Here's an interesting trivia question: Who were Andra Franklin, Woody Bennett, Tony Nathan, Lorenzo Hampton, Troy Stradford, Sammie Smith, Mark Higgs, Bernie Parmalee, Karim Abdul-Jabbar, and J.J. Johnson?
Answer: In addition to being pretty inconsequential NFL running backs during their careers, they were also the players who led the Dolphins in rushing during Marino's 17-year career. There was a single 1,000-yard rusher among them (Abdul-Jabbar in 1996) and a single Pro Bowler (Keith Byars in 1992, who isn't even on this list because he was primarily a receiver at the RB position).
If you go back over the first 14 or 15 years of their careers, you'll find that John Elway and Dan Marino were very similar. They were the dominant offensive players on teams with mediocre running games, but they never won any championships. I find it hard to believe that Elway should be considered a better quarterback than Marino just because an old, broken-down Elway had Terrell Davis on his team for the last two years of his career.
Are you saying that Miami wasted a lot of RB talent by letting a QB throw the ball all over the place during Marino's career? I see your point.
Shouldn't David Overstreet be on that Dolphins RB list as well?
It has to do more with the type of offense you are running than whether you had a 1,000 yard rusher. The Dolphins were one dimensional, which is why Marino was not a winner.
I find it hard to believe that Elway should be considered a better quarterback than Marino just because an old, broken-down Elway had Terrell Davis on his team for the last two years of his career.
The versatile Elway is the only player in National Football League history to pass for more than 3,000 yards and rush for more than 200 yards in the same season seven consecutive times. He was only the second quarterback in NFL history to record more than 40,000 yards passing and 3,000 yards rushing during his career
Elway took his teams to 5 Superbowls and won two. Marino went to one and lost it.