The Greatest Miami Dolphins Players of All Time
Unlike Tom Landry, who said he couldn't name the Miami Dolphins defenders before Super Bowl VI, you rank the club's greatest players by name. Every player here is named on at least 7 of the 17 Dolphins honor rolls and all-time rankings counted for this list: the team's own Ring of Honor, the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the team's 50th Season All-Time Team (2015), and fourteen press rankings. Players left off no more than three of the sources that could have named them start in the top group; everyone else who clears the door starts below them, and your votes set the order from there.
Bob Griese is #1 on “The Greatest Miami Dolphins Players of All Time”.
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Bob Griese
Picked 4th overall in 1967, he ran Miami's offense for 14 seasons, through 1980. On Thanksgiving 1977 he threw 6 touchdown passes in 3 quarters as Miami beat the St. Louis Cardinals 55-14, then a franchise record for points in a game. In 1977 he also led all passers in touchdowns and in passer rating, and he took home the Bert Bell Award. In 1972, a broken leg and dislocated ankle against San Diego in Week 5 cost him most of the 17-0 run, yet he came on in the second half of the 21-17 AFC Championship Game win at Pittsburgh, then went 8 of 11 for 88 yards and a touchdown when Washington fell 14-7 in Super Bowl VII. Miami retired number 12, and 14 of the 17 sources name him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Griese - 2
Jason Taylor
His 131 sacks are Miami's club record, piled up over 3 stints with the Dolphins: 1997 to 2007, 2009 and 2011. Against the Jets on November 1, 2009, he picked up a loose ball and went 48 yards with it for the 6th fumble-return touchdown of his career, which set the NFL record. Miami had drafted him 73rd overall in 1997, and his 18.5 sacks in 2002 led the league. In 2006 he had 13.5 sacks, 9 forced fumbles and 2 interceptions carried back for scores, and the voting for the league's top defensive player went his way; in 2007 his work off the field won him the Man of the Year award. Taylor entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2017, at his first chance. You'll see his name on 16 of the 17 sources.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Taylor_(American_football) - 3
Dan Marino
Down 24-6 to the Jets at Giants Stadium on November 27, 1994, he threw 4 touchdown passes to Mark Ingram, and the last one, from 8 yards with 22 seconds left, came after he shouted for a clock spike and threw instead. Miami won 28-24, in his 12th season as the Dolphins' quarterback; the club had made him the 27th pick of the 1983 draft and kept him until 1999. A torn Achilles in Cleveland had wiped out most of his 1993, and the Pro Football Writers gave him their comeback award for 1994 after 4,453 yards and 30 touchdown passes. In 1995 he moved past the league's career records in yards and in touchdown passes, and he finished with 61,361 and 420. Miami retired number 13 in 2000, and he is on 16 of the 17 sources.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Marino - 4
Larry Csonka
33 carries for 145 yards and 2 touchdowns made him the MVP of Super Bowl VIII, which Minnesota lost 24-7. His Miami years were 1968 to 1974 and 1979, with Memphis of the World Football League and the Giants in between, and that 1979 return brought 12 rushing touchdowns and Pro Football Weekly's award for the year's best comeback. In 1972 he and Mercury Morris became the first teammates to each run for 1,000 yards in a season, and he cleared 1,000 in 1971 and 1973 as well. His 6,737 rushing yards and 53 rushing touchdowns are the franchise's career highs, and you can count him on 16 of the 17 sources.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Csonka - 5
Larry Little
San Diego swapped him to Miami for cornerback Mack Lamb ahead of 1969, and his 12 seasons at guard for the Dolphins ran through 1980. In 1972 he started all 14 regular-season games at right guard and was the lead man on Miami's sweeps as the team ran for 2,960 yards, then the NFL record for team rushing, on the way to 17-0. Every season from 1971 through 1975 put him on first-team All-Pro lists, and the NFL Players Association called him the AFC's best offensive lineman 3 years running, 1970 to 1972. Miami averaged 2,372 rushing yards a year in the 1970s, the NFL's best, with rings from Super Bowls VII and VIII along the way, and the league's team of the 1970s lists him at guard. His count is 14 of 17.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Little - 6
