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When we drafted marino in 83

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Tommatt

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Well, I"m watching the draft special on ESPN. When we drafted marino I was 2 years old, so obviously I didn't see it. but they were showing the analyst talking about it, how he wasn't very good, we were taking a gamble with him, and how he wouldn't fit in our system.

Boy they were wrong wern't they?

Wow, I posted this and forgot my point.
Anyways, I was wondering what some of you older dolfans thought of this at the time of the draft.
 
Interesting post, I was born in 1981 so obviously I didnt watch the draft. For those of you that did, what were your reactions? I doubt it was like McNabb and Philly but what did you all think?
 
Tommatt said:
Well, I"m watching the draft special on ESPN. When we drafted marino I was 2 years old, so obviously I didn't see it. but they were showing the analyst talking about it, how he wasn't very good, we were taking a gamble with him, and how he wouldn't fit in our system.

Boy they were wrong wern't they?

Wow, I posted this and forgot my point.
Anyways, I was wondering what some of you older dolfans thought of this at the time of the draft.
Click to expand...

One of the comments Z kept saying was, who is going to coach him. Shula has only one great QB in his coaching tenure and that was Griese. Boy was he wrong on that. I still don't know how he forgot about Unitas.

Marino is Shula's third QB in the Hall of Fame.
 
I was a fan of his when he was in college. Always remember that great throw on 4th down in the Sugarbowl to win it...I believe it was on the 4th down??anyway, I was PSYCHED!
At the time, we had David Woodley playing. Although, RIP Mr. Woodley, he was one tough dude, Marino was quite an improvement over the position.
 
LJK825 said:
Interesting post, I was born in 1981 so obviously I didnt watch the draft. For those of you that did, what were your reactions? I doubt it was like McNabb and Philly but what did you all think?
Click to expand...
Well i was around for that draft, and you guys have to remember that draft day today is totally different then it was 23 yrs ago. Dan was suppose to go pretty early in that draft but rumors were abound that Dan was doing cocaine, and that really scared off alot of teams. I don't believe teams investigated players like they do today. Shula even said that they were interested in Marino, but he believed that there was noway that Danny Boy was going to drop that far in the draft. I did not know that much about Marino at the time of the draft, but i do remember that i did not care to much for the quarterbacks that the Dolphins had at that time. But i thought for sure that the Dolphins were going to go Defense that year. So when Marino was picked it didn't blow me away because i thought we should of gone Defense. Marino as you guys know was the best pick the dolphins ever made....
 
Tommatt said:
Well, I"m watching the draft special on ESPN. When we drafted marino I was 2 years old, so obviously I didn't see it. but they were showing the analyst talking about it, how he wasn't very good, we were taking a gamble with him, and how he wouldn't fit in our system.

Boy they were wrong wern't they?

Wow, I posted this and forgot my point.
Anyways, I was wondering what some of you older dolfans thought of this at the time of the draft.
Click to expand...

Shula was a genious. He changed his entire philosophy because of the talent he knew he had in marino. Unfortunately for him and most of us, he could never find that bit of running offense he had mastered in his years prior to Marino.
 
Wow, so thats how it happened? Never knew about the cocaine rumours. I could kiss the person who leaked that information. Amazing to think just how lucky we got.

I was pretty shocked hearing it today on EPSN, how the pick was critisized, and they way they hit on danny pretty hard. Never knew it happened that way
 
Did they have Kiper on and what he had said??
 
Most fans in Miami were excited because at the time we didn't have a pure passer to lead the team. Woodley could run and at time throw but was average at best. Strock could throw but was getting old and mostly a back-up. The team was solid which is why it got to the Super Bowl. Thus, the Dolphins finally had the missing piece to the puzzle a pure passer with a strong arm. Once the preseason practices started the fans were amazed. I remember their first scrimmage at the Orange Bowl and young Marino made laser passes between and around defenders that got me to turn to my cousin and say "this guy is absolutely incredible". The rest is history.
 
Marino as you guys know was the best pick the dolphins ever made....[/quote] i dont agree with that. marino was projected to go in the first round, and was also suppose to be a good player. and he was. but the dolphins wanted him and got him, because he fell. it would kind of be a similar situation if vince young or jay cutler were to fall that far. youd be foolish not to take a chance on him. so the dolphins got lucky. now if you want to talk about the best pick, id have to say my vote is on zach thomas in the 5th round. if you really have to scrounge and pick up whats basically the scrubs that are left on the board and you come up with a future hall of famer like zach thomas thats as classy as he is, you found yourself a winner. so as first rounders go, yes i agree marino was best, but as far as overall, zach gets my vote.
 
well, kiper is a junior, maybe they had his daddy on then...think he glued animal fur to his head also?
 
Geforce said:
One of the comments Z kept saying was, who is going to coach him.
Click to expand...

Zimmerman tells the story of how Shula gave him hell for years for commenting on Marino. Something about Zim saying Marino "pushed the ball" and he wouldn't be successful. Shula would remind Z of those ecomments ("Pushes the ball, huh?") every time he saw Z. In Z's defense, he claims stupidity in merely echoing the "expert" feeding him information through his headset, which he admids was a mistake in the first place. Years ago Z finally attached a white handkerchief to a pencil and waved the makeshift flag at Shula.

I like Z's approach to writing about the game. His love and appreciation for the game are quite obvious. Compare that to some of the younger writers who, it seems, want nothing more than to stir controversy.

EDIT: Found a link to A Zim article with the short mariono story:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/inside_game/dr_z/news/2002/08/29/drz_insider/
 
I think one reason Marino fell in the draft was because his senior season at Pitt was not as stellar as the rest of his college career:

Marino's College Stats
Year Att Comp Pct. yards TD INT Rat.
1979 222 130 .586 1680 10 9 80.5
1980 224 116 .518 1609 15 14 71.4
1981 380 226 .595 2876 37 23 90.4
1982 378 221 .584 2432 17 23 67.3
 
fightinfinfan22 said:
Marino as you guys know was the best pick the dolphins ever made....
Click to expand...
i dont agree with that. marino was projected to go in the first round, and was also suppose to be a good player. and he was. but the dolphins wanted him and got him, because he fell. it would kind of be a similar situation if vince young or jay cutler were to fall that far. youd be foolish not to take a chance on him. so the dolphins got lucky. now if you want to talk about the best pick, id have to say my vote is on zach thomas in the 5th round. if you really have to scrounge and pick up whats basically the scrubs that are left on the board and you come up with a future hall of famer like zach thomas thats as classy as he is, you found yourself a winner. so as first rounders go, yes i agree marino was best, but as far as overall, zach gets my vote.[/quote]

I totally disagree with the above statement. Your logic is flawed when you state "you'd be foolish not to take a chance on him." Back then, there were 28 NFL teams and 26 of them passed on Marino. Are you saying that all 26 teams were foolish? In retrospect, yes, they were foolish. But, at the time, it took some cajones for Shula to pull the trigger on Marino.

I'd rather give credit to Shula, rather than dismiss the move as avoiding foolishness.
 
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