The Miami Dolphins haven’t been at their dominant best since Dan Marino left the game in the 1990s, but they are one of the most historically relevant NFL franchises with a degree of dominance in the 1970s and 1980s that really needs to be revisited more.
As such, they have had their fair share of great quarterbacks over the years despite the well running a bit dry after Marino’s retirement. Even then, there are several notable names, hidden gems, and cult heroes who have called Miami home and started under center for this great franchise.
So in honor of them – and not just Bob Griese and Dan Marino – let’s rank the 10 greatest starting quarterbacks in the history of the Miami Dolphins.
10. Matt Moore
One of the best backup quarterbacks in the modern NFL, Matt Moore had already made something resembling a name for himself with the Carolina Panthers by somehow being the first of the myriad of mediocre-to-terrible quarterbacks in Charlotte to realize that force-feeding the ball to Steve Smith is indeed a viable solution.
Moore was actually signed by the Dolphins in the summer of 2011 to back up Chad Henne, but he ended up being a better quarterback than the Michigan grad, shining as one of the best quarterbacks in the league for a couple of weeks while finishing the season as team MVP.
Although Moore fell back down to earth after that, his performances in spot duty in 2011 and 2016 are enough to earn him a place at the tail end of a top 10 list that, truthfully, doesn’t exactly contain a whole lot of world-beaters.
9. Ryan Fitzpatrick
Ryan Fitzpatrick is one of the most beloved quarterbacks in the modern NFL, and while his best work was with the AFC East rival New York Jets, he did have a positive foray down south as the starting quarterback for the Miami Dolphins in the 2019 and 2020 seasons to all but close his career.
In his first season in Miami, Fitzpatrick displaced monumental NFL draft bust Josh Rosen as the starting quarterback, and, funnily enough, he actually led the Dolphins in both passing yards and rushing yards with 3,500 and 243, respectively.
Nobody saw that coming in their bingo card, as Fitzpatrick went 5-8 with an 85.5 QB Rating. In his final season in Miami, Fitzmagic bested those numbers with a QB Rating over 95 and a winning record of 4-3 in seven starts, trading games with rookie Tua Tagovailoa.
8. Don Strock
One half of the famous “WoodStrock” quarterback partnership that traded off games in Miami to start the 1980s decade, Don Strock spent nearly 15 seasons with the Dolphins organization in the 1970s and 80s, mostly as a backup quarterback to legends Griese and Marino.
Strock was not a bad quarterback in his own right, though. He was a part of three Dolphins teams to make it to the Super Bowl, specifically riding the pine en route to winning a ring on the invincible 1972/73 team.
He gets in above the rest of the crowd because he had that legendary game at the beginning of 1982, cleaning up Woodley’s mess by overcoming a 24-0 deficit against the San Diego Chargers at the Orange Bowl to complete one of the greatest comebacks in pro football history.
7. David Woodley
An eight-round pick in the 1980 NFL Draft out of LSU, David Woodley was the starting quarterback of the Miami Dolphins in between legends Bob Griese and Dan Marino, the two GOATs of the position in franchise history.
And at first, there was optimism that Woodley would begin his career in similar fashion, winning Team MVP as a rookie in 1980. He even reached a Super Bowl a year later after breaking free from the time split with quarterback Don Strock.
But in his third season in the NFL, Woodley seemed to be progressing backwards, rather than forwards. Legendary head coach Don Shula then made the bold decision to bring in rookie Dan Marino as the starter over him, and the rest, as they say, is history.
6. Ryan Tannehill
Now we’re cooking. Ryan Tannehill didn’t have a first-round level career in Miami that matched his draft pedigree, though he did end up proving to be worth the status in the long run by playing like a top ten quarterback for the Tennessee Titans afterwards.
Still, Tannehill did flash that top 10 quality with the Dolphins, and while his bad habits at Texas A&M of terrible interceptions over the middle of the field and staring down receivers while taking bad sacks did plague him throughout his six seasons in Miami, he did end up with a pass completion percentage of 63 for his career there and a respectable quarterback rating of 87.0.
You wonder, looking back, with better organizational support, coaching, and a more competent supporting cast, perhaps the Dolphins would have been a perennial playoff contender with Tannehill under center like Tennessee in the future.
5. Earl Morrall
Although Earl Morrall’s actual MVP season came years before he ended up in Miami with the Baltimore Ravens, he went 9-0 in 1972, won the Super Bowl, and came second in MVP voting as a First Team All Pro quarterback for the undefeated Dolphins.
