Just hours away from the new year when it comes to football this is a decade we Dolphins fans can easily forget and should be happy that it’s behind us other than the fact that I’ve gotten 10 years older this past decade as a Dolphins fan has been frustrating to say the least.
The good news is that the AFC East seems to be closing the gap on the New England Patriots and it does not appear that moving forward the Patriots can get an easy walk through the AFC East as all three teams the Bills, Jets and the Dolphins seem to be making progress towards being competitive within the division, is this the beginning of the end of a dynasty?
Let’s look back starting in the year 2000 at the previous rosters and seasons of our Miami Dolphins.
As we ushered in to the millennials the Miami Dolphins ended the Dan Marino era as Dave Wannstedt took over the head coaching duties from Jimmy Johnson and proceeded to do to the Dolphins what he did to the Chicago Bears tear the team down and set them back years.
The 2000 Miami Dolphins
| Head coach | Dave Wannstedt |
|---|---|
| Owner | Wayne Huizenga |
| Home field | Pro Player Stadium |
| 2000 Roster | Player |
|---|---|
| | | Offensive Starters |
| QB | Jay Fiedler |
| RB | Lamar Smith |
| WR | Oronde Gadsden |
| TE | Hunter Goodwin |
| C | Tim Ruddy* |
| RG | Kevin Donnalley |
| RT | Todd Wade |
| | | Defensive Starters |
| DE | Jason Taylor*+ |
| LCB | Patrick Surtain |
| RCB | Sam Madison*+ |
| SS | Brian Walker |
| FS | Brock Marion* |
| | | Special Teams Starters |
| K | Olindo Mare |
| P | Matt Turk |
| 2000 | 2 | Todd Wade |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 3 | Ben Kelly |
| 2000 | 4 | Deon Dyer |
| 2000 | 5 | Arturo Freeman |
| 2000 | 6 | Ernest Grant |
| 2000 | 7 | Jeff Harris |
Dave Wannstedt was an extremely good defensive coordinator who had no businss being a head coach let alone duties of both head coach and GM.
This is where former Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga made his mistake allowing Dave Wannstedt that to have control as both coach and GM.
This was the year that started the belief that they were a player away from winning a championship. I believe that continued throughout the decade.
Dave Wannstedt came from the Chicago Bears where he was noted for being a very terrible head coach and most bears fans felt he ruined their team with bad draft picks and overall poor mismanagement of the team.
That proved to be the case for the Miami Dolphins, Dave Wannstedt inherited a playoff ready team and began to ruin it over the years with poor drafts that set this team back multiple years.
The best player he ever drafted was most likely wide receiver Chris Chambers out of Wisconsin in 2001. Ironically the worst player he ever drafted was Jamar Fletcher cornerback out of Wisconsin, passing up on quarterback Drew Brees who was drafted six spots later in the first round 2001.
Dave Wannstedt continued to coach the Dolphins for the next 4 years
- 2001 11-5 second place in the division
- 2002 9-7 third place in the division
- 2003 10-6 second place in the division
- 2004 4-12 last place in the division
The best and worst thing that he did was getting Ricky Williams and running him into the ground causing Ricky Williams who most likely was the best running back in the history of the game to retire early due to the abuse he suffered under Dave Wannstedt.
I have no doubt that Dave Wannstedt ruined the Dolphins future starting in 2000 when he inherited a playoff contending team and mismanaged that team for 4 years trading away draft picks, poor drafting and ruining Ricky Williams career.
That is why the Dolphins ended up in the wilderness for the past decade.
Hopefully from the way it all appears we will enter into this new decade under a better management structure as well as a more competent and complete head coach in Brian Flores.
The Dolphin Seer 