It is hard to consider someone underrated when you were a member of the only undefeated team in NFL history and were in your prime when you earned your two Super Bowl Rings, but this is what we have in Bill Stanfill.

In the early 1970s, the Miami Dolphins were one of the best teams ever, and they were loaded with talent, but one of their stars, Dick Anderson, seems to have been forgotten.  Let's try to rectify that.

Jake Scott played the first six seasons of his NFL career playing for the Miami Dolphins from 1970 to 1975, and as you can imagine, since he was a Dolphin in that era, he was accustomed to winning.

Richmond Webb proved his merit immediately as the 9^th overall Draft Pick in 1990 as the Left Tackle was a Pro Bowl, All-Rookie Selection, and UPI even went as far as naming him the Rookie of the Year.  That year was no flash in the pan as Webb would go on to be named to six more Pro Bowls (all consecutive) and added two First Team and two Second Team All-Pro Selections.  The Dolphins Still had Dan Marino, and Webb protected him as well, if not better than anyone that the Quarterback ever had.  Let's say Richmond Webb earned more than one pair of Isotoners!  Webb played for the Dolphins until he joined the Cincinnati Bengals for his final two years (2001-02).  Notably, this is the man who the legendary Bruce Smith called the "best blocker he ever faced" and if that is not high praise we don't know what is!

2024 Pre-Season Rank #8, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #28, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #35, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #53.  Peak Period: 2019-23

Tyreek Hill was a three-time First Team All-Pro and Super Bowl Champion with the Kansas City Chiefs, but they traded the talented Wide Receiver to Miami for a slew of draft picks.  Miami then made him the highest-paid WR in the league, and in his first two seasons, Hill was the game’s top receiver, achieving over 1,700 Yards in both campaigns, and leading the NFL in Receiving Yards (1,799) and Receiving Touchdowns (13) in 2023.    He was also the runner-up for the Offensive Player of the Year,

Last season was a different story for Hill, who, for the first time in his career, was not chosen for the Pro Bowl.  He had a lackluster year by his standards (959 Yards/6 TDs), and whispers of his decline were in the air.

Still, he enters 2025 with 11,098 career Yards and 82 TDs, and is capable of a bounce-back year, and Hill’s candidacy might need that as off-field issues follow him wherever he goes, and that does turn off some of the voters (right or wrong). 

 

Here we are in the National Football League playoffs but for us that it means it is time to discuss the potential class of the 2017 Pro Football Hall of Fame.  The Finalists have been announced, and along with regular contributor, Spheniscus, we will go back and forth with each candidate and openly debate as to which player would be a worthy Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee.

Committee Chairman: Spheniscus, we go to a team I am sure you are familiar with Jason Taylor, the former Dancing with the Stars contestant and Miami Dolphin.  Taylor is a member of the 100 Sack Club and Defensive Player of the Year.  I think Taylor is getting in, but I think they are going to put him on the backburner for one year.  Thoughts on Taylor’s Hall of Fame candidacy and why so many NFL players go on DWTS? 

As one of the men who used to eagerly wait for the final undefeated team to lose every NFL season, Bob Kuechenberg was a staple on the famed Miami Dolphins O-Line.

As part of the Dolphins' two consecutive Super Bowl champions, Kuechenberg actually enjoyed better individual seasons after.  Although he looked like a reject from the Longest Yard Prison Team (the original movie); Kuechenberg would enter into six Pro Bowl seasons.  What he lacked in ability, he made up for in guile, technique and mistake-free football.

Kuechenberg was a finalist for eight years in a row, but in 2010, he failed to even make the Semi-Finals on the Hall of Fame ballot. Many from that legendary 72 Dolphins team are in the Hall (including a fellow lineman), and this may now work against him as it may be felt that that group has been sufficiently recognized.  Throw in the fact that he was not the most liked man by sports media, his omission seems a little more clear.

It might be hard being named Keith Jackson when there was already a very famous sports commentator with the same name who became the voice of the sport.  The Tight End with the same name still managed to carve out his own identity.

As the first overall pick in 1984, many expected Irving Fryar to be great right away.  He wasn’t, but his career showcased a slow climb to being one of the elite receivers in football, and a lot of times hearing his number called by broadcasters on Sunday afternoons.

Dan Marino may have been one of the greatest Quarterbacks in National Football League History, but it sure helped that he had Mark Clayton lined up with to throw Touchdowns to.

A member of the NFL 2000’s All-Decade Team, Joey Porter had a very productive run in the National Football League, especially with the Pittsburgh Steelers where he won a Super Bowl Ring.  The four-time Pro Bowl Linebacker fell two Sacks shy of the 100 mark and would be regarded as one of the dirtiest defensive players of his time, but definitely someone you wanted on your side.