If you could pick one cloned 25 year old HOF player to add to your team this year, who would you have?

[Uncle Buck]

I'd take Randall McDaniel.  The Vikings only have one weakness, and that is the offensive line.  Randall McDaniel could make a big difference in the middle helping to protect our $84,000,000 quarterback.

[sdrawkcab321]

Elway 

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

Go ahead and give me 25 year old Randy Moss for the Ravens.

[Malfatron]

Brett Favre, if only for the hilarity of him taking over from an aging Rodgers

[john305]

1 hour ago, Elky said:

Cool. I'd rather win Super Bowls.

Well seeing as how teams win Super Bowls and this is in fact a team game, I'm confident if you gave Marino the defense and run game the 49ers had for their Super Bowl years he too would win a SB.

[Elky]

5 minutes ago, john305 said:

Well seeing as how teams win Super Bowls and this is in fact a team game, I'm confident if you gave Marino the defense and run game the 49ers had for their Super Bowl years he too would win a SB.

Actually that's a total myth. Marino was drafted by a team that just went to the Super Bowl with David Woodley at quarterback whereas Montana was drafted by a 6-10 team.

Marino has played with plenty of great defenses and run games. You can't tell anyone that for his entire 16 year career he never had either.

[ET80]

An OL is too easy to pick here (Bruce Matthews would be a shoo in) so I'll say a CB like Deion Sanders.

A Texans' pass rush with Clowney, Mercilius and Watt, with Primetime taking away half the field? That would be fun.

[TENINCH]

Randal McDaniel

[Uncle Buck]

2 minutes ago, TENINCH said:

Randal McDaniel

As usual, I like the way you think. 

[FinSting]

55 minutes ago, Elky said:

Marino has played with plenty of great defenses and run games. You can't tell anyone that for his entire 16 year career he never had either.

Are you too young to remember all the Marino years? Fins' run game was soooo anemic during the Dan the Man seasons, it was a pure horror show of draft busts, bad FA signings or below-average walk-on RB talent. Including three 1st-rd picks at RB with short forgettable careers (two by Shula, one by Jimmy Johnson). 

Look at this list of some of the Marino-era RB's: Sammie 'the Fumblematic' Smith (14 fumbles in his first two seasons!), aka cocaine dealer that did jail time. Lawrence Phillips, who killed himself in jail. Cecil Collins, who broke into a woman's apartment to 'watch her sleeping' and did jail time. Bobby Humphrey, arrested for cocaine then shot in the leg by his own friend and the Fins had to move him from 'Questionable' to 'Shot in the Freaking Leg While Driving a Lexus Too Fast' on the injury report. Bernie Parmalee, who was literally driving a UPS truck before the desperate Fins gave him a tryout. Mark Higgs, a mere 5-foot-7 with hands of stone as feature back? How about no. 1st rd pick John Avery who had more fumbles than TD's and was gone after only one season. One season!

It was like the football gods had deemed Marino would never have a star RB during his entire career. One single time he got a 1,000-yard back, who later got sued for stealing someone's name (why yes, his last name was Abdul-Jabbar) but that was a woeful 3.6 yards per carry, proving that even a broken clock can be useful twice a day. 

Defenses were mostly awful too...did you know the Dolphins once scored 45 points, Marino three SIX touchdowns, yet they still lost? I was throwing stuff at the TV while watching that game. 

[Cheesehawk]

Lawrence Taylor. Drugs and all.

[Hunter2_1]

Joe Thomas.

Thanks for giving Tom all day, night league. 

[Elky]

1 hour ago, FinSting said:

Are you too young to remember all the Marino years? Fins' run game was soooo anemic during the Dan the Man seasons, it was a pure horror show of draft busts, bad FA signings or below-average walk-on RB talent. Including three 1st-rd picks at RB with short forgettable careers (two by Shula, one by Jimmy Johnson). 

Look at this list of some of the Marino-era RB's: Sammie 'the Fumblematic' Smith (14 fumbles in his first two seasons!), aka cocaine dealer that did jail time. Lawrence Phillips, who killed himself in jail. Cecil Collins, who broke into a woman's apartment to 'watch her sleeping' and did jail time. Bobby Humphrey, arrested for cocaine then shot in the leg by his own friend and the Fins had to move him from 'Questionable' to 'Shot in the Freaking Leg While Driving a Lexus Too Fast' on the injury report. Bernie Parmalee, who was literally driving a UPS truck before the desperate Fins gave him a tryout. Mark Higgs, a mere 5-foot-7 with hands of stone as feature back? How about no. 1st rd pick John Avery who had more fumbles than TD's and was gone after only one season. One season!

It was like the football gods had deemed Marino would never have a star RB during his entire career. One single time he got a 1,000-yard back, who later got sued for stealing someone's name (why yes, his last name was Abdul-Jabbar) but that was a woeful 3.6 yards per carry, proving that even a broken clock can be useful twice a day. 

Defenses were mostly awful too...did you know the Dolphins once scored 45 points, Marino three SIX touchdowns, yet they still lost? I was throwing stuff at the TV while watching that game. 

Myth: Dan Marino had no defense.

Cold, Hard Football Facts: Marino played 17 seasons in the NFL. Twice, he had the luxury of playing with the league’s No. 1 scoring defense: his rookie year of 1983 (15.6 points per game), and again in 1998 (16.6 points per game). That’s a pretty enviable ratio in a league that had 28 and then 30 teams in Marino’s playing days.

Consider this: Terry Bradshaw played 14 seasons in Pittsburgh and won four Super Bowls. The famed Steel Curtain defense that he played with led the league in scoring just twice in those 14 years. Of Bradshaw's four title teams, only one boasted the league's best scoring defense.

In Marino’s record-setting 1984 season, the Dolphins had the No. 1 scoring offense in football and the No. 6 scoring defense (18.6 points per game). The 1990 Dolphins, meanwhile, boasted the league’s No. 4 scoring defense, surrendering just 15.1 points per game.

There’s no doubt Marino played with some poor defenses in his day, but that’s the price of playing in the league 17 years. But the Cold, Hard Football Facts show that he also played with several defenses more than strong enough to win Super Bowls.

Myth: Marino had no running game.

Cold, Hard Football Facts: Marino joined Miami at a time when it had a reputation of being the best ground team in football. In fact, the year before Marino was drafted, the Dolphins made it all the way to the Super Bowl on the strength of a great running game and great defense.

In Marino’s rookie year, 1983, the Dolphins racked up 2,150 yards on the ground. In 1984, Marino set single-season records with 48 touchdowns and 5,084 yards passing. The Dolphins still managed 1,918 rushing yards and averaged 4.0 yards per carry.

It would be disingenuous to say that the Dolphins were a great running team later in Marino’s career. Of course, much of that can be attributed to too few rushing attempts and a misguided faith placed in Marino’s arm.

But consider this: The New England Patriots went 17-2 and won the Super Bowl last year while averaging a woeful 3.4 yards per rushing attempt. The Dolphins averaged more than 3.4 yards per rushing attempt 14 times in Marino’s 17 seasons. In other words, Marino's Dolphins ran the ball more than well enough to win Super Bowls.

Myth: Marino had to carry the Dolphins himself.

Cold, Hard Football Facts: Few quarterbacks in NFL history have been surrounded by more talent than Marino.

In his 17-year career, Marino played with 55 players named to the Pro Bowl. Marino himself was named a Pro Bowler nine times. That’s a remarkable 64 Pro Bowl players, or nearly four for every season Marino spent in the NFL. Four times in Marino’s career, the Dolphins boasted five or more Pro Bowl players in a single season. Compare that with New England’s two Super Bowl teams, which had a total of just five Pro Bowl players.

Marino also had the rare luxury of joining a team that had played in the Super Bowl the year before he arrived. He also played most of his career for the winningest coach in NFL history, Don Shula.

Shula has quite a resume. Working with quarterbacks Bob Griese, Earl Morrall and Johnny Unitas, he led the Colts and Dolphins to five Super Bowls in 15 years. Over the next 13 seasons, working with Marino, he appeared in just one more Super Bowl. He lost.

If any quarterback in NFL history walked into an ideal situation in which to win a Super Bowl, it was Dan Marino.

Myth: Marino was a big-game quarterback.

Cold, Hard Football Facts: Want to know the real reason why Marino never won a Super Bowl? Sadly, the answer sits with Dan Marino himself.

Simply put, Marino did not elevate his game in the playoffs. In fact, his played dropped off quite noticeably. Marino has a career regular season passer rating of 86.4. His postseason passer rating was just 77.1. He played in 18 playoff games, and won just eight of them.