Zach Thomas
On November 17, 1996, the 5th-round rookie intercepted a Houston pass and returned it 26 yards for a 4th-quarter touchdown in a 23-20 Miami win. The Dolphins had spent the 154th pick of the 1996 draft on him; he was a starter in all 16 games that year, took the AFC's top defensive rookie award, and stayed through 2007 before a 2008 season in Dallas. No NFL player made more tackles than he did in 2002, or in 2006. Between 1998 and 2006 the first-team All-Pro voters picked him 5 times, he made 7 Pro Bowl rosters, and he's on the decade team for the 2000s. The Pro Football Hall of Fame's class of 2023 included him, in his 10th year of eligibility and his 4th straight year as a finalist. He appears on 16 of the 17 sources.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zach_Thomas - 7
Dwight Stephenson
With him at center as offensive captain, Miami's line allowed the fewest sacks in the NFL for 6 straight seasons, 1982 to 1987, a league record. Miami used a 2nd-round pick on him in 1980, and in 1984 he started every one of the team's 16 games at center while the line again gave up the league's fewest sacks and the Dolphins reached Super Bowl XIX. All-Pro honors and a Pro Bowl came every season from 1983 through 1987, though for 1983 the AP listed him on its second team while 3 other selectors had him on their first. He won the league's Man of the Year honor for 1985, and he never played for another team before a knee injury against the Jets on a 1987 Monday night ended his career. 15 of the 17 sources include him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_Stephenson - 8
Paul Warfield
In Miami's 1971 playoff wins over Kansas City and Baltimore, his 9 catches covered 265 yards and included a touchdown, which sent the Dolphins to their first Super Bowl. Miami had him from 1970 to 1974, after a trade with Cleveland, and each of those 5 seasons ended in a Pro Bowl selection. His 43 catches in 1971 averaged 23.2 yards, though Dallas held him to 4 for 39 yards in Super Bowl VI, and the Dolphins won the next 2 Super Bowls with him at wide receiver. The Pro Football Hall of Fame's voters chose him in 1983, the first year his name was eligible. He's on 15 of the 17 sources.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Warfield - 9
Nick Buoniconti
His 162 tackles in 1973, 91 of them unassisted, were a team record then, and Miami won a 2nd straight Super Bowl that season. Miami got him from Boston in a 1969 trade, and he was the Dolphins' middle linebacker through 1974 and again in 1976. 1972 and 1973 sent him to Pro Bowls and onto All-Pro second teams; the 1972 team, with him in the middle of its defense, finished 17-0, and in 2001 he went into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. After his son Marc's spinal cord injury in 1985 he became the public face of the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis. His name is on 15 of 17 sources.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Buoniconti - 10
Jim Langer
He played every offensive down at center in 1972, the 17-0 season and his first as Miami's starter. Undrafted in 1970 and cut by the Browns, he caught on in Miami that year, played 10 seasons there, through 1979, and got the center job when Bob DeMarco went to Cleveland in a 1972 preseason deal. His Pro Bowl streak covered 1973 through 1978, he appeared in Super Bowls VI, VII and VIII, losing the first and winning the other 2, and Pro Football Hall of Fame voters picked him in 1987, the first time his name could come up. A knee injury ended his Miami career 9 games into 1979, and he finished with 2 seasons in Minnesota. Of the 17 sources, 11 have him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Langer - 11
Bob Kuechenberg
Between 1970 and 1983 he played guard in 4 Super Bowls for Miami, after the 1971, 1972, 1973 and 1982 seasons, and won 2. In 1978 he started 15 of 16 games, moving between left guard and left tackle, and his 1978 first-team All-Pro status matched 1975's; his 6 Pro Bowls ran as late as 1982 and 1983, the last 2 seasons he played. He had quit Philadelphia's camp as a 1969 draft pick and spent that year with the Continental Football League's Chicago Owls before Miami signed him in 1970. He was a Pro Football Hall of Fame finalist in 8 years without being elected, but Miami's Ring of Honor has carried his name since 1995, and he's named on 9 of the 17 sources.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Kuechenberg - 12
