The Dolphins had 15 picks in the NFL Draft. These are drafts they wanted to replicate
Drafting is not easy.
Something as simple as picking a 20-something-year-old can be the difference between eternal praise and the unemployment line. True, teams spend months evaluating players’ talent, schematic fit, injury, etc... yet often times that analysis leads to selecting someone less talented than the guys picked after him (looking at you, Chicago).
That’s why, regardless of what even the most committed fan says, no one truly envies the Miami Dolphins’ decision-makers. The 2020 NFL Draft will ultimately be a make-or-break moment in someone’s career. And with a league-high 15 picks, the Miami Dolphins have the unique opportunity to mold the next Super Bowl contender — or spend the next decade as the laughing stock of the league.
Time will ultimately decide whether the Fins’ 2020 draft class will go down as one of the best in NFL history. Until then, fans can only hope that at least one of their 15 picks grows worthy of a spot on this list.
1957 Cleveland Browns
Don’t let the team’s recent history fool you: the Browns used to be good, a large part of which is because of this draft.
Cleveland’s 1957 draft class included three future Pro Football Hall of Famers in running back Jim Brown, defensive tackle Henry Jordan and guard Gene Hickerson. Jordan, however, mainly earned his spot in Canton, Ohio, by reeking havoc on quarterbacks with the Green Bay Packers.
What’s notable about the Browns’ haul is that the solid picks came from everywhere. Although the team added Brown No. 6 overall, Jordan came off the board in the fifth round and Hickerson was drafted in the seventh. Even their lesser-known draftees, such as quarterback Milt Plum who made two Pro Bowls during his five years in Cleveland, was picked in the second.
Brown and Hickerson would spend their entire careers in Cleveland, even bringing the city a championship in 1964.
1964 Dallas Cowboys
The Cowboys took hours to make their second-round pick. Legend has it they wanted to get a medical report on how badly super swift Oregon running back Mel Renfro injured tendons punching a mirror after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Eventually, they drafted Renfro, then moved him to free safety, where he became a Hall of Famer on Dallas’ Doomsday Defense.
In the seventh round, the Cowboys took the World’s Fastest Human, Florida A&M wide receiver Bob Hayes. After running away with 1964 Olympic golds in the 100 and 400 relay, Bullet Bob ran away from NFL defenses. NFL coaches put in the zone defense before Hayes’ career was over, but he wasn’t put in the Hall of Fame until seven years after his 2002 death.
The 1963 Heisman Trophy winner, Navy quarterback Roger Staubach, lasted until the 10th round. Staubach’s military commitment awaited and who knew how good he’d be after that? Answer: a little bit of all right — from 1971 to 1979, Staubach led the NFC in passing four times, the Cowboys went to four Super Bowls and won two.
1974 Pittsburgh Steelers
They liked big, swift Alabama A&M wide receiver John Stallworth best, but knew nobody else knew about him (the Steelers bogarted his game film). So, they took the wide receiver everybody knew, Southern Cal’s graceful-as-his-name Lynn Swann, in Round 1.
Round 2: Some people thought Kent State linebacker Jack Lambert too skinny for the NFL. Lambert turned out to be too mean and active for the NFL. Then, Pittsburgh took Stallworth in the fourth round and Wisconsin center Mike Webster in the fifth round.
What happens when you add four Hall of Fame players to a team coming off two playoff appearances (they lost the 1972 AFC title game to the Perfect Season Dolphins)? Four Super Bowl championships and another AFC title game appearance in the next six seasons.
1981 San Francisco 49ers
The 1978 rules changes turned the NFL into a passing league. And San Francisco went 6-10 in 1980 with the NFL’s No. 27 pass defense.
Enter USC All-American Ronnie Lott (Round 1), Missouri’s Eric Wright (Round 2) and Pitt’s Carlton Williamson (Round 3). All three started as rookies with Dwight Hicks. Once the 49ers traded for Hall of Fame pass rusher Fred Dean early in the season, their defense was Super Bowl ready.
