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Dolphins' Best & Worst Draft Choices

Discussion in 'Miami Dolphins Forum' started by Da 'Fins, Apr 4, 2013.

Worst Dolphin Pick Ever?

  1. Yatil Green

    20.9%
  2. John Avery

    30.2%
  3. Jackie Shipp

    9.3%
  4. Eric Kumerow

    32.6%
  5. John Bosa

    7.0%
  1. Da 'Fins

    Da 'Fins Season Ticket Holder Staff Member Club Member

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    NFL.Com is doing this for each team. I'm going to go out on a limb and say Dan Marino is our best.

    But, there are a lot of great candidates for worst:

    Yatil Green (injury hurt him but still ...):

    http://www.nfl.com/player/yatilgreen/2500907/profile

    John Avery didn't fair much better:

    http://www.nfl.com/player/johnavery/2499477/profile


    Jackie Shipp (he played a lot - but he was a major contributor to one of the worst D runs in Dolphins history):

    http://www.nfl.com/player/jackieshipp/2525513/profile

    Then, there's Eric Kumerow - probably my least favorite pick (because Miami needed interior DLs - they could not stop the run - and Michael Dean Perry was on the board as the obvious pick. Plus, Kumerow was not even rated a 1st round talent):

    http://www.nfl.com/player/erickumerow/2501668/profile


    And, who can forget the amazing Dolphin run of John Bosa?

    http://www.nfl.com/player/johnbosa/2509890/profile
     
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  2. surferosa

    surferosa Balance and Vision

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    Jamar Fletcher over Drew Brees has to rank as one of the all time worst decisions in franchise history.

    Going Billy Millner and Andrew Greene 1 and 2 in 1995 was a disaster. Two OL's. Nothing to show for it. Derrick Brooks went three picks after Milner.
     
  3. MrClean

    MrClean Inglourious Basterd Club Member

    John Bosa does not deserve being on that list. He would been a fine player for the Dolphins had he not torn up his knee. It always gets me when I read some ignorant kid refer to him as a Miami bust. Anyone who seen him play knew better. Unless one considers it fair to call a player a bust because his career was ruined by an injury. I do not!
     
  4. MrClean

    MrClean Inglourious Basterd Club Member

    Eddie Moore over Anquan Boldin has to rank right up there too. Rick Spielman even had him on the phone saying we were going to take him when our pick came up, only to be overruled by the blithering idiot know as Wannstedt. To add insult to injury, if he just had to take a LB, then Lance Briggs was available too.
     
  5. Sceeto

    Sceeto Well-Known Member

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    Patricia White?
     
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  6. VanDolPhan

    VanDolPhan Club member Club Member

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    I remember the reaction to. A whole lot of 'Who?'. Plus the fact there wasn't a draft guide that had him higher then round 5.
     
  7. Hurricane

    Hurricane Guest

    I voted Kumerow.

    It's one thing to be a 1st round pick and suck. It's another thing to be a first round pick and never start a game.

    Imagine the **** storm that would be this forum if we took one of the DE's (Jordan, Ansah, Jones, Werner, Mingo, ....) at 12, only to see him not start a game this year. Or the next. Or the next. And then retire.
     
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  8. Duper85

    Duper85 New Member

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    Jamar Fletcher for me.
     
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  9. Alex13

    Alex13 Tua Time !!! Club Member

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    i donĀ“t think its fair to put guys that were hurt on that list, yatil green who knows what happens with him if he stays healthy, having said that eddie moore, jamal fletcher, billy milner deserve consideration as one of the worst picks ever, although at least we got troy drayton in a trade with st. louis for him, busted 1st rounder nevertheless

    Eddie Moore
    Billy Milner
    Jamal Fletcher
     
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  10. ASOT

    ASOT New Member

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    I also picked Kumerow. I'll never forget listening to Joe Zagaki on QAM at their "Draft Party" and saying "and the pick is........Eric Kumerow ?!?!?!?", and then the audience being a mishmash of boos and who ? who ? It was a classic, just like the Ginn pick.
     
  11. ASOT

    ASOT New Member

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    I'd have to say that Jamar Fletcher & Eddie Moore also must get honorable mention.
     
  12. bbqpitlover

    bbqpitlover Well-Known Member

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    Why isn't Ted Ginn Jr on this list, he would have won hands down, or maybe even David Overstreet.
     