Richmond Webb
Taken 9th overall by Miami in 1990, he played tackle for the Dolphins for 11 seasons, through 2000, before 2001 and 2002 in Cincinnati. As a rookie in 1990 he made the PFWA's All-Rookie Team and a Pro Bowl while starting 16 times at left tackle, and the Pro Bowl kept calling for the next 6 seasons, a run that ended in 1996. His 118 consecutive starts set a Dolphins record, the 1992 and 1994 first-team All-Pro squads included him, and so did the league's All-Decade team for the 1990s. 9 of the 17 sources list him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond_Webb - 13
Mark Clayton
In Week 16 of 1984 his 4 catches against Dallas went for 150 yards and 3 touchdowns, including the 4th-quarter game winner. It was the 2nd season of a Miami career that ran from 1983 through 1992, and he finished it with 73 catches and 1,389 yards, and his 18 touchdown catches led the league and were the most by a receiver in one season until Jerry Rice passed them in 1987. An 8th-round pick, he earned 5 Pro Bowl selections, finished with a year in Green Bay, and holds the Dolphins' career records for receptions and touchdown catches. He and Mark Duper played 10 years together as the Marks Brothers. His tally is 9 of 17.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Clayton_(American_football,_born_1961) - 14
Jake Scott
He intercepted Billy Kilmer twice in Super Bowl VII, once during the 4th quarter, and was named MVP of the 14-7 win. It came in the 3rd of his 6 seasons at safety for Miami, 1970 to 1975, after the BC Lions and before a trade to Washington. Every Pro Bowl from 1971 through 1975 had him, and nobody in 1971 gained more on punt returns than his 318 yards. He picked off 35 passes as a Dolphin, a franchise high. A falling-out with Don Shula ended his Miami years, the two made peace later, and in 2010 he came back for his induction into what was then the Honor Roll. He shows up on 8 of 17 sources.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jake_Scott - 15
Dick Anderson
Monday night, December 3, 1973: Pittsburgh threw 4 interceptions to him, Miami won 30-26, and he became the 7th player in NFL history with 4 in a game. That came in his 6th season at safety in a Dolphins career that ran from 1968 to 1977. Miami's 3rd-round choice in 1968, he won a share of the AFL's defensive rookie award in his first season, and both 1972 and 1973 brought first-team All-Pro spots. He played on both Super Bowl-winning teams, and his 34 interceptions in Miami went back for 792 yards. From 1975 he served as president of the NFL Players Association, and he later sat in the Florida Senate. The sources split on him, with 8 of the 17 including him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Anderson - 16
Cameron Wake
Overtime against Cincinnati in 2013 ended when he dropped Andy Dalton for a safety, and the 22-20 Miami win was the 3rd NFL game ever to end that way. By then he was in his 5th Miami season; the Dolphins had him from 2009 through 2018, after 2 CFL years with the BC Lions in which he won that league's best-defender award twice, in 2007 and 2008. Undrafted in 2005 and released by the Giants, he signed with Miami in January 2009. His 15 sacks in 2012, including 4.5 against Arizona, put his name on that season's first-team All-Pro list in what was one of his 5 Pro Bowl seasons in Miami. His Dolphins total reached 98 sacks before he spent 2019 with Tennessee. Wake's count is 8 of 17.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cameron_Wake - 17
Bill Stanfill
Miami's 11th overall pick in 1969, he played defensive end for the Dolphins through 1976, when knee and neck injuries closed out his career. His big year was 1973: unofficial counts credit him with 18.5 sacks, and on October 7 that year he set his single-game sack high against the Jets. He finished with 69.5 sacks by the same unofficial counting. Rookie year meant an AFL All-Star Game, the first 4 seasons after the merger brought Pro Bowls, from 1971 to 1974, and he reached first-team All-Pro level in 1972, the first of 2 straight years that ended with him winning a Super Bowl. 8 of the 17 sources carry his name.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Stanfill - 18
John Offerdahl
