Ranking the Five Biggest What-Ifs in Dolphins History

The final blow to the sad Miami Dolphins chapter involving Drew Brees has arrived with his first-ballot induction into the Hall of Fame, 20 years after the whole sordid affair began.

And there was Brees earlier this week recapping once again how he really wanted to join the Dolphins when he was a free agent back in the spring of 2006, only to turn to the New Orleans Saints after a fateful examination of his right shoulder that he injured in a meaningless season finale for the San Diego Chargers three months earlier.

And basically it came down to the Dolphins doing their due diligence and trusting the opinion of their doctors that Brees represented too great a risk, with Brees telling Dan Patrick this week that Miami over New Orleans was a "no-brainer" based on the team having finished 9-7 the previous season, Nick Saban being the head coach and defensive stars like Zach Thomas and Jason Taylor on the roster.

That right there easily ranks among the biggest what-ifs in Dolphins history, but where exactly does it belong?

So we decided to use our historical knowledge of the franchise to come up with a top five. This excludes draft selections because there simply are too many of those and those happen to every franchise.

COUNTING DOWN THE FIVE BIGGEST WHAT-IFS IN DOLPHINS HISTORY

5. What if the Cincinnati Bengals had accepted the Dolphins' trade offer for Joe Burrow in 2020?

Remember that whole "Tank for Tua" campaign of 2019? Well, the truth is that come the spring of 2020, it was Joe Burrow that the Dolphins really wanted. It long had been reported that the Dolphins offered their three first-round picks that year (numbers 5, 18 and 26) to the Bengals for the first overall pick and the chance to take Burrow, but ESPN's Adam Schefter upped the ante last December by reporting the offer actually was four first-round picks.

The Bengals were unmoved and took Burrow. The Dolphins, meanwhile, took Tagovailoa at 5, Austin Jackson at 18 and Noah Igbinoghene at 30 (after trading down). With Burrow, the Bengals went to the Super Bowl in 2021 and to the AFC title game in 2022 but have missed the playoffs the past three seasons. The Dolphins, meanwhile, made the playoffs in 2022 and 2023 but were one-and-done each time. If they had Burrow, it's probably safe to say they would have at least one playoff win by now and it's definitely safe to say their QB outlook heading into 2026 would be much better.

4. What if the Dolphins had hired Mike Tomlin as head coach in 2007?

Yes, for those not aware, the Dolphins had a shot at landing Mike Tomlin as their head coach after Nick Saban contradicted his words of not leaving to become the Alabama head coach. Tomlin, then a young defensive coordinator with the Minnesota Vikings, was among the candidates the Dolphins interviewed but as the well-known story goes he was eliminated from contention reportedly for being deemed "too hip-hop" by a high-ranking member of the organization. The Dolphins eventually hired San Diego Chargers offensive coordinator Cam Cameron and we all know how that turned out.

Any choice would have been better than Cameron in retrospect, but it nonetheless was painful to watch Tomlin get hired by the Pittsburgh Steelers and proceed to coach 19 seasons without a single, solitary losing season with a Super Bowl title in his second year and another Super Bowl appearance two years after that. While we can't suggest the Dolphins would have had the same level of success with Tomlin, it's safe to assume that things would have been better.

3. What if the three Dolphins stars didn't sign with the WFL in 1974?

Coming off back-to-back Super Bowl titles, the Dolphins' quest for a three-peat got off to a bad start when offensive stars Larry Csonka, Jim Kiick and Paul Warfield all signed contracts with the Toronto Northmen of the new World Football League in the spring. The three would fulfill their contracts with the Dolphins in that 1974 season, which ended with that dramatic playoff loss at Oakland in the "Sea of Hands" game, but were gone by 1975.

Even without those three, the Dolphins managed to go 10-4 in '75 but missed the playoffs before stumbling to 6-8 in 1976. But the departure of the big three signaled the end of an era.

2. What if the Dolphins had signed Drew Brees in 2006?

This is where we'll place this one, the Dolphins listening to their doctors and trading a second-round pick to Minnesota for QB Daunte Culpepper instead.

The biggest irony of all in this story is that Culpepper himself was coming off a major knee injury the previous season and he barely could move in the first four games of 2006 despite being cleared and the Dolphins eventually shut him down and put him on IR, releasing him after the season. Again, it's too easy to assume Brees would have enjoyed the same success in Miami he had in New Orleans, but the Dolphins' next decade clearly would have been more successful.

1. What if the Dolphins had joined the AFC South in 2002?

The Dolphins have been looking up at the New England Patriots and Buffalo Bills for the past 20-plus years, but it didn't have to be that way. When the NFL moved to eight divisions in 2002 with the birth of the Houston Texans, the Dolphins were given the option of moving to the AFC South to join the Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars and Tennessee Titans but owner Wayne Huizenga declined to maintain their AFC East rivalries, according to a 2022 story by Tim Graham of The Athletic.

Had they made the move, sure, the Dolphins wouldn't have had to deal with Tom Brady and Josh Allen for all those years, and we'd be willing to guess — without knowing for sure — that the 25-year playoff victory drought would not exist.