  13. ASOT

    ASOT New Member

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    Overstreet is not on the list because he was killed in an accident. He had the talent, he just never got to show it, because of a premature death.
     
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  14. Rick 1966

    Rick 1966 Professional Hipshooter

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    Jamar Fletcher is the worst, followed closely by Eddie Moore.
    The best...well, Marino was the best player, but the best player for the value of the pick has to be Zach Thomas.
     
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  15. Larryfinfan

    Larryfinfan 17-0...Priceless Club Member

    Well, I said Shipp, but it's really a tossup between Kumerow, Avery and Shipp. Those 3 were just plain awful players... Green and Bosa weren't bad draft picks, they had unfortunate injuries that derailed their careers....

    But as has been mentioned, Eddie Moore was, by far, the worst pick we every took...what a waste of a man and a pick...
     
  16. DolPhinPhan7

    DolPhinPhan7 Well-Known Member

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    I'm not voting, Pat White wasn't included.

    Once Parcels picked him it should have been obvious to everyone he was trying to ruin the team.
     
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  17. Da 'Fins

    Da 'Fins Season Ticket Holder Staff Member Club Member

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    I realize that. But, it all depends on defining Bust. Yatil Green could be said to be the same - injuries derailed his career as well.

    And, Fletcher was terrible because Brees was there (but that could be said about many others also). However, Fletcher actually played several seasons in the league ... so, defining "bust" is going to be different for different reasons.

    I was alive and well and watching him, btw. I liked him as a player but also didn't think he was a great 1st round pick, either. He played like a decent 2nd-3rd round pick. Not a 1st rounder.
     
  18. MikeHoncho

    MikeHoncho -=| Censored |=-

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    Dan Marino
     
  19. MrClean

    MrClean Inglourious Basterd Club Member

    Ok. include Green too. There is no way IMO that Bosa is one of the 5 worst Dolphins draft picks of all time. I don't know how he played like a 2nd-3rd rounder but not a 1st. He was playing very well up till the moment he tore up his knee.
    BTW, he has a son that is a really good football player and should be worth watching in the next few seasons. He'll be a freshman at Ohio State this season, after being heavily recruited by several teams including Alabama.
    http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/29/2972940/st-thomas-aquinas-joey-bosa-is.html

    http://www.nhfootballreport.com/2012/12/bosa_brothers_lead_st_thomas_t.html
    http://www.toledoblade.com/Ohio-State/2012/04/24/Ohio-State-adds-top-player-to-13-class.html

    [video=youtube;lysGTEnd4yk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lysGTEnd4yk[/video]
     
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  20. rafael

    rafael Well-Known Member

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    I would have Moore as the worst followed closely by Fletcher. Fletcher was a highly rated, highly decorated college player whom they tried to put in the wrong scheme. What made that pick poor was more on whom they passed up. Moore was a bad player/pick in his own right and they passed up a good and obvious player to take him.
     
  21. Fineas

    Fineas Club Member Luxury Box

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    As a mid-2nd round pick, Moore can't be considered the biggest bust IMO. You have to take into account where a guy was drafted. In retrospect, Boldin would have been a great pick and there were people who wanted him then, but I think any portrayal of him as a no-brainer pick are a bit revisionist. A WR that runs a 4.72 is not a no-brainer pick. Granted, it hasn't hurt him and he's been a very good player, but it was not unreasonable to question whether he'd be successful in the NFL with that lack of speed.

    Avery was just barely a first round pick and he was a bad one. But what really bothered me about that was that we traded back before the draft when there were rumors swirling that Randy Moss was falling and could very well fall into the 20s. The Dolphins were at 19 and had a need at WR. Unlike Boldin, there were no serious questions about Moss from a talent perspective and the character concerns seemed overblown too. While I think avery was too late a pick to be called the biggest bust, the combination of the trade back before the draft and and then picking Avery may be the worst combo of draft moves in Dolphin history.

    Kumerow gets my vote for biggest draft bust in Dolphins history. I'd label Yatil Green a failed pick, but wouldn't put the bust label on him because of the injuries.
     
  22. Finrunner

    Finrunner Season Ticket Holder

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    Kumerow.

    Kumerow, by most rankings at the time, if I remember correctly was slated as more like a 5th round pick than a 1st. And he played like an UDFA forced into action.