In 1986, his first NFL season, he made 130 tackles and shared the Pro Football Weekly and PFWA defensive rookie award with San Diego's Leslie O'Neal. Miami had no 1st-round pick in 1986, so he was its first choice, 52nd overall, and all 8 seasons of his career were Dolphins seasons, through 1993. From 1986 through 1990 he never missed a Pro Bowl, though a strike and an injury cut into 1987 and he held out for 81 days in 1989, and 1990 added first-team All-Pro standing. Injuries held him to 23 games over his last 3 seasons, and in 1990 he opened a bagel shop in Weston that grew to 10 locations. He is on 8 of 17.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Offerdahl - 19
Ricky Williams
He ran for 228 yards against Buffalo late in 2002 and 216 against Chicago the next week. Miami had sent New Orleans 4 draft picks, 2 of them 1st-rounders, to get him before that 2002 season, the first of a Dolphins run that lasted through 2010, and he ended it with 1,853 yards and 16 rushing touchdowns on 383 carries, led the NFL, made All-Pro and took MVP honors at the Pro Bowl. He added 1,372 yards in 2003, retired before the 2004 season, missed 2006 to a suspension, and at 32, in 2009, ran for 1,121 yards. On the sources counted, he has 8 of 17.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricky_Williams - 20
Mark Duper
A 1982 2nd-round pick, he caught passes in Miami for 11 seasons, ending in 1992, and 1986 was his biggest year: 67 catches for 1,313 yards and 11 touchdowns. He went over 1,000 yards 4 times, in 1983, 1984, 1986 and 1991, went to 3 Pro Bowls and made the 1983 All-Pro second team. In 1990 he became the 2nd Dolphin past 7,000 career receiving yards, and his final total was 8,869. His nickname was Super Duper, and Mark Clayton worked the other side of the field for a decade. The 2 of them went into Miami's Ring of Honor together, on December 15, 2003. He has 7 of the 17.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Duper - 21
Bob Baumhower
1983 brought him 8 sacks in 16 starts at defensive tackle, along with first-team All-Pro rank, a year after he and A. J. Duhe anchored the Killer B's for coordinator Bill Arnsparger on a 1982 defense that ranked 1st in the NFL and reached Super Bowl XVII. Miami took him 40th overall in 1977, he played 9 seasons for the Dolphins between then and 1986, and he shared rookie defensive honors with Duhe in the first of them. Pro Bowl invitations came in 1979 and again each season from 1981 to 1984. Put him down for 7 of the 17 sources.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Baumhower - 22
Manny Fernandez
Super Bowl VII brought him 17 tackles and a sack of Billy Kilmer for an 8-yard loss, and teammates argued the MVP award should have been his; Dick Schaap, who chose the winner, later admitted he hadn't known about the tackles. He was on Miami's defensive line for 8 seasons, 1968 through 1975, and his 8 sacks in 1971 led the team. He went undrafted out of Utah in 1968 before Miami signed him, and he made All-Pro second teams for 1970 and 1973. Over 3 Super Bowls he was in on 28 tackles and had 3 sacks, and his career sack count reached 35. The sources give him 7 of 17.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manny_Fernandez_(American_football) - 23
Nat Moore
The Helicopter Catch came in 1984, at Giants Stadium against New York, when 2 tacklers hit him from opposite directions on a 3rd-down conversion. That was the 11th of his 13 NFL seasons, all of them with the Dolphins from 1974 through 1986 after they took him 78th overall, and when he retired he had broken almost every Dolphins receiving record, finishing with 510 catches and 74 touchdown receptions. In 1977 his 12 touchdown catches were the NFL's high and earned a Pro Bowl trip. For his community work the NFL made him its 1984 Man of the Year; in 1998 he started a foundation for young people in Miami-Dade County. Of 17 sources, 7 name him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nat_Moore - 24
Patrick Surtain
Drafted 44th overall in 1998, he played cornerback for Miami through 2004, finished his career in Kansas City and later coached his son, Patrick Surtain II, at American Heritage in Florida. With 1:58 to play on December 15, 2002, he intercepted a Rich Gannon pass meant for Jerry Rice, and Miami held on to beat Oakland 23-17. Pro Bowl berths came in 2002, 2003 and 2004, first-team All-Pro ballots named him in the first 2 of those years, and his 7 interceptions in 2003 were a career high; in 108 games for Miami he had 29, including a 40-yard return for a touchdown at Denver in 2002. He makes 7 of the 17 sources.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Surtain
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