Who would you put on the Dolphins' Mount Rushmore?

[MikeO]

Bob was always mediocre at qb position.

And the hall of fame voters put him in Canton because they thought he was a nice guy?!

[Spider-Dan]

I concede that JT was the best over the long haul. So maybe u can make a case for him over Zonk if u would like. But the bigger point I was trying to make was Griese has got to be in.  If your a Fins fan its really a no brainer, unless you are younger & don't count the glory years before Danny boy came along?

Csonka was a more important part of that offense than Griese.  If it comes down to a choice between one of those two, Csonka should get the nod.

[Brian Fein]

Teams honor the greatest players in the franchise history by retiring their jersey number.  You have to be an absolute elite player to the franchise to have your jersey number retired.  The Dolphins have retired 3 numbers:

13 - Marino
39 - Csonka
12 - Griese

So it sounds like you are all saying the Dolphins got it wrong, and don't know who their own 3 best players of all time are?  To me, you take those three, add in the winningest coach in NFL history, and that's your "Mount Rushmore."

Pretty cut-and-dry.

Will #99 someday be added to a flag next to the other three?  Maybe.  I think he's a shoe-in for the Ring of Honor.  To be honest, I don't know if #99 is worthy of retirement.

[Pappy13]

So it sounds like you are all saying the Dolphins got it wrong...

No one is saying they got it wrong.

Will #99 someday be added to a flag next to the other three?

Yes, he will. That's what we are saying and if they don't, then yes they will have gotten it wrong.

[Spider-Dan]

Teams honor the greatest players in the franchise history by retiring their jersey number.  You have to be an absolute elite player to the franchise to have your jersey number retired.  The Dolphins have retired 3 numbers:

13 - Marino
39 - Csonka
12 - Griese

So it sounds like you are all saying the Dolphins got it wrong, and don't know who their own 3 best players of all time are?

This "JT doesn't have his number retired and isn't even in the HOF" arguments are borderline dishonest.  Csonka didn't even have his number retired until 2002.  I guess he would have been a crapshoot until then!

Should Tom Brady be on the Patriots Mt. Rushmore?  Tough call, since he is not in the HOF, his number is not retired, and the Patriots already have 4+ numbers retired and 4 HOFers!

[Brian Fein]

I am using the "retired number" argument to emphasize Griese's understated value to the franchise, to the people that say "he wasn't all that great."

I am not using it as a means to downplay Jason Taylor, other than to say "its too early to make that assessment."

Comparing Jason Taylor's value to the Dolphins to Tom Brady's value to the Partiots is criminal.  Worst analogy ever.  Or perhaps your opinion of Jason Taylor really is THAT over-inflated...?

[Pappy13]

I am not using it as a means to downplay Jason Taylor, other than to say "its too early to make that assessment."

This might be true if he was still playing, but he's not. Just because 5 years hasn't passed since he retired doesn't really make that much of a difference. His contributions are well known and will stand the test of time.

[MikeO]

Will #99 someday be added to a flag next to the other three?  Maybe.  I think he's a shoe-in for the Ring of Honor.  To be honest, I don't know if #99 is worthy of retirement.

They put JT in the ring of honor last year. JT won't have his jersey retired he wasn't that good!

[tits muldoon]

I meant I agreed JT was the best DE ever for the dolphins. The best defender ever idk maybe so? That's a different discussion for another day. I voted Csonka as my four.  Griese was the QB man I loved zonk (He never ran out of bounds) but Kick & Morris were pretty damn good too, oh & that line. RB's are a dime a dozen except a few ( Brown/OJ/Sanders/Peterson) u get the idea. I liken Griese to Starr or more recently Aikman never had gaudy numbers but leadership & completion percentage ( I bet Griese's is pretty high- i'm a computer novice so maybe someone can look up the #'s for me?) Also winning is pretty important I think JT won 2 playoff games (that I can remember) & it was a running back named Sammie Smith who won one of them. The other well T-Buck ,Marino & Tony Marten on 3rd & 17 in what I like to think of as Marino's last drive!! Shula/Marino/Griese/Czonka...I just don't understand all this love for JT?  Top ten absolutely!!

[Spider-Dan]

Comparing Jason Taylor's value to the Dolphins to Tom Brady's value to the Partiots is criminal.  Worst analogy ever.  Or perhaps your opinion of Jason Taylor really is THAT over-inflated...?

You said, "Teams honor the greatest players in the franchise history by retiring their jersey number."  You then cited the fact that JT's number is not retired (even though it took over 20 years to retire Csonka's) as evidence that the Dolphins don't believe him to be one of their greatest players.

Tom Brady's number is not retired.  Neither are the numbers of Drew Brees, Larry Fitzgerald, Tony Gonzales, Ray Lewis, Ronde Barber, Brian Dawkins, or LaDainian Tomlinson.  What does this fact tell us about any of these players?  Not much.

[Sunstroke]

I liken Griese to Starr or more recently Aikman never had gaudy numbers but leadership & completion percentage ( I bet Griese's is pretty high- i'm a computer novice so maybe someone can look up the #'s for me?)

Here's the link to Griese's career stats:  http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/G/GrieBo00.htm

He really didn't have a very high career completion percentage (56.2%), and his TD/Int rate also wasn't really that impressive (192 TDs/172 ints), but no one can argue with his leadership and field toughness.

[Pappy13]

He really didn't have a very high career completion percentage (56.2%), and his TD/Int rate also wasn't really that impressive (192 TDs/172 ints), but no one can argue with his leadership and field toughness.

Taking into account the era that he played in his stats are very good, but not incredibly high. His stats are up there with the other HOF QB's that played in his era. I'm not taking anything away from Griese, he was a great QB and deserved the hall, but I think JT was also a tremendous football player and deserves some recognition as well. I believe that he'll be in the hall someday and I believe Miami *should* retire his number. Whether or not he should be on the Dolphins Mount Rushmore is merely my opinion, but I did take into consideration that another Dolphins QB (Marino) deserved it more in my opinion than Griese, so I gave the nod to Taylor, the best DE in my opinion, instead.

Completion %
Bart Starr 57.4
Len Dawson 57.1
Sonny Jurgensen 57.1
Frank Tarkenton 57.0
Roger Staubach 57.0
Bob Griese 56.2
Johnny Unitas 54.6

TD %
Len Dawson 6.4
Sonny Jurgensen 6.0
Bob Griese 5.6
Johnny Unitas 5.6
Frank Tarkenton 5.3
Roger Staubach 5.2
Bart Starr 4.8

INT %
Roger Staubach 3.7
Frank Tarkenton 4.1
Bart Starr 4.4
Sonny Jurgensen 4.4
Len Dawson 4.9
Johnny Unitas 4.9
Bob Griese 5.0