    I almost said Jackie Shipp, because he was sort of symbolic. The pick of Shipp in 1984 started a host of failed defensive picks in the first round, of which Bosa in 1987 and Kumerow in 1988 were a part of. The bottom fell out of our defense as a result. In 1985, we didn't get much out of our 3rd round defensive picks, George Little and Alex Moyer, after taking Lorenzo Hampton (not a great offensive 1st round pick) in the first. In 1986, TJ Turner was okay as a Dolphin, not great but okay, but we got little else with our late defensive picks of Kevin Wyatt, DB, and Brent Sowell, DT, in the 5th and 6th rounds, respectively. We actually got more use from later picks Reyna Thompson and Larry Kolic, but they were nothing special, either. In '87, we followed those drafts up with John Bosa, who got injured, thereby finding himself on this list, and in the 2nd round took Rick Graf, who, again, did little or the Dolphins. If you remember defenders Lance Sellers, Tim Pidgeon, Bobby Taylor, or Terrance Mann from that draft, you have better retention than me. That brings us to 1988 and my man, Eric Kumerow, who I listed as the worst draft choice of all time. We did, however, land Jarvis Williams and Jeff Cross (in the 9th round!!!) in that draft, so all wasn't lost. Still, those were locust years, and I mean famine, from a defensive drafting standpoint. Jackie Shipp represented all of that.

    So maybe, I should reconsider and choose Shipp. Too late, though, cuz I put Kumerow in the poll. Really, though, I couldn't go wrong either way.

    Year after year, with Marino, we had to start outscoring teams with decent offenses.
     
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  23. rafael

    rafael Well-Known Member

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    I absolutely characterized Boldin as an obvious pick before that draft. There's nothing revisionist about my saying it now.
     
  24. MrClean

    MrClean Inglourious Basterd Club Member

    Actually the biggest draft bust in Dolphins history isn't even on the list. That would be Rick Norton. Without a doubt.
     
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  25. MrClean

    MrClean Inglourious Basterd Club Member

    That year, The Sporting News got hold of the BLESTO grades and rankings for the players in the draft. Kumerow was graded by them as the 2nd best DE after Neil Smith. Miami was a member of BLESTO at that time.
    Kumerow was a 4-3 DE as for his projected NFL position. Shula took him with the idea of making him a 3-4 OLB. Another Ted Hendricks I suppose, was what he was thinking. It was like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. Late in the season, he moved Kumerow to 3-4 DE and he fared better there. I remember because I saw nearly every game in 1988. He missed the last game or 2 with a groin injury, and Jeff Cross, an 8th or 9th rounder in 1988, got a chance to start the final game. He did well enough to hold onto that position, as most of us remember, for the next 8 years or so.
    Shula did something similar with Marco Coleman. He drafted him to play 3-4 OLB, and he wasn't very good in that role. Part way through the 1992 season, Shula and Olivadotti converted to a 4-3 starting with a game against Buffalo, with Coleman and David Griggs, both former 3-4 OLBs, now playing 4-3 DE. They both fit their new roles quite well, and the team stayed with the 4-3 for years after that.
     
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  26. steveincolorado

    steveincolorado Spook, Storme & Pebbles

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    Overstreet and Marino....that could have been very special.
     
  27. Fin-Omenal

    Fin-Omenal Initiated

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    Thee...Ohio State University
    Because Ginn beat the Jets, twice. And set an NFL record as a Dolphin.

    Better question is where is Jason Allen.
     
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  28. Joe Robbie

    Joe Robbie The Patriarch

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    Only once in this team's history did they ever get to pick ahead of every other team in the league. They could have finally filled the most important position on the field, but somehow having a lineman was more important. : /
     
  29. Onehondo

    Onehondo Senior Member Club Member

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    I believe the worst 1st round pick ever for the Miami Dolphins
    was the Dolphins first round pick in the 1966 AFL draft, Rick Norton. He was the second pick in the 1st round in 1966 and at the time was touted to be the next Joe Namath. He only lasted three years with the Dolphins 1966-1969 and then 1 year with Green Bay 1970. He completed only 41% of his passes with a quarterback rating of 30, with 7 TDs and 30 interceptions. Ironic that his QB rating matched his interception number. The shortness of his career was not due to injuries but simply because he was terrible and epitomized the term of Bust.
     