Metamorphosis: the 1981 49ers finished with the NFL’s No. 3 pass defense, No. 2 overall and their first Super Bowl title. In 1984, they would allow the fewest points and, in winning another Super Bowl, shut down the NFL’s new superhero, Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino.
Trivia: Lott, often considered the best safety ever, started his career at cornerback. Rookie Ronnie picked off seven regular-season passes, returned three for touchdowns and, in the playoffs, had two and one, respectively.
1981 Washington Redskins
What a difference a year makes.
Washington bolstered its offensive line in 1981 with the selection of Mark May in the first round and Hall of Famer Russ Grim in the third John Riggins heavily benefited from their addition as the running back’s yards per game average nearly doubled by the duo’s third season.
While their presence in the trenches elevated Washington to two Super Bowl wins (May wasn’t a part of the ‘91 team), they didn’t do it without help from their fellow ‘81 classmates. Wide receiver Charlie Brown, an eighth-round pick, led the team in receiving during their first championship run in ‘82.
On the other side of the ball, fifth-round defensive end Dexter Manley anchored their pass rush for nine years during which he accumulated a franchise-record 91 sacks.
1985 Buffalo Bills
Drafting multiple future hall of famers doesn’t always guarantee championships — just ask a Bills fan.
Buffalo’s four consecutive Super Bowl berths came in large part due to defensive end Bruce Smith, their No. 1 overall pick in 1985 and arguably the greatest pass rushers ever. His 200 career sacks has held the top spot in the NFL record books for nearly two decades.
While Smith terrorized offensive lines, wide receiver Andre Reed made defensive backs look foolish. The fourth-round pick’s production heavily contributed to the Bills’ passing attack ranking in the top 11 for touchdowns and yards during those four straight Super Bowl appearances.
1989 Dallas Cowboys
This also could be “1991 Dallas Cowboys” or “1992 Dallas Cowboys” as the Cowboys went from 1-15 to three-time Super Bowl winners. But the reason for 1989 starts at the top — the top of Dallas’ draft and the entire draft, future Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman out of UCLA.
Trading players like common stock, Dallas took guard Steve Wisniewski in the second, then flipped him to the Raiders for a second, a third and a fifth. The second brought Syracuse fullback Daryl Johnston, who would block for Aikman and running back Emmitt Smith and run to choruses of “Moooose.”
The other two picks from the trade brought little but Dallas used its own third-round pick on Pitt center Mark Stepnoski (five Pro Bowls) and fourth-round pick on UTEP defensive end Tony Tolbert (one Pro Bowl). Both started on the first two Super Bowl teams.
1995 Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Sometimes, nobody knows anything.
The morning of the draft, reports claimed University of Miami defensive tackle Warren Sapp tested positive for marijuana and cocaine multiple times. Sapp, who wondered how anybody believed he could test positive that often in Miami without it leaking before draft day, slid down to No. 12, where Tampa Bay snapped him up.
Between the slide and knowing the Bucs’ sorry history, Apopka-raised Sapp wasn’t thrilled. He felt a little better 16 picks later. Tampa Bay ignored all the “too-small” criticism of Florida State linebacker Derrick Brooks and took Brooks based on the football player they saw on film.
And Tampa Bay had the defensive line and linebacker Hall of Fame anchors of its Super Bowl defense.
1996 Baltimore Ravens
The Ravens’ 1996 draft class proves that it always helps to have a little bit of luck.
How?
Well, any team that selects future hall of famers with consecutive picks in their first draft has to be hoarding four-leaf clovers, rabbit feet or something. That’s the only way to explain how Baltimore landed tackle Jonathan Ogden with the fourth overall pick and linebacker Ray Lewis at No. 26, two of the all-time greats at their respective positions.
Throw in Baltimore’s fifth-round selection of Jermaine Lewis, one of the deadliest returners of his era, and their Super Bowl 35-winning team starts to look a whole lot scarier.
This story was originally published April 23, 2020 at 4:41 PM.
