I have never understood how Johnson is blamed for forcing out Shula or Marino. Johnson was not the teams owner, therefore he certainly wasn’t responsible for the fact Huizenga decided to replace Shula. It just happened that Johnson was the head coach signed to replace Shula .JJ in my book.
-Forced Shula out
-Forced Marino out
-Quit on us after the Jax debacle
-Left us with Wanny as his heir apparent
As much as I loved Marino, he was just a very average QB his last few years in the league and that had nothing to do with Johnson. His knees were shot and he was never the same QB after suffering a ruptured Achilles late in his career.
The regret I most have in regards to Johnson is he just seemed to lose interest in coaching after just a few years in Miami. He was great at rebuilding the defense but with Marino no longer good enough to carry the offense, Johnson did little to rebuild the offense while he was the head coach.
I never was a fan of Wannstedt and Johnson convincing Huizenga to hire Wannstedt to replace him was the one thing that upset me about Johnson’s tenure with the Dolphins.