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  30. Fineas

    Fineas Club Member Luxury Box

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    I didn't say it is revisionist to say you wanted him then, I am saying it is revisionistfor one to say it was such an obvious, no-brainer pick that it makes the 2nd round pick the Dolphins made instead its worst draft pick ever. There were legitimate concerns about Boldin such that it wasn't crazy not to take him. Moore himself was a bad pick, but, again, he was just a mid-2nd rounder. Lots of 2nd rounders don't pan out. And if we are cutting some slack for guys like Yatil Green and John Bosa because injuries were a big part of their downfall, Moore probably deserves at least a little slack too.
     
  31. ATLFINFAN

    ATLFINFAN Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    Seems like I remember reading Moore was injured a lot in college also. If that is true, I wouldn't cut him ANY slack, although its not on him, but WorthlessSTADT.
     
  32. PhinGeneral

    PhinGeneral PC Texas A&M, Bro Club Member

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    In a way, I guess it's dependent on the intent or one's definition. If you look at it liberally, a bad draft pick doesn't necessarily have to mean a bust, although a bust is most certainly a bad draft pick. I agree with MrClean that it's unfair to label John Bosa (or Yatil Green) a bust, but circumstances unfortunately made them bad draft picks for Miami. And although I certainly wouldn't put it in my top 5, you could make the argument like Joe Robbie does that Jake Long over Matt Ryan was a "bad" draft pick, even though Jake Long was far from a bust.

    Given that, I voted for Eric Kumerow, a tweener and a reach that never came close to panning out.
     
  33. Fineas

    Fineas Club Member Luxury Box

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    I don't believe that is the case. It looks like Moore started every game his last 2 years in college.
     
  34. MrClean

    MrClean Inglourious Basterd Club Member

    On most draft picks that bust, there is revisionist history involved. I remember being most upset with the Billy Milner pick. More than any other 1st rounder the team ever made, as for my immediate reaction right after the pick was announced.
     
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  35. DPlus47

    DPlus47 Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    I always vote for Jackie Shipp in these polls because he was the reason I first learned what the word "draft bust" meant. That's a historic moment in a young man's life.
     
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  36. Unlucky 13

    Unlucky 13 Team Raheem Club Member

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    I started watching the draft in 1992, when I was 15, so Im only going to comment on that time onward. For me, Fletcher is the big bust. Everyone says that we should have taken Brees instead, and I would have been ok with that at the time, but the player that I REALLY wanted was Reggie Wayne. I was jumping and fist pumping when he was still on the board, and then they called Fletcher's name, and my jaw dropped. Similar to Ginn over Quinn a few years later.

    I dont think that its fair to put Yatil Green in there, since he was injured before he could ever play both of his first two seasons in the league. He could have been a good player if not for the knees, and to me, a bust is a guy who flat out doesnt belong in the league.
     
  37. rafael

    rafael Well-Known Member

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    I'm not just saying that I wanted him. I'm saying that before that draft Boldin was the obvious pick if he made it to our selection. Of course, he had some questions (really only one, his speed), that was why he was a second round option. But he was still the obvious pick in terms of a marriage between need and BPA. Before that draft, I thought that Moore would be lucky if he went before the 4th round. And as ATLFINFAN mentioned, you don't get slack for a pick that gets injured if he was an injury redflag before you picked him.
     
  38. FanMarino

    FanMarino Season Ticket Holder

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    i didnt vote because how can you vote on any of those when none of them did squat. They all belong in the same bag imo. I will say though that Green was unlucky. You cant accomodate his injuries. Thats just harsh on him from a personal perspective.
     
  39. Lee2000

    Lee2000 Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    Listing bad draft picks for Miami is quite easy. It is harder to list a "long" list of good choices. That list is much shorter and a true reflection of the futility of this team over most of this century.
     
  40. Aquafin

    Aquafin New Member

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    the poor house
    Well boys I shall chime in on my top ten worst draft picks regardless of which round.

    #1 Taylor Whitley ol
    #2 Seth McKinney lo
    #3 Todd Wade
    #4 EDDIE freakin Moore
    #5 Jason Allen
    #6 John Avery
    #7 Jamar Fletcher
    #8 Morlan Geenwood
    #9 Reagan Moala fb from Hawaii
    #10 Jeris McPhail


    the best draft picks

    Marino , Jim Jensen , OJ. MCDUFFIE , Randy McMichael , Zach Thomas , Patrick Surtain and Tim Bowens .

     

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