NFL franchise all-time power rankings: Which organization comes out on top?

14. Miami Dolphins

The Miami Dolphins feel like they should be higher on this list. They have the only undefeated season in NFL history. (Just ask anyone on that team, they will tell you.) They have a legacy that feels like it is really important. Dan Marino was one of the best quarterbacks ever. Bob Griese led this team to a dynasty. They play in Miami, one of the greatest sports cities in the U.S. Everything pushes to a top-10 legacy.

Then you really look at the history of the Dolphins. The recent history is especially telling, which is wild because we usually look at this with recency bias. They’ve missed the playoffs 18 times since 2002. The fans in South Florida have not seen a good product for most years. For every resurgent Chad Pennington year, there was a failed resurgence of Joey Harrington. The Daunte Culpepper experiment failed. 

Everyone talks about the Dolphins getting Dan Marino because the Jets got Ken O’Brien. What we don’t talk about much is the Dolphins literally went to the Super Bowl that season. They had the second-to-last pick in the draft and got a Hall-of-Fame QB (ironically, Washington who won the Super Bowl took Hall-of-Famer Darrell Green with the next pick). The Dolphins were incredibly lucky just to have decades of bad luck.

This season was a small sample of that bad luck. They were well on their way to winning the first AFC Title since 2008. Now, they could have to wait another decade as the Bills don’t seem to be going anywhere.