Top turnarounds in NFL history | Page 2 | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Top turnarounds in NFL history

Kyndig said:
Lot’s have people have said ”Tanking doesn’t work”. I say there is ample history of teams that won a max of 3 games one year and then turned it around the next. Whether those teams were tanking or not, they took advantage of their high draft position and turned things around quickly. Below is a list of some of them lest we forget.

2017 Jacksonville Jaguars 3-13 to 10-6 AFC Championship game. They drafted Leonard Fournette and had Miles Jack

2011 Indianapolis Colts (suck for Luck), went 2-11, then drafted Andrew Luck and in 2012 went 11-5 Lost AFC Wild Card

2012 Kansas City Chiefs went 2-11, then in 2013 turned it around and went 11-5, lost in Wildcard round

2007 Miami Dolphins went 1-15, 2008 went 11-5 lost in AFC Wildcard

1998 Indianapolis Colts went 3-13, Drafted Peyton Manning and then went 13-3 in 1999, lost divisional round

1989 Dallas Cowboys went 1-15, then in 1990 went 7-9, then in 1991 11-5 made divisional playoffs, 1992 13-3 SuperBowl Champions

For those of you who think this tank is stupid, a bad idea, and we are doomed to fail I say to you, that Is possible, but there is plenty of evidence of teams that were just about as crappy as us, or that were just as crappy as us that turned things around quickly by rebuilding, drafting high, and cleaning up their roster. The colts were an outright tank just like us and you can see what happened. Whilst Luck was a higher rated prospect than Tua, Tua is also very highly rated and could potentially have that kind of impact on a team.
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Your list is flawed. First of all none of these teams tanked (and no I will not rehash the Colts timeline in 2011 again).
The Jaguars were bad for years not just one year and they were bad the year after going 10-6. 10-6 was just as much a fluke as our 11-5 in 2008 which brings us to the Dolphins. We were between bad to mediocre for years prior to 2007 and we returned to bad to mediocre after 2008.
The Colts were awful in 1997 and 1998 (Mannings first season).

The Chiefs were between bad and mediocre for years before they went 2-14. Then they became respectable and playoff contenders. The Chiefs respectability had more to do with Reid becoming the HC then anything else.

The Cowboys were mediocre to bad for years prior to their 1-15 season and did only become a small dynasty because of the Walker trade.

You were cherry picking bad years and good years rather than looking at the overall picture and how teams got to that miserable point and rejected for the most part what happened after that year of grandeur.

And again...none of these teams were tanking.
 
phins_4_ever said:
Your list is flawed. First of all none of these teams tanked (and no I will not rehash the Colts timeline in 2011 again).
The Jaguars were bad for years not just one year and they were bad the year after going 10-6. 10-6 was just as much a fluke as our 11-5 in 2008 which brings us to the Dolphins. We were between bad to mediocre for years prior to 2007 and we returned to bad to mediocre after 2008.
The Colts were awful in 1997 and 1998 (Mannings first season).

The Chiefs were between bad and mediocre for years before they went 2-14. Then they became respectable and playoff contenders. The Chiefs respectability had more to do with Reid becoming the HC then anything else.

The Cowboys were mediocre to bad for years prior to their 1-15 season and did only become a small dynasty because of the Walker trade.

You were cherry picking bad years and good years rather than looking at the overall picture and how teams got to that miserable point and rejected for the most part what happened after that year of grandeur.

And again...none of these teams were tanking.
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First of all the colts absolutely sucked for Luck, it was a thing. You can’t pretend it didn’t happen it totally did.

Second of all the point was these teams all won somewhere between 1 and 3 games and all turned around the next season after their worst season.

They all drafted high, and many of them secured their Qb and it made a big difference. There is nothing flawed about this list, I simply searched for the biggest turnarounds in the NFL since 1989.

