Best Dolphin Middle Linebacker | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Best Dolphin Middle Linebacker

Who is the best Middle Linebacker in Dolphin history?

  • Zach Thomas

    Votes: 24 37.5%

  • John Offerdahl

    Votes: 20 31.3%

  • Nick Buoniconti

    Votes: 20 31.3%
  • Total voters
    64
  • Poll closed .
hmmm

Buoniconti was before my time...

I would have to say Zach Thomas. Offerdahl was great, but it never seemed to me that he was the focal point of the defense like Zach is. Even Bryan Cox outshined Offerdahl with his stint on the Fins. I'm voting Zach.
 
Ive never seen anyone other than Thomas play.. i guess they were before MY time.... so i go with Zach.
 
Buoniconti is in the Hall of fame. Offerdahl was actually very much like Zach in beeing the focal point of the "D". Cox would probably be the fourth listed. He was an outside backer with the fins as much as he was inside though.
 
It's Zach. The only evidence you really need is the 2001 season complete with playing the following week after a neck injury from a goal line stand.

Offerdahl was too injury prone and had a short lived career. Groin, abdominal muscle, and Shoulder-seemed like anything would keep him out of football.

Upon retirement ``My game is all the time to seek contact and I found myself in the game avoiding contact,'' Offerdahl said.

As far as Nick goes....It was a different time with a different game of football.. He was good for his day but Zach is our best ever..
 
Zach is on his way to becoming the greatest...but I had to vote for Offerdahl.

Offerdahl simply brought our entire defense to a higher level. When he was not in the game our defense was woefully exposed.

Unforntunately, he hit people so hard that he injuried himself and cut his career short.

And...he makes awesome bagels!
 
Offerdahl had a LOT less talent to work with and still managed to raise his game to a level that made the Dolphins defense acceptable. His injuries broke the D apart, kinda like what would have happened if Marino went down.
For that simple fact I had to vote for Offerdahl.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Buoniconti and Thomas are very similar. Both were considered too small but turned out to be great players. I think Zach will end up in the HOF and as of now he's my favorite player on our current team but I'm a big admirer of old school players and Buoniconti gets my vote.
 
EGAD! What a choice!

All in all, I saw Nick play, and he was a favorite before he joined the Phins. I like Zach - and his intensity - but I will say this, If John Offerdahl had the team mates around him that Zach has now - he would be even better than Zach.

On one play, he earned my attention & respect against Kansas City and Christian Okoye. Okoye had been running all over the league in the middle & he tried it over Offerdahl. He outweighed Offerdahl by some twenty five pounds and when John hit him in the middle of the fun in the middle - all you saw was Okoye going backwards back out of the hole he had just run into with Offerdahl's shoulder pads driving back through him. Best heads on shot for a big man I ever saw.
 
Offerdahl was great, but our D sucked w/o him because we never had a NFL - caliber backup MLB. Back then, we were lucky to have a NFL - caliber starting MLB. Bouniconti is a great player and a HOF, but if you judge performance by what Bouniconti did solely as a Phin vs Zach plus projecting what Zach will do in the future, it is really not close. You would be hard pressed to name another player in D in our history that has contributed more than Zach.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom