1992, the team had picks #7, #12, #43 and #70. And 15 picks overall. So very nearly as much ammo as they do right now.
This was the first time that I followed the draft, so I didn't have a clue that this wasn't something that was normal, lol. Now of course the circumstances were different, with Shula still the coach, and Marino 31 years old and healthy.

Vincent went on to have a borderline HOF career, but most of it away from Miami. Coleman played well for the Fins, but JJ let him walk as a FA too, and he stuck around the league as a productive player for a long time. Eddie Blake was a complete bust. Larry Webster had a few OK years with the Fins, then was a good player for the Ravens.

The funny thing is that while Vincent and Coleman certainly helped the Fins the next few seasons, including going to the AFC Championship game in their rookie season, this draft wasn't really anything franchise altering at all. Of the eight guys they took in the first seven rounds (it was 12 back then), two never played a down in the NFL. And only Vincent and Coleman became regular starters for Miami.

 

Yeah, I am excited, but I have to definitely temper my expectations. I will probably come away disappointed, but that is my problem. I expect too much. We have 6 picks (3,2,1) in the 1st 3 rounds. Considering where we are picking, I would guess that if we look back to this year and see that we came away with 3 or 4 strong contributors, from those picks, that it would be reasonable. I am a big fan of Bucky Brook's, don't swing for the fences, just get doubles mentality. We don't need just one star player this year to round out our team. We have holes everywhere and a whole team to build.

 

Bernie Parmalee went undrafted in that year too.

 

We did pick him up for the first time that year, but he was 25, and had sat out the 1991 season after finishing college in 1990.

 

Ah right. Thought he'd gone undrafted.

 

Shula was absolutely terrible at drafting throuought the 80s and 90s. I mean aside from Marino who fell to him in 83 I would grade his drafting as an F from 84 until he retired. Also in Free Agency he was terrible at signing veteran players.

If Shula had been just a bit better at evaluating talent we might have gotten Marino that Super Bowl.

 

The reality is because most players dont succeed and because the draft isnt an exact science, a bunch of picks may just mean a bunch of players you forget about, which is the likely result of any draft.

It isnt that now you will find 10 good players, it's that you have more chances to pick the good few.

If we hit on most of our picks it would be NFL history making because not many teams have ever had a truly phenomenal draft where they hit a majority of picks.

The good news for us, our picks are fairly early meaning they each individually should, in theory, have a better chance to succeed if we pick the right guys.

 

In the 80s, that was absolutely the case. But I do think that he and the team did a pretty good job on both fronts in the 90s.

Richmond Webb, Keith Sims, Bryan Cox, Troy Vincent, Marco Coleman, OJ McDuffie, Terry Kirby, Tim Bowens and Tim Ruddy were all drafted in that period.

And then in free agency, they brought in Keith Jackson, Keith Byars, Mark Ingram and Ron Heller, while trading for Fryar.

They did a lot right on offense, and those teams from 92-94 were really good on that side of the ball, until Marino and others got injured. The defense of course was another story. And then Jimmy came in, and it was the polar opposite. He did everything right on defense, while the offense fell apart. We haven't had a team that was truly good on both sides of the ball at the same time in 35 years.

 

Fred Barnett over Andre Rison was such a mistake.

 

I wasn't aware that Rison was ever a real possibility. He was one of my favorite players back then. Either way, Jimmy signed Barnett in 96, not Shula. Rison signed with the Browns in 95. Are you thinking Gary Clark?

 

I think you are overestimating how well he did in the 90s. The 91 and 95 drafts were complete disasters. Only good player we got out of those two drafts was Bryan Cox. Two whole drafts and only one good player is an F- in my book. In 92 he hit on Vincent and coleman because they were picked 7th and 12th overall respectively. Hard to completely miss on that high of a pick. Bowens, Mcduffie, and Webb were great picks but fist rounders as well.

Ruddy was pretty good, but Sims was terrible, he was highly overrated. He only played well one season but most of the time we might as well have had a revolving door at LG.

Shula did pretty good in trading for fryar and signing Jackson on offense as you said, but overall he was terrible at finding good players.