Super Bowl Thoughts with a Dolphins Slant

Miami Dolphins legend Dan Marino was trending on Twitter in the aftermath of Super Bowl LVI, the result of a comment by Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow.

After the Bengals' 23-20 loss against the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium, Burrow expressed his confidence that his young team could wind up playing in multiple Super Bowls.

Like Marino in the 1984 season, Burrow went to the Super Bowl in his second year in the NFL and has every right to believe it was the first of many trips, the same as Marino did almost 40 years ago.

But, of course, Marino never was able to return to the Super Bowl, though he was right back in the AFC Championship Game the following year and again in the 1992 season.

The lesson there is that there's no guarantee for Burrow, though anybody who had an issue with his "bold" statement needs to ask themselves exactly what he was supposed to say in the aftermath of a Super Bowl where his team easily could have won.

A SHULA RING AND OTHER DOLPHINS-RAMS CONNECTIONS

A second Shula has won a Super Bowl ring.

Chris Shula has joined his grandfather, legendary Dolphins coach Don Shula, as a Super Bowl champion.

As the linebackers coach for the Rams, Shula oversaw a unit that played a big role in the Super Bowl run, particularly after the acquisition of Von Miller via trade from Denver.

Chris Shula has been able to accomplish something that escaped his father David and his uncle Mike.

Mike Shula ended last season as QB coach of the Denver Broncos, though his status is up in the air after the hiring of Nathaniel Hackett as head coach. Dave Shula is wide receivers coach at his alma mater, Dartmouth.

Other members of the Rams with ties to the Dolphins include running back Buddy Howell, who was in training camp with Miami in 2018; senior coaching assistant John Bonamego, who was Dolphins special teams coordinator from 2008-10; and wide receiver Van Jefferson, the son of former Dolphins wide receivers coach (and current Cardinals WR coach) Shawn Jefferson.

Van Jefferson, of course, had the best Super Bowl of anybody because his wife delivered their second child after leaving the game on a stretcher.

THE LESSONS TO BE LEARNED FOR THE DOLPHINS

The temptation after any Super Bowl is to see how the winning team is constructed to determine whether that can apply elsewhere, but we can immediately say the Dolphins are not in position to do what the Rams did last offseason and then during the season.

The Rams already were a playoff team in 2020 and they figured Matthew Stafford could put them over the top, but then they went ahead and added Von Miller and Odell Beckham Jr. during the season and those two became key contributors down the stretch and into the playoffs.

What the Rams did show is that maybe picking up proven veterans is more valuable than stockpiling first-round picks.

The Rams' blueprint actually mirrored that of the 2020 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who already had a solid team but then complemented it by adding Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski and Antonio Brown.

On the other side, though, the Bengals are an example of a team that made a big leap once it landed its franchise quarterback through the draft, in this case Joe Burrow. But don't discount what Cincinnati did in free agency last offseason when they added key contributors like Trey Hendrickson, D.J. Reader and Mike Hilton.

And before you point to the Rams winning as proof that's the way to go, just understand how slim the margin and how easily the Bengals could have won if, say, the officials had caught the blatant false start on the Rams on the third-and-goal 8 where they compounded the mistake with a dubious DPI penalty against linebacker Logan Wilson.

Think about it, instead of it being first-and-goal from the 4 after the penalty against Wilson, it really should have been third-and-goal from the 13.

Let's also understand that tiny difference between winning and losing before we start talking about how impossible it is to win a Super Bowl with a bad offensive line.

LOOKING AHEAD: SUPER BOWL LVII ODDS

And, of course, it wasn't long after Super Bowl LVI was over that we got the opening odds for Super Bowl LVII.

And it probably shouldn't surprise anyone to see the Dolphins around the middle of the pack — actually a little below that — when it comes to the favorites.

The Dolphins are listed at 40/1 (+4000) to win Super Bowl LVII, according to Covers.com, tied for 18th-highest favorites in the NFL. The other teams listed at 40/1 are the Seattle Seahawks and 2021 playoff participants Philadelphia Eagles and Las Vegas Raiders.

The Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills are co-favorites, per Covers.com, at +650, followed by the Rams at +1,000 and the 49ers at +1,200.