Suck for Luck fever has struck the Miami Dolphins fan base in part because the team hasn't had a decent pigskin slinger since Dan Marino. Yeah, well, Marino thinks purposely tanking for the number one pick in the next NFL draft is "ridiculous." Perhaps he has a point. He was far from a number one pick himself.
Marino was on Joe Rose's show on WQAM this morning and was asked about the campaign.
"You got to win games," Marino replied. "That's what your job is -- that's the franchise. You don't go out there trying to lose games. That's just ridiculous. If that does happen, then you look at who's the best possible player.
"Usually, if you can get a franchise-type quarterback that's going to be around for ten years, that's probably what direction you should go," he continued. "But you're not going to know that for quite awhile, and you might not even know Andrew Luck -- what's going to happen with him during the season."
The man does have a point. Who really knows if Luck would pan out or if he'll remain healthy. For every quality QB who's selected first overall, like a Manning or an Elway, there's also a JaMarcus Russel and a Tim Couch. Then there's your surprise superstars like Brett Favre and Tom Brady who weren't selected anywhere near the first round.
The Dolphins certainly didn't have to, uh, play "lame-ino" for Marino. They were defending AFC champs when they selected him 27th overall, and of the five QBs picked before him, only John Elway had a career in the same league.
The Dolphins certainly have a lot of other problems to contend with as well -- starting with coaching, perhaps including the general manager position, and extending elsewhere on the field to positions such as running back. Of course, all of that means the team will likely find itself with a high draft pick regardless, though we might have to settle for limping toward Landry or bungling for Barkley.
But as Marino points out, the franchise's job is to win games, not number one picks, and regardless of whether we win the Luck sweepstakes, there's still a hell of a lot the team must do to reach Marino-era greatness.
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