In his one Super Bowl appearance (a 38-16 loss to the 49ers in Super Bowl XIX), Marino completed 29 of 50 passes for 318 yards, 1 TD and 2 INTs. It adds up to a weak 66.9 passer rating. One wonders what might have happened had his two Super Bowl drives that ended in interceptions ended in touchdowns instead.

Remember that 1998 Miami team that had the best defense in football? It made the playoffs, but Marino failed to hold up his end of the bargain. The season ended in the second round of the playoffs, with Marino coughing up two interceptions against Denver and posting a passer rating of just 65.5. Yet another opportunity for Marino to win a Super Bowl tossed into the hands of an opposing defender.


In fact, Marino threw at least one interception in 13 of his 18 career playoff games. He threw two or more interceptions 10 times. The Dolphins went just 1-9 in those 10 Marino multi-interception playoff games.

[Calvert28]

And what's the point of them having to be 25?

[FinSting]

1 hour ago, Elky said:

Remember that 1998 Miami team that had the best defense in football? It made the playoffs, but Marino failed to hold up his end of the bargain. The season ended in the second round of the playoffs, with Marino coughing up two interceptions against Denver and posting a passer rating of just 65.5. 

So much typing! Well-formed replies, cheers. Even if they are all wrong.

But you didn't address the Marino Years RB woes I posted above? It was awful to watch, and I've been watching Fins games since Csonka was a stud, hence I saw Marino's first game live in '83, and followed along for his final game live in '99. He never had a good running game, and the defenses suuuucked so many times. Gotta put some blame on Shula for drafting so many bad players on both offense and defense, and also allowing defensive coordinators like Tom Olivadotti to hang around wayyyyy too long during Marino's prime years before his arm faded, his Achilles snapped, and he hobbled like a grandpa from so many knee surgeries. Marv Levy's Bills had something to do with Marino's struggles too...

The modus operandi of the record-breaking '84 Dolphins offense was to get a big lead early from the passing game, then cruise to victory while padding both running stats and defensive stats. Exactly why stats can be so misleading unless you actually watch the game play by play. In truth, the running game was not good and neither was the defense as the 49ers proved in the Super Bowl when they blasted Miami for 21 pts in the 2nd quarter to come from behind and blow the game wide open. Miami busted out a surprise no-huddle offense to pass down the field and Marino threw a TD pass to go up 10-7, then the Niners made it look easy with three straight TD drives with some horrible tackling by Miami. Bill Walsh the man the myth had devised a pass defense strategy with about 17 DB's in the game at the same time, because they knew the Miami running game was a joke, not a threat at all. Just like Marino's whole career, nobody ever feared the Miami running game. Marino had a stunning AFC Championship game where Miami dropped 45 pts on Chuck Noll and the Steelers, because the Steelers tried to play zone and Marino feasted. The Niners didn't do what the Steelers did (and weirdly, the only team to beat the Niners that year was the Steelers). 

The '98 game vs Denver was over before it even started. Half the Fins team was out with injuries from barely beating the Bills the week prior in the Wildcard game (your supposed 'best defense' gave up 240 receiving yards to Eric Moulds in that game), and the Fins deserved to lose anyway because no-class Jimmy Johnson was mocking the 'Flutie Flakes' by flinging the cereal around the locker room afterwards  (Flutie Flakes were a fundraiser cereal where most of the proceeds supported the fight against autisum as Flutie has an autistic son). The Fins never had a chance in the 38-3 rout. Broncos went right down the field three straight times, run-pass-run-pass TD TD TD and Miami was behind 21-3 before you could blink. Typical playoff game of an exhausted and battered Wildcard team flying across the country to get steamrolled by a well-rested juggernaut Super Bowl team. Your #1 defense gave up 250 yards rushing in that game, ahem. 

How about one year later when Miami again flew across the country, this time to Seattle (when the Seahawks were AFC) for another Wildcard Game, and Marino's arm is the only reason they won. Then another rested opponent in the Divisional Round, as tired and beat-up Miami lost by the laughable score of 62-7 to Jacksonville. Was it Marino's fault Jags' RB Fred Jackson busted out a 90-yard TD run? Haha. Your highly touted defense gave up 520 yards of offense in that one. 

Now imma go search youtube to see the '85 Bears get trounced by Marino on MNF, and cry in my beer.