaluate player talent better than any player personnel man. His poor drafting year after year, particularly on the defensive side (Shipp, Brophy, Bosa, Graf, Kumerow, etc) during Marino's golden years, led to no championships due to those lousy defenses. (and let's not forget his letting Tom Olivadotti stay employed coaching those awful defenses)

Each of these four issues led to years of deterioration and misery for the team, with pervasive and long lasting multi-season consequences.

[Tenshot13]

"LACES OUT DAN!"

[Dave Gray]

I'm only going to speak about the years that I've been a knowledgeable fan:

Choosing Culpepper over Brees is my #1, I think.

Honorable mentions:
Drafting Jamar Fletcher (not only a bust, but at a position that we didn't need)
Keeping Wanny around.
Letting go of Wes Welker (something I supported at the time.)
Letting Mike Westhoff get away, only to watch our special teams turn into a turd.

[Tenshot13]

I'm only going to speak about the years that I've been a knowledgeable fan:

Choosing Culpepper over Brees is my #1, I think.

Honorable mentions:
Drafting Jamar Fletcher (not only a bust, but at a position that we didn't need)
Keeping Wanny around.
Letting go of Wes Welker (something I supported at the time.)
Letting Mike Westhoff get away, only to watch our special teams turn into a turd.

I agree with everything you say there Dave, except the Wes Welker thing.

We got a 2nd and a 7th I believe for a guy that wanted a big contract...it sucks that we blew those picks on guys who aren't on the team anymore, but still...we got good value for him (hindsight is 20/20, blah, blah, blah), and to tell you the truth, if he doesn't have Moss or Brady, he's still just above average.  At New England, he has the perfect storm, and that's something that wouldn't have transitioned at Miami if he would have stayed here.  Miami still doesn't have that #1 WR and our QB of the future is still transitioning.

I agree with everyone about the Wanny shit...but I'm going to throw this out there....I'm going to get shit for it, but oh well.....

Drafting Ted Ginn........

You got one more year buddy....one....more....year. ...after that you are gone unless you go over 1,000 yds or get double digit TD's.

[Dave Gray]

I think that Welker has a lot of value.  He gets a lot of catches and is really helpful for bringing along new QBs.  He runs good routes and finds ways to get open and get YAC.  That's hard to come by.

Looking at our receiver situation for the last several years, a guy like that would be invaluable.

[Dolphin-UK]

A small but related hijack here...I don't think the Welker thing was a management "decision".

If I recall the sequence went something like this......

1. Welker become restricted free agent.....
2. Patriots offer contract which guarantees significant amount of salary for playing x games in Florida a poison pill making it ridiculous for Miami to match.
3. Contract also includes a high salary
4. Spotting the obvious benefits to both teams, the Patriots negotiate a trade so they get Welker with lower salary and negotiate from there, and Miami get draft picks out of it.

I may be wrong, but we were left between a rock and a hard place and took the deal that on the face of it appeared better.

[SportsChick]

You didn't have a big choice on Welker - he was a restricted and the Patriots added a poison pill -something about playing more than 4 games in the state of Florida during that season makes the entire contract guaranteed or something along those lines.

There was no way that would have occurred with the Pats, as they were only scheduled for 1 trip during the regular season (Miami) so even if they had three playoff games in Florida, they would have been at the 4. The Fins, of course, play 8 home games in Florida

[Tepop84]

I may be wrong, but we were left between a rock and a hard place and took the deal that on the face of it appeared better.

Yea, but they could have offered him the highest tender instead of the one that only cost a second rounder.

[doctord56]

Had Welker stayed in Miami, he surely would have been a very good and valuable player. But in New England, with  Tom Brady throwing to him and Randy Moss to draw defensive attention, Welker achieved statistical excellence far beyond what he would have attained in Miami. The same player, but in a much better setting to showcase his talent. I don't see the Welker trade as something yielding multiple season destruction, not along the lines of the four items I posted above.

[bsfins]

I really didn't want to comment on this,because I think  about What Philly pointed out in one post about, well if we would have drafted Drew Brees,he sort of a bust the first few years in S.D....That type of argument....(Here we go I'm opening Pandora's box) I think it comes down to 2 simple factors in recent history....


Wayne Huizenga trusting....
A.) too many people that knew nothing about football,that hardly knew the difference between a jock strap,and a goal post....(Other than possibly being hung by their jock strap on the goal post)

B.) People that knew about football,but didn't give a shit about the organization,or weren't thinking what was best for the Dolphins Organization (better phrasing)

My example, Jimmy Johnson Was trying to quit,Hire Dave Wannstedt to keep him,and succeed him...Wayne Trusted Jimmy,then after Jimmy Quit, Kept Bringing Jimmy to consult on the draft.

[Brian Fein]

Welker could have been signed to an extension before he became a free agent.  They picked him up off waivers and probably didn't think he was worth it at the time.  I don't think this ranks ever top 10 of the Dolphins all-time mistakes.