The Miami Dolphins' 60th Anniversary Team

Two positions with two Hall of Famers ... who to take?

Here’s the thing about the All-Dolphins Team at 60 Years.

It’s the same as at 50 years.

It’s nearly the same as at 40 years.

The fall out of 26 seasons without a playoff win is evident in lists like this. But on anniversaries like this it’s still fun to assemble the all-time team:

WR – Paul Warfield. The league’s top receiver for a period. His arrival in 1970 provided the deep threat that opened the running game that defined the dynastic run in the 1970s.

LT – Richmond Webb. Seven-time Pro Bowl. Four-time All-Pro. Second-team All-1990s. How people with lesser portfolios get voted ahead of him for Hall of Fame is a mystery.

LG – Bob Kuechenberg (1970-84). No one has been an eight-time finalist for Hall of Fame and NOT been voted in … except Kuechenberg. Started in all five Dolphins Super Bowls. Played the most Dolphins games until passed by Dan Marino. One of the great stories, quit football, played with semi-pro team and signed with Dolphins when seeing how bad guards were.

C – Dwight Stephenson (1980-87). One of two positions with two Hall of Famers. Jim Langer is the other great one. Ask any Dolphin teammate – anyone who went against him (“God,’’ Atlanta’s Tony Casillas said about playing Stephenson after a scrimmage) – and they’ll go on about his talent. He also is the answer to, “If you could have one Dolphins player’s career-ending injury changed, who would it be?”

QB – Dan Marino. Bob Griese is another Hall of Fame and let’s not dismiss his ability to read what a team needs from throwing only seven times in the 1973 season Super Bowl to leading the NFL in touchdown passes in 1977. But Marino’s game had an electricity to it from the time he started the sixth game in 1983. The Dolphins lost that day to Buffalo, 38-35, but Don Shula was smiling afterward. He knew he had a rare quarterback as played out over 17 seasons.

RG – Larry Little. Five-time All-Pro. 1970s All-NFL team. Finished second to Pittsburgh’s Mean Joe Greene for Lineman of the Year in 1972 in voting announced before their playoff game and dominated Greene that game.

RT – Norm Evans. Came in the 1966 expansion and stayed through three Super Bowls. But truth be told this is a position on the anniversary team looking for an upgrade all these years later. Was Vernon Carey good enough? Brandon Albert or Terron Armstead around long enough?

TE – Bruce Hardy. Another change after re-studying the stats. I initially picked Jim Mandich. This is another tricky decision, because there’s no clear candidate. It’s Hardy, Mandich or Keith Jackson. Mandich played eight years with the Dolphins and the three Super Bowls in the 1970s. He had 121 catches for an 11.5-yard average with 21 TDs in a run-first offense. Hardy played 12 seasons starting in 1978 and 256 catches and 23 TDs and a 9.5-yard average - his numbers going up when Marino arrived in 1983. Jackson played from 1992 to 1994 with Marino and had 146 catches for a 12.9-yard average and 20 touchdowns. But three seasons? Hardy playing 12 seasons swings the vote.

RB – Larry Csonka. Hall of Famer. The face of the 1972 Dolphins right down to the broken nose (kicked in by a cow on his Ohio farm as a kid). Even his last name sounds looks like a collision.

RB – Ricky Williams. Yeah, so it’s two power backs. Sue me. Led the league in rushing in 2002 followed by 1,372 yards in 2003. OK, so then there was the walkabout to Australia. But he was dominant in prime and a good addition in years after.

WR – Mark Clayton. Hard to split up the Marks Brothers, but the separation here is because Warfield’s speed could open the field like Mark Duper. Clayton would be the perfect combination.

DEFENSE:

LE: Bill Stanfill. Tough decision over Cameron Wake and Doug Betters. The context of winning big and Stanfill’s role in it matters here. He led the franchise in sacks until Jason Taylor broke the mark. Five-time Pro Bowler. One-time All-Pro. Met fellow end Vern Den Herder at Washington quarterback Billy Kilmer for a co-sack that ended the Perfect Season perfectly.

DT – Bob Baumhower. Five-time Pro Bowler. Two-time All-Pro and three-time second-team All-Pro. Anchored the Killer B’s defense in the middle for a decade and two Super Bowl trips.

DT – Manny Fernandez. Undrafted to Almost The Super Bowl MVP with 17 tackles against Washington in 1972. That wasn’t even his high that season as he came out of the hospital on game day to have 20 tackles against Buffalo (and then went back to the hospital later that night).

RE: Jason Taylor. Hall of Fame. Defensive player of the Year. Walter Payton Man of the Year. Six-time Pro Bowler. Three-time All-Pro. Leads the franchise with 139.5 sacks. Enough?

LB: Nick Buoniconti. Hall of Famer. Too small. Too slow. But good enough to captain the Perfect Season. How’d he do it? He was smart enough to be CEO of two Fortune 500 companies and co-found The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis. That’s how.

LB: Zach Thomas. Hall of Famer. Seven-time Pro Bowler. Five-time All-Pro. Yes, a tougher decision would be to choose between Buoniconti and Thomas as the middle linebacker. I’m not splitting that hair. They were similar players with similar careers (minus the Super Bowl rings on Thomas’s teams).

LB: John Offerdahl. I initially had Bryan Cox here. But since I’m throwing out inside/outside at this position (Cox started as an outside linebacker), Involved Reader Robert Waite noted Offerdahl should be the pick. I agree. Another inside linebacker, but Offerdahl had the athleticism to play outside on this team. Defensive Rookie of the Year in 1986. First-time All-Pro in 1990. Five-time Pro Bowler. His only problem was a 3-4 alignment that allowed 270-pound guards to run into him to the point his career was shortened by injury.

CB: Sam Madison. Three-time All-Pro. Four-time Pro Bowler. Second in franchise interceptions with 31. Stepped in as a rookie in 1996 and anchored the cornerback spot for nine years.

CB: Patrick Surtain. Two-time All-Pro. Three-time Pro Bowler. Edges out Xavien Howard by the narrowest of margins as shown by both having 29 career interceptions with Dolphins. Then again, in today’s world, Howard would play half the time on this defense as nickel back.

S: Dick Anderson. NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 1973. 1970s All-Decades team. Played nine years and would be in Hall of Fame today if he didn’t get hurt in 1976 Pro Bowl in a play that effectively ended his career.

S: Jake Scott. Five-time Pro Bowler. Two-time All-Pro. Super Bowl MVP of Perfect Season. A legend inside the team for his intellect and rebelliousness.

P: Reggie Roby. Two-Time All-Pro. Three-time Pro Bowl. Led the league twice in punting. Wore a wristwatch to time his own hang time.

K: Garo Yepremian. Two-time All-Pro. All-1970s Team. Led the league in total scoring in the 1970s with 905 points. Made the biggest field goal in franchise history, a 37-yarder in Kansas City in the Longest Game Ever to start the ride of that dynastic Dolphins era.

Coach. Come on. Twenty-six years. Two Super Bowl rings. Five Super Bowls. Don Shula.