Morrall won all nine of his starts and led the NFL with a 91.0 QB Rating. No matter that he never started more than a game again for the Dolphins after that, because, well, he was 38 and had just joined the Fins as a well-timed veteran quarterback signing behind the legendary Bob Griese that 1972 season.
He only had that one season, but it is one of the most important seasons in NFL history and certainly the most important in Dolphins history. That can never be taken away from Morrall, who was a great quarterback in his day and proved it one last time as the veteran game manager under center in Miami.
4. Tua Tagovailoa
The jury is still out on Tua Tagovailoa’s NFL career, but there is, at this point, a sneaking suspicion that all the horrible hits and concussions accrued over the years have derailed an incredibly promising career.
At his best, Tua is one of the most accurate passers and sharpest minds pre-snap in the NFL, quickly diagnosing coverages and getting the ball out to playmakers in space who can do serious damage.
At his worst, Tua is an interception machine who fumbles frequently and seems to make the worst of these errors at the worst possible times, going from throwing 10 perfect lasers in a row to an awful interception that undoes all his hard work.
Tagovailoa, like Tannehill, will probably never live up to his first-round billing, let alone the Tank-A-Thon that teams were getting into in order to take him after a sensational Alabama career.
But Tagovailoa also led the NFL in passer rating, then passing yards, and then pass completion percentage in successive seasons from 2022 to 2024. He could still move into the top three one day.
3. Chad Pennington
It was just one season, but, goodness was it a magical season. Against all odds, Chad Pennington, with his career written off after injuries and a New York Jets franchise that had given up on their once prized gem, was resurrected with the AFC East rival Miami Dolphins.
He was an immediate success in 2008, recovering from all the questions about the health of his arm, the strength of his arm, and even the caliber of quarterback he was to literally break the Dolphins franchise completion percentage record with 67.2, leading the league and topping the great Dan Marino in the process.
Behind Pennington’s surgical precision under center, Tony Sparano led the Fins to the postseason and the No. 3 overall seed in his own first season in Miami, and while the Dolphins stood no chance against the juggernaut Baltimore Ravens defense in the Wild Card round, Pennington’s impact on the organization was clearly felt.
He got the Dolphins winning and believing again, and the NFL Comeback Player of the Year proved that with the right amount of grit and footballing IQ under center, you can’t count anyone out at quarterback in this league.
Not since Marino did the Dolphins have a 3,500-yard passer or a legitimately good starting quarterback, and while Pennington’s career would effectively end a season later with another devastating shoulder injury (and then another a year after that), this season alone is worth a spot in the top three. Imagine what could have been if not for the shoulder ailments.
2. Bob Griese
Almost inexplicably not in the Hall of Fame despite winning two Super Bowls, making two First Team All-Pros, and leading the league in passer rating and touchdowns in 1977, Bob Griese is easily one of the most important and influential quarterbacks and Miami Dolphins players of all time.
Griese was the perfect game manager, a cerebral assassin who could sit back, make all the right adjustments, find open guys, and let his stars do the talking as he racked up wins for the Dolphins machine.
Although he was not the primary starter when the Fins went undefeated in 1972 due to an injury early in the season, he still played a role in winning the Super Bowl that season, including winning the big game itself, and was excellent throughout the 1970s, arguably getting better with age.
Griese was consistently in MVP conversations and Super Bowl contention throughout the decade, and there is no question that he is the second greatest quarterback in Dolphins history.
1. Dan Marino
Ahead of his time, Dan Marino didn’t need a Super Bowl ring to remain in GOAT conversations until Tom Brady fully pulled ahead of the crowd in the 2010s with multiple Super Bowl crowns to add to his resume.
But when it comes to the best pure passer of all time, Marino is in a conversation of his own with perhaps only Aaron Rodgers having a seat at the table, but because of how far ahead he was of his contemporaries in the 1980s and how his dominance spanned two decades, regardless of the lack of Super Bowl success or not, Marino is the best pure passer of all time.
The statistics are mind-blowing. In an era when 3,000 yards was incredibly impressive, Marino dropped 5,084 passing yards in 1984 as a second-year pro and in his first season with double-digit starts as a 23-year-old.
He would go on to lead the NFL in passing yards five times, touchdowns in three consecutive seasons, and make six All-Pro teams. Marino’s highlights and body of work on the field still hold up today, and he revolutionized the game as the first true modern quarterback.
Joe Soriano is the editor of The Trivela Effect and a FanSided Hall of Famer who has covered world football since 2010. He’s led top digital communities like The Real Champs (Real Madrid) and has run sites covering Tottenham, Liverpool, Juventus, and Schalke. He also helped manage NFL Spin Zone and Daily DDT, covering the NFL and pro wrestling.