Steve Cook has more NFL QB rankings for you, and this time he is digging into the storied franchise that is the Miami Dolphins!

When you think of the Miami Dolphins, you mind tends to skip right past the 21st century and go back to the 20th. You think of the undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins, and you think of Dan Marino. Don Shula too, since he was around for all of it. That’s pretty much it.

That’s still more than a lot of these franchises have going for them, to be honest. While the Dolphins haven’t really been thought of for their quarterback play for a long time, it wasn’t too hard to fill a list of the Top 5 Miami Dolphins Quarterbacks.

5. David Woodley

There were three seasons between the retirement of Bob Griese & the arrival of Dan Marino. Woodley, an eight round pick out of LSU that came in fourth on the depth chart before the 1980 season, was the starting quarterback for those three seasons, and for the first few weeks of the 1983 season before Marino was put into the lineup. Woodley’s performance was fair to middling, he threw more interceptions than touchdowns in each of his seasons in Miami, he never led the league in anything & he didn’t sniff any Pro Bowl selections.

The Dolphins were pretty good, though. Woodley led the team to a Super Bowl appearance at the end of the strike-shortened 1982 season, becoming the youngest quarterback to start the big game until Marino did so two seasons later. Woodley moved on to the Steelers after the 1983 season, retired two seasons afterward, and would pass away from kidney & liver failure in 2003 at the young age of 44.

4. Jay Fiedler

Woodley had the pressure of following Griese. Fiedler, a Dartmouth grad who had one start to his name in three seasons with three different teams in a five year period, won the assignment of following Dan Marino. Given his background up to that point, Fiedler really didn’t do that poorly. 2001 saw Fiedler throw for 3,290 yards & 20 touchdowns, both of which would be career highs. The Dolphins went to the playoffs Fiedler’s first two seasons as starter behind a strong defense, as he became a perfectly average starter in the league.

Which, again, more than you would have expected from a guy that’d bounced around like Fiedler had. It’s just that the expectations were so high for Dolphins QBs after his predecessor. Fiedler is still the last Dolphins quarterback to win a playoff game, as the team beat the Colts on December 30, 2000 in the Wild Card round.

3. Ryan Tannehill

In 2012, the Dolphins thought they finally found their next franchise quarterback through the Draft. It was the first time they’d taken a QB in the first round since 1983, and third time in franchise history, taking Tannehill with the eighth overall pick. Miami’s two previous first round QB picks wound up going to the Hall of Fame, so hopes were high that Tannehill would follow them.

After six seasons starting in Miami, Tannehill wound up third all time in franchise passing yards, touchdowns & interceptions. He set the franchise rookie record for passing yards. Tannehill threw for over 4,000 yards in 2014 & 15. However, a torn ACL during the 2017 preseason wiped out his entire regular season, and his 2018 was a step back from previous performance. Tannehill was traded to Tennessee prior to the 2019 season…which wound up being the first season he was selected to the Pro Bowl. If Tannehill breaks out of the pack and winds up being the elite QB people thought he could be when he was drafted, it won’t be for the Dolphins.

2. Bob Griese

Griese went to the Dolphins fourth overall in the 1967 Draft & became the team’s QB1 shortly after. He was selected to the AFL All-Star Game his first two seasons in the league, but the Dolphins weren’t too good overall. Things turned around when Don Shula came to town in 1970. The Dolphins went from the bottom of the league to the playoffs, and made three straight Super Bowls from 1971-73, winning two of them & going undefeated in 1972. The team had the highest winning percentage in sports during 1970, building a reputation that still has the franchise held in high regard.

Griese was a key part of it all, going to six Pro Bowls during the 1970s. He was known for calling his own plays throughout his career, becoming known as “The Thinking Man’s Quarterback”. His finest season was in 1977, when he threw for 2,252 yards & led the NFL with 22 touchdowns. Longtime Dolphins owner Joe Robbie considered him the cornerstone of the franchise, and few people were as important to the success of the Dolphins as Bob Griese was.

Honorable Mention: Earl Morrall

Griese started & finished that 17-0 run in the 1972 regular & postseason, but Morrall had a key role in the middle. When Griese went down with a broken leg in Week 5, Don Shula turned to a man who had already served as a capable backup & led one of his previous teams to a Super Bowl appearance. Morrall had been released by the Colts prior to the 1972 season, and Shula knew that if Bob Griese were to run into problems, Morrall could do what needed to be done. So, Morrall led the Dolphins to eleven straight wins while Griese recovered from injury.

Morrall started to wear down in the playoffs though, and Griese was ready to step in at halftime of the AFC Championship Game. Griese finished the job, but Morrall was a key part of arranging that annual champagne toast for the 1972 Miami Dolphins.

Honorable Mention: Don Strock

We mentioned David Woodley earlier, we would be remiss if we didn’t cover his partner in the heralded “WoodStrock” pairing. Strock was a fixture on the Dolphins’ QB depth chart for fourteen seasons, backing up everybody from Griese to Marino. His high point came in 1978, when he started seven games after Griese tore his knee up in a preseason game & led the Dolphins to a 5-2 record before Bob returned to the lineup.

Strock would often play in relief situations during Woodley’s run between Griese & Marino, including the memorable divisional playoff game between the Dolphins & the Chargers in the 1981 postseason. Strock led the Dolphins back from a 24-0 deficit to take the game to overtime, throwing for over 400 yards & having four touchdown passes. Had Strock & the Dolphins managed to win that game, they could have played in the Freezer Bowl in Cincinnati the next week & played in a windchill of around fifty degrees below zero. So maybe things worked out for the best there.

1. Dan Marino

When Marino retired at the end of the 1999 NFL season, he held pretty much every relevant NFL passing record. Most career passing yards, touchdown passes, completions & attempts. Most passing yards & touchdown passes in a single season (1984, with 5,084 yards & 48 touchdowns). He held most of the rookie passing records, launched the most fourth-quarter comebacks, had the most games with over 300 passing yards, most consecutive games with this & that…folks, there were a ton of records.

He still holds Monday Night Football records for passing yards, touchdown passes & wins as a starter. Marino had a knack for not getting sacked, and still holds the career & regular season records for lowest sack percentage. Basically, you name a passing record and Dan Marino held it at one point or another. Say what you will about what he wasn’t able to do with the Dolphins, what he was able to do was pretty extraordinary.

Thanks for reading! Join me next time when we look at the Minnesota Vikings’ greatest quarterbacks!