What do you think is the best Dolphins team of the last 30 years?
I’m basing my picks on performance on the field during the season. So, whether or not the 2002 team was stacked, I’m not going to name them one of the best when they couldn’t even get a win when they needed it to secure a wildcard. I’m not asking what the most talented team on paper was— I’m asking about the team that was the best when the games were played. I’m also starting with the 1990 season because I think the results will be more interesting if the 1984 team is excluded (and because I’d expect general agreement that the dynasty teams of the early 70s were the best Dolphins teams in their history).
I definitely think the best teams of the last three decades were in the early 90s— particularly 1990 and 1994.
The 1990 team was the last Dolphins team to win 12 games and, I think, one of the best teams in football that year (notwithstanding the fact that the Bills were clearly better, as were the best NFC teams). The Dolphins had started to draft better and the results were evident as 1990 was the beginning of a mild Dolphins rebirth in that decade.
The 1994 team was bolstered by a host of big names acquired in free agency— Fryar, Jackson, Byars— and the blossoming of home grown talents— Webb, Sims, Vincent, McDuffie, Bowens. Overall more talented than the 1990 team and boasting a seemingly reinvigorated Dan Marino, the team won the division before suffering a last minute loss in the second round.
My honorable mention is the 1992 team, i.e. the only Dolphins team to win a divisional playoff game in the last three decades. Team looked like the best in football through mid-October, but played .500 football down the stretch. Similar story in the playoffs where they throttled San Diego in the divisional round, before looking like jobbers in the AFC championship game against the Bills.
I’m basing my picks on performance on the field during the season. So, whether or not the 2002 team was stacked, I’m not going to name them one of the best when they couldn’t even get a win when they needed it to secure a wildcard. I’m not asking what the most talented team on paper was— I’m asking about the team that was the best when the games were played. I’m also starting with the 1990 season because I think the results will be more interesting if the 1984 team is excluded (and because I’d expect general agreement that the dynasty teams of the early 70s were the best Dolphins teams in their history).
I definitely think the best teams of the last three decades were in the early 90s— particularly 1990 and 1994.
The 1990 team was the last Dolphins team to win 12 games and, I think, one of the best teams in football that year (notwithstanding the fact that the Bills were clearly better, as were the best NFC teams). The Dolphins had started to draft better and the results were evident as 1990 was the beginning of a mild Dolphins rebirth in that decade.
The 1994 team was bolstered by a host of big names acquired in free agency— Fryar, Jackson, Byars— and the blossoming of home grown talents— Webb, Sims, Vincent, McDuffie, Bowens. Overall more talented than the 1990 team and boasting a seemingly reinvigorated Dan Marino, the team won the division before suffering a last minute loss in the second round.
My honorable mention is the 1992 team, i.e. the only Dolphins team to win a divisional playoff game in the last three decades. Team looked like the best in football through mid-October, but played .500 football down the stretch. Similar story in the playoffs where they throttled San Diego in the divisional round, before looking like jobbers in the AFC championship game against the Bills.
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