Draft Debacle: Patriots Still Regret 1983 QB Choice
Dan Marino could've handed the New England Patriots' quarterback reins to Tom Brady.
Sorry, Tony Eason. But even after all these years that draft decision still stings.
As the 2022 NFL Draft approaches, we've detailed the best draft-day trades engineered by Bill Belichick. Long before he arrived on the scene in Foxboro, the Patriots made their worst draft mistake.
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The Sporting News has selected one regrettable draft blunder for each NFL team and the New England choice was simple: In 1983 drafting Eason over Marino.
Of the six quarterbacks selected in the 1983 NFL Draft, three have entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The Pats could have had one of those, but instead selected a quarterback that started only 49 games.
Picked 15th overall, Eason threw for 10,732 yards in 6.5 seasons in New England.
Selected by the Miami Dolphins 12 spots later, Marino amassed 61,131 yards - 7th-most in NFL history - during his 17-year, Canton-worthy career.
Says The Sporting News:
New England Patriots
The pick: QB Tony Eason, No. 15 overall in 1983
The miss: QB Dan Marino, No. 27 overall to Dolphins
If you didn’t take John Elway, Jim Kelly or Marino as your first-round QB in ’83, you should have real regrets. Put the Patriots in the same club as the Chiefs. Eason wasn’t as bad as Todd Blackledge, but he wasn’t even as good as Ken O’Brien. He did play in a Super Bowl against the 1985 Bears, but guess which QB led the only defeat of that team that season. Marino, in Miami on a Monday night.
To his credit, Eason did start New England’s Super Bowl XX loss and finished his career with just as many Super Bowl appearances (1) and wins (0) as Marino. He was a tad shy of Marino's MVP, nine Pro Bowls and 420 touchdown passes.
Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
The Patriots did come out on the right side of two other NFL draft regrets: the Denver Broncos’ decision to pick Tim Tebow over Devin McCourty in 2010, and the San Francisco 49ers going with Giovanni Carmazzi in 2000 when they could have had Brady.
