Miami Super Bowl: Chiefs and 49ers’ contrasting styles hold lessons, hope for Dolphins | Opinion
If there are lessons to be learned from every Super Bowl — how those two teams got there, and why one reigned — then the Miami Dolphins have been bad students for a long, long time. The folks running the franchise have apparently been in the back row daydream-doodling instead of taking notes.
Miami is hosting its record 11th Super Bowl with Kansas City Chiefs vs. San Francisco 49ers next Sunday. We have the “host” part down. The “participant” part? Not so much. Not lately.
Miami last played in a Super Bowl following the 1984 season, when Dan Marino was the original Patrick Mahomes, the young, curly haired phenom whose fingertips spit fireworks and magic. Miami last won a Super Bowl after the ‘73 season, when you could drive a brand new AMC Gremlin for $1,900, and when when Bob Griese led a team that won with defense and brute-force running. He threw seven passes in that SB. He was Jimmy Garoppolo (who threw eight last week).
The Dolphins have been trying ever since to find a map, a blueprint, a “philosophy,” a “culture,” a coach, a quarterback — something, anything — to pull them from the quicksand of decades of systemic mediocrity and get back to glory again.
Is there hope to be gleaned from the matchup in this 54th Super Bowl in the Fins’ home stadium?
Yes, actually.
Kansas City offers hope times two.
1) The Chiefs here verifies the law of averages still works, blind squirrels stumble upon acorns and good things come to those who wait, and wait, and wait. And wait. The Chiefs last played in and won a Super Bowl in the 1969 season, a longer championship drought than even Dolfans have endured.. So look on the bright side, South Florida. If we don’t live to see another Dolphins championship parade, at least our heirs might!
2) More seriously, K.C. here verifies what just the one right quarterback can do. It is the fast track to impact relevance, the most direct path from this-to-Super Bowl. And the Dolphins, with the fifth overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, have the chance this spring to land Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa, who looms as the Holy Grail Miami has been chasing blindfolded ever since Marino retired after the 1999 season.
San Francisco offers its own, different kind of hope.
The Niners were 4-12 last year, worse (well, at least by record) than the Dolphins were this season. It nourishes the idea that worst-to-first is reality in this sport, that it isn’t far-fetched Miami could go from this year’s early-season tank-talk embarrassment to Super Bowl contenders within a couple of years -- if they can hit the parlay of Tagovailao being all that and consecutive great drafts.
But that “if” is sky-big. How San Fran made that leap and whether Miami can duplicate it — that is the issue.
The Niners have a rising coach in Kyle Shanahan. A quality general manager in John Lynch.
They have a capable long-term answer at QB. The best tight end in football in George Kittle. And an offensive line that opens holes wide enough for that AMC Gremlin to drive through — wide enough to make journeyman runner Raheem Mostert a sudden star.
The 49ers also have a fierce defense led by Nick Bosa, who has instantly proved good use of last year’s second overall draft pick.
A solid coach/front office combination and several years of smart drafting and shrewd trades underpinned San Francisco’s seemingly sudden-but-not-really bloom from four wins to this.
Do the Miami Dolphins have that?
Is coach Brian Flores good enough? Is general manager Chris Grier good enough? Both are in the biggest jobs of their lives, jobs they had not done before. The Chiefs have Andy Reid; Miami had a rookie head coach. Flores showed promise, needs time. The real pressure is on Grier to hit home runs in the 2020 and ‘21 drafts.
The Dolphins have an NFL-leading 14 draft picks in 2020 including three in the first round. Will they select wisely? Will they know how to make the most of the new talent?
Miami got Pittsburgh’s first-round draft pick by trading young, versatile defender Minkah Fitzpatrick. It was a fair deal. But it also is true the Fins’ coaching staff had no idea what to do with Fitzpatrick. How to maximize his varied talent. The Steelers’ Mike Tomlin evidently knew. Fitzpatrick made the Pro Bowl.
Maybe it was no surprise the Dolphins didn’t try very hard to keep defensive coordinator Patrick Graham, who left for the Giants. Maybe the Dolphins should have adapted to Fitzpatrick a little more rather trying to talk a square peg into a round hole.
This NFL season, and especially the playoffs and this Super Bowl matchup, prove there are still multiple winning formulas.
It is an intriguing duel in a lot of ways: Mahomes and K.C. embodying the high-flying, pass-happy NFL. And San Fran repping the Old School formula of the QB handing off first and passing when necessary, with ball control and clock control keeping the other team’s hotshot arm on the sideline.
You can get here with Star Wars like the Chiefs and Mahomes, shades of Miami in the Marino era.
And you can get here with bedrock defense and ground warfare like the 49ers, harking to the glory-days Fins.
Heck, Ryan Tannehill was one win from this Miami Super Bowl because Tennessee’s Derrick Henry carried the ball in a way that should have reminded vintage Dolfans of Larry Csonka, circa 1972-73.
You want back in a Super Bowl, Miami, instead of being content to watch others teams chase championships in your stadium?
You need to be good everywhere, but you better be great somewhere.
Coach/front office. Offensive line. Quarterback. Pass rush. Secondary. The Chiefs and 49ers check most or all of those key boxes.
With Tua in ‘20 a logical launch point, the Miami Dolphins need to start by being able to confidently check at least one.
This story was originally published January 23, 2020 at 1:54 PM.
