Miami Dolphins: Why the Dolphins Would Be Better off with Subpar 2011

While quarterbacks were flying off the draft menu this past weekend, the Miami Dolphins chose not to be enticed by the sudden league-wide hunger in quarterbacks.

After all, it was stunning that guys such as Jake Locker and Christian Ponder were plucked from the draft pool before the Dolphins' turn, and yet they didn't feel the urge to pull the trigger and follow suit on Ryan Mallett, whom they had interest in—if it weren't for the Patriots' need to ruin a strategy for the Fins and take him with Tom Brady already on board.

After failing to accomplish their mission to acquire Mallett and perhaps push Henne for a starting role, they decided to continue their pursuit of fulfilling team-based needs.

They drafted running back Daniel Thomas and speedy receiver Edmond Gates, among others, to re-solidify an empty backfield as of now and establish a return threat that the Fins lacked last season.  

All those moves are very bleak as of now because the Dolphins haven't been able to make splashes in free agency. If they could get their hands on a DeAngelo Williams, a proven starting running back, the Dolphins are in business, especially considering their addition of Mike Pouncey. 

Nevertheless, let's face it, as of now, the Dolphins don't look like a contender.

As of this moment, the Buffalo Bills might stand a better chance of being in third ahead of the Dolphins, and deservedly so—they have a more complete team at the moment than the Dolphins do because of the lockout.

Owner Stephen Ross made headlines when he "supposedly" tried to hire Jim Harbaugh from Stanford to coach the Dolphins with Tony Sparano as head coach. 

If he truly wants to fix all of his problems, the best bet is to just tank the 2011 season. Another subpar season means you can now axe your head coach and axe the Henne experiment and start over. 

The ultimate prize awaits the Miami Dolphins for doing so: a true successor to Dan Marino, none other than Andrew Luck.

In next year's draft, the Dolphins have an increased possibility to land him if they have a subpar season, considering the wave of quarterbacks picked up by various franchises in this year's draft.

However, the Buffalo Bills, Cleveland Browns, Denver Broncos, Arizona Cardinals, Oakland Raiders, Washington Redskins and Seattle Seahawks are teams that have questionable quarterback situations to the point where if Luck is available, they will take him despite the possibility they end up with a veteran quarterback. 

As for the Dolphins going the veteran quarterback route, I'm not a fan of it.

First off, the options out there aren't sure things for the Dolphins' fix at the position that's haunted them since Marino walked out the door. Carson Palmer hasn't been an elite quarterback since 2005—Donovan McNabb showed his rust in nation's capital last season and Kevin Kolb's career quarterback rating (73.2) is less than Chad Henne's (75.3).

And again, look at the Dolphins' previous runs down this road: It didn't work with Daunte Culpepper or AJ Feely, nor did it work out with second-round busts in John Beck, Pat White and thus far with Chad Henne. 

In the year of the quarterback (as dubbed by ESPN) that the Dolphins chose not be apart of, they'll truly redeem themselves if they can draft Andrew Luck next year. If they truly want to end their misery as well as that of the fans' at that position, they'd be wise to pull out all the stops to draft Luck and finally put an end to this blotched experiments with veteran quarterbacks and second-round disasters. 

Look, if your last great quarterback was drafted in the first round in Dan Marino (1983), don't you think that in doing so in 2012, you will finally find your man?