Take from it what you will, my point is that there are a number of examples of bad teams turning it around quickly whether they were that bad intentionally or not. And the 1989
Cowboys are an excellent example in that they stockpiled tons of picks after trading away one of their best players and they were able to turn those picks into great players that became the foundation of super bowl runs. They too like other teams on this list went through a significant rebuild process. They traded Herschel Walker, we traded Laremy tunsel and Minkah Fitzpatrick and got a similar amount of return in the next two drafts. Let’s see how many great players we can turn those into, but yes there are similarities.

None of these circumstances are identical to the Dolphins, but there are similarities. Bad. Teams have been rebuilding all the time, and there are more than one example of bad teams being able to get their QB and that being the catalyst to turn them around.

Oh and by the way, we’ve been bad to mediocre for years too!

The list is what it is.
 
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None of these examples, not even the Colts, were close to the deliberate and systematic tearing apart of a roster and payroll that has happened here. I'm positive about the future and behind most of the moves we've made, but turning this around is going to be a damn sight harder than any of the examples given here.
 
ONole1 said:
Maybe so, but not sure many people see him as a generational player like Luck was...big difference.
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Definitely a big difference. Plus there are a lot of questions in regards to his durability and if he will even enter the draft this coming year.
 
ANUFan said:
Heck you can see it with old Fitz. The guy comes in and the offense looks like a completely different team. Unfortunately as much as he gives he takes away too.

But the point remains. A good Qb can elevate the entire team.
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LOL...Fitz is not even 1/2 as good as Tannehill
He elevates in spurts then totally sucks and looks horrible
i have a hard time with many here slamming good players that were here like Ryan T & Drake when they produced numbers and somehow are enamored with Ryan stinking Fitzpatrick

Rudolph looked God awful at the beginning of the game
I heard him described here as garbage
They stayed with him and he improved....would be nice to see the worst or second worst team in league do the same with a 1st RD talent

But no Flores has too much intensity for that....right
 
Kyndig said:
First of all the colts absolutely sucked for Luck, it was a thing. You can’t pretend it didn’t happen it totally did.

Second of all the point was these teams all won somewhere between 1 and 3 games and all turned around the next season after their worst season.

They all drafted high, and many of them secured their Qb and it made a big difference. There is nothing flawed about this list, I simply searched for the biggest turnarounds in the NFL since 1989.

Take from it what you will, my point is that there are a number of examples of bad teams turning it around quickly whether they were that bad intentionally or not. And the 1989
Cowboys are an excellent example in that they stockpiled tons of picks after trading away one of their best players and they were able to turn those picks into great players that became the foundation of super bowl runs. They too like other teams on this list went through a significant rebuild process. They traded Herschel Walker, we traded Laremy tunsel and Minkah Fitzpatrick and got a similar amount of return in the next two drafts. Let’s see how many great players we can turn those into, but yes there are similarities.

None of these circumstances are identical to the Dolphins, but there are similarities. Bad. Teams have been rebuilding all the time, and there are more than one example of bad teams being able to get their QB and that being the catalyst to turn them around.

Oh and by the way, we’ve been bad to mediocre for years too!

The list is what it is.
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While the Colts sucked for Luck, the team was built around Manning. Like Marino and all the other great QB's he had the ability to lift a team on his shoulders and carry them. The Colts didn't have a great roster that year, but them or NO ONE has purged a roster in the Epic proportion that Miami has. Miami is basically an expansion team right now, and not a good one. This is a 3-5 year build before they are competitors IF they hit on 50% of their draft picks and free agents.
 
Of the teams noted by OP the Cowboys are the only one that was really successful quickly. The goal is to win the Super Bowl not make a single or 2 playoff appearances. Manning worked eventually but it took a decade. The rest were just normal rise and fall that happens to all teams.
 
SmokyFin said:
I'm really getting sick of all these idiots on ESPN and elsewhere trashing Miami and constantly taking shots at everything they're doing. One of my favorites is the, "You can have all of these picks but you still have to hit on them."

Well, no **** sherlock. And so does every other team that drafts. The only difference is we have way more and better picks than everyone else. So even if we do screw some up we have plenty left to use.
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I can’t believe you expect better commentary.
 
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