A Look Back at The Miami Dolphins' Big Change

The Dolphins had an amazing year. They played great football and they won eleven games even though nobody thought they would be over .500.

Let's look back at the change in the Miami Dolphins.

It all started when they got Bill Parcells to be their new executive vice president in the last few weeks of the 2007 season. After finishing the season at 1-15, Parcells fired GM Randy Mueller and head coach Cam Cameron. 

He then traded away Pro Bowler Jason Taylor to the Washington Redskins for a second-round draft pick. He also let go of Zach Thomas who then sign with the Dallas Cowboys to a 1 year $3 million contract were he play "ok" football .  

Then Parcells picked Tony Sparano to be their new head coach. Sparano was an assistant to Parcells during his days as head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.

Sparano did not disappoint. He finished the 2008 season as the runner-up to Atlanta Falcons' coach Mike Smith for the NFL Coach of the Year award. 

Sparano could be the franchise's best coach since Don Shula. 

After the Jets traded for Brett Favre in the offseason they let go of their QB Chad Pennington. And that's when the Dolphins jumped right on him.

They picked up the 32-year-old quarterback, and signed him to a two-year, $11.5 million deal.

Pennington played like a Pro Bowler and won the Comeback Player of the Year award.

The Dolphins were looking like they were done in week 12 when the Patriots beat them 48-28 to fall to third place in the east. But they came back and won their next four games to set them up to play the New York Jets with the playoffs on the line 

It wasChad Penningtons biggest game with the Dolphins and it was also the last game of the regular season when he led the Dolphins to their first win over the Jets in years.

The entire football world was ready for this game.  

The "good guy" Chad Pennington was coming back to New York to play against the Jets . He out-played the QB who replaced him as Brett Favre tossed three interceptions in that game.

The win gave the Dolphins' the division, and their first playoff berth since 2001.

The Dolphins lost their first and only playoff game to the Baltimore Ravens, but nobody will forget this great Dolphins team.

From finishing 1-15 a year before, they went against all odds to finish 11-5 and win the AFC East.  This is there first AFC East championship since 2000.