Your Best All-Time Miami Dolphins Defensive Starting 11!

A week ago this evening, I posted the response post for the Miami Dolphins' all-time Offense. This week, we take a look at the defense. I originally posted the following exercise in this post:

Please give us your best 11-man all-time starting offensive roster and your top three all-time special teamers at kicker, punter, and long snapper. If you prefer a player that, for some reason (like old age where you can’t remember like you once did) did not make the list above, certainly use that player and tell us why you believe he belongs.

Below are some of your all-time defensive rosters and thoughts-

mikestarace has some of the usual suspects.

Jason Taylor; Bob Baumhower; Cameron Wake; Tim Bowens; Zach Thomas; Nick Buoniconti; A.J. Duhe; Sam Madison; Patrick Surtain; Jake Scott; Dick Anderson; K: Jason Sanders; P: Reggie Roby

sdphinsfan found the exercise tough but still fielded a solid roster.

Tough one...here goes...(assuming we’re a 3-4 D with this)

DL: Bowens, DenHerder, Jeff Cross

LB: ZT, Duhe, Taylor, Wake

CB: Surtain, Madison (Vincent, McNeal for depth/nickel)

S: Jake Scott, Dick Anderson (Blackwood for depth)

P: Roby

PK: Stoyanovich

LS: Denney

krammm sees Offerdal as an underappreciated former LB for the Phins.

I think John Offerdahl is one of the best ever. Underappreciated because he wasn’t on a very good defense.

I was at a Dolphins/Buccaneers charity basketball game and AJ Duhe (6’3” 245 lbs) could dunk a basketball any way you wanted.

Spok507 chimes in with a scary defense!

DL: Jason Taylor, Can Wake, Tim Bowens

LB: Brian Cox, Zach Thomas, Nick Buonoconti

CB: Sam Madison, Patrick Surtain

S: Louis Oliver, Jarvis Williams

K: Olindo Mare

LS: John Denny

P: Reggie Roby

herbert pollack points out that the now Steeler is a better choice than Holland, even given his short tenure with the Phins.

Minkah should be on the list not Holland

Madison/Surtain

Taylor, Bowens, Wake, Baum (Wilkins)

Zach, Cox, Duhe

really not much to choose from

Francesco ITA is not a fan of Marion!

from 1983

Defensive Linemen

Jason Taylor, Tim Bowens, Bob Baumhower, Cameron Wake

Linebackers

Zach Thomas, John Offerdahl, Bryan Cox

Cornerbacks

Sam Madison, Patrick Surtain

Safeties

Reshad Jones, Minkah Fitzpatrick (not a fan of Brock Marion)

Special Teams

kicker Jason Sanders, punter Reggie Roby and long snapper John Denney

Thomas23059 points out a couple of overlooked guys!

I would add a couple guys that were not on the field nearly enough, but were there long enough to give me some good memories:

John Offerdahl and Louis Oliver

And if Christian Wilkins is on the list, Zach Sieler should be as well.

As for a starting 11:

D-Line - Taylor, Bowens, and Wake

LB - Thomas, Buoniconti, Duhe, and Cox

CB - Madison and Howard (Surtain as the nickel)

S - Scott and Anderson

K - Sanders

P - I’ll take Roby and his watch...

KR - Wes Welker - He may not have been the best at it, but did anyone remember that he had both the most punt returns (127, tied with OJ McDuffie and Jake Scott) and kick returns (166) in Dolphins history? I sure didn’t.

LS - Ed Perry

For anyone who has forgotten Ed Perry, he went to Highland Springs High School in Richmond, Virginia (I used to live down the street from the school) and then played for James Madison University in the Shenandoah Valley. He was drafted by the Dolphins in 1997 as a TE and LS, eventually just snapping. He finished his career with KC in 2005, at which point, according to Wikipedia anyway, he was the last active NFL player to have caught a TD from Dan Marino.

JustACog reminds me of some of our past dominant defenses.

DE Taylor and Wake

DT Wilkens and Manny Fernandez

LB Tomas, Buonicotti, Matheson

CB Ramsey, X

S Scott, Anderson but Rashad Jones could be better than both, but I’m old school

K Sanders

P Roby

LS Denney

Czonkaholic has a solid point, it’s hard to select an all-time when teams run different systems under different coaches.

Since the fish have run a 4/3 and a 3/4 it’s not in my opinion as easy as taking the best 11

Jason Taylor won DPOY playing outside linebacker in a 3/4 I’m gonna cheat and pick 12 I’m gonna do

4 d- line and 4- lb’s I’m also gonna take players who were here as rookies or long term careers so no Junior Seau

D-line Jason Taylor,Tim Bowens, Bob Baumhower, Manny Fernandez

LB’s AJ Duhe John Offerdahl Zach Thomas Brian Cox ( sorry Nick B. )

Not including Nick B is preposterous

Safety Dick Anderson Jake Scott

Corner Patrick Surtain X- man

PA phinphan found this more challenging than the offense, which is fair, as the team has fielded a great defense several times in the past.

This one is a lot harder than the offense. I’ll start with the easiest, special teams.

Kicker - Garo Yepremian

Punter - Reggie Roby

LS - John Denney

DL - Jason Taylor, Bob Baumhower, Manny Fernandez, Cameron Wake (the most difficult to choose: leaving players like Doug Betters, Trace Armstrong, Vern Den Herder, Kim Bokamper, Zach Sieler, Christian Wilkins, etc... was tough)

LB - AJ Duhe, John Offerdahl, Zach Thomas, Bryan Cox

CB - Patrick Surtain and Sam Madison

S - Glenn Blackwood and Jake Scott (another tough one having leave off Anderson, Oliver, and Minkah)

Well, that's our random top ten lists this evening. There was a strong consensus across nearly every roster, with some positions clearly more challenging to pick than others.

With the holiday, the site will be somewhat slow this evening and tomorrow. However, be sure to join us next week when things are sure to get crazy around here with the draft at the end of the week.

As always, thank you to each of you who not only join us every night for our live QOTD or answers posts, but also take the time to answer our questions of the day. For those of you who are regulars and almost always answer our questions, it does not go unnoticed.