IMO, there has only been one meaningful period in franchise history -- the wondrous early '70s -- so no chance I'm picking anyone outside that era.
Csonka
Griese
Warfield
Little
Stanfill
Those were the 5 best players during our championship run, with apologies to Anderson and Scott and Fernandez and Buoniconti and Langer and Keuchenberg, all terrific in their own right.
That group of players was so dedicated that losses were not tolerated, and in the rare occasions they happened the post game radio show was all but silent on WIOD. Henry Barrow would be hard pressed to find anyone speaking above a whisper in the locker room. I'll never forget it. Contrast to these days, with Sean Smith celebrating a fluke interception while down 24-7, or Vontae Davis taking over the mindless grin role from Ronnie Brown. Jason Taylor would have fit well on the early '70s teams but otherwise its been difficult to find anyone equally passionate as that group, or as pained upon failure. One of the reasons I supported the Reggie Bush acquisition was because he's that type of team oriented guy, witnessed by shoving Matt Leinart into the end zone against Notre Dame in 2005. Not exactly surprising he smashed his helmet to the ground on the sideline late during an agonizing defeat.
Marino was undeniably talented but those years were an insult after experiencing the '70s teams. As a stats guy I could look at a handful of numbers and realize we were masochistically eliminating ourselves by finesse and imbalance, since too much passing naturally softens your own defense and team identity. Shula somehow gets credit for adapting to personnel when all he really did was forfeit a dozen or more years by pretending he was playing under rules and application that wouldn't be adopted for another 25 years. The defining moment was the San Diego game 1984, when we dropped our rushing attempts by severe amount, never to return. The 1983 team maintained a stubborn hold on a physical approach but by playoffs 1984 we were a pantyhose passing team, doomed to be crushed. Other than isolated spots to dependably bet against the Dolphins, the Marino years were an incomparable waste. Luckily the Canes surge was parallel. When in doubt, bet against the Dolphins and with the Canes. It was incredible how often that simple two-team parlay worked during those years.
