A blueprint for perfection: How the 1972 Dolphins were built (and what we can learn)

Joe Robbie’s most important hire for the Miami Dolphins might have been his first one.

It’s not exactly clear which number employee Joe Thomas was for the Dolphins, but Tim Robbie, the late former owner’s son and something of an unofficial historian for the organization’s earliest days, claims he was one of the first two and Miami’s journey toward perfection began with his hire back in 1965, almost a full year before the Dolphins played their first game as an expansion team.

“We wanted a top-notch man,” Robbie said at Thomas’ introductory news conference back in 1965,”and we got one.”

Even though Thomas left the organization after the 1971 NFL season, the perfect 1972 Miami Dolphins season started and a series of moves he made — lopsided trades, home run picks and savvy waiver claims to set up Miami for success after he left.

Part of how the undefeated Dolphins were built is no longer replicable in this age of free agency and advanced scouting, but so much of what Thomas and Co. did to turn Miami into a powerhouse are the same sort of things the best teams in the modern NFL do to craft contenders.

With five steps, the Dolphins put together the best team in NFL history.

Step 1: A great GM

Before he was Miami’s owner, Robbie was an attorney in Minneapolis, and it meant he knew the Minnesota Vikings well. He knew about the way they were building from expansion in 1961 to regular contention by the latter half of the decade. He knew Thomas, their director of player personnel, was a big reason.

“My dad,” Robbie said, “got to see up close the job Joe Thomas was doing.”

Robbie got permission from the Vikings to interview Thomas, and it was one of the most important moments in franchise history.

By their fourth season, the Dolphins won 10 games. Don Shula, hired as coach before the year, was a big part of why, although the Pro Football Hall of Famer soon found out he was walking into a good situation, with talent building through the years thanks to high draft picks and good acquisitions.

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“Shula’s biggest surprise,” Hall of Fame fullback Larry Csonka recalled in 2020, “was how much talent.”

Step 2: Nail the Draft

In the first round of their second draft, the Dolphins took a Hall of Famer (Bob Griese) and then did the same in the first round of their third draft (Csonka), and then got an All-Pro in the first round of their fourth (Bill Stanfill).

In his six drafts in Miami, Thomas hardly ever missed, especially in the first round, and even the picks the Dolphins sent away often yielded Hall of Famers.

Of the 25 players to start multiple games for Miami in the 1972 regular season, 15 were drafted by the Dolphins and at least one player drafted every from 1968-1970 was an All-Pro for Miami in 1972 — and this doesn’t even include Griese, who only started five games in the regular season due to injury.

The 1966 American Football League draft mostly became a wash — running back Jim Grabowski, who was the Dolphins’ first pick, also went No. 9 in the 1966 NFL Draft and instead signed with the Green Bay Packers, and wide receiver Howard Twilley was the only 1972 starter Miami picked — and it still didn’t matter because the next five drafts went so well.

In 1967, the Dolphins took Griese at No. 4.

In 1968, they took Csonka at No. 8 and Doug Crusan, who started at left tackle in 1972, at No. 27, then got All-Pro safety Dick Anderson in the third round.

In 1969, they took All-Pro defensive end Bill Stanfill at No. 11, then starting defensive tackle Bob Heinz in the second round and All-Pro running back Mercury Morris in the third.

In 1970, they didn’t have a first-round pick — trading it to the Cleveland Browns to get Hall of Fame wide receiver Paul Warfield — and still took starting cornerback Tim Foley in the third round, starting cornerback Curtis Johnson in the fourth, All-Pro safety Jake Scott in the seventh and starting linebacker Mike Kolen in the 12th.

In 1971, they again lost their first-round pick — this time, it was compensation to the Baltimore Colts for poaching Shula — and still found starting defensive end Vern Den Herder in the ninth round.

There’s a reason Robbie considered him the greatest talent evaluator in NFL history.

“I think the common thread is character,” his son said. “How do you identify character?”

It was even harder back then when executives and coaches couldn’t conduct hundreds of interviews over the phone or get instant access to game film.

Thomas, though, had his ways.

Griese, in 2020, recalled his first interaction with Thomas and it’s instructive of how he worked: Griese had just led his Purdue Boilermakers to their first Rose Bowl title and, amid the postgame celebration, he noticed a man in a suit observing him from the across locker room.

Thomas wanted to understand how Griese’s attitude after the game before he committed to making him his next quarterback.

In those days, teams had to rely on late-round picks and undrafted players more because there was no free agency. Still, Miami was particularly good at finding these gems, such as Scott, Den Herder, Kolen and Twilley.

Five of the usual starters during the 1972 Dolphins seasons were undrafted players, who made their NFL debuts for Miami.

“You had to rely more on drafting and development,” Robbie said.

Step 3: Build a line

Two of those five undrafted players — plus one key reserve, who started multiple games — were offensive linemen.

Hall of Fame interior lineman Jim Langer first signed as undrafted free agent with the Browns in 1970, got cut during training camp and signed with the Dolphins.

Starting guard Bob Kuechenberg first signed as an undrafted free agent with the Philadelphia in 1969, quit during training camp to go play for the Chicago Owls of the Continental Football League and ultimately signed with Miami in 1970, too.

Tackle Wayne Moore, who started five games when Crusan was hurt, was also an undrafted free agent in 1969, cut by the San Francisco 49ers after a year on their taxi squad and then claimed by the Dolphins despite the 49ers trying to hid him by listing him as a defensive tackle with his lesser-known, real first name of Solomon.

Throw in Hall of Fame guard Larry Little, who was also originally undrafted and came to Miami in one of the most lopsided trades in NFL history, and they were an unlikely bunch to lead the Dolphins to glory.

“Sometimes, you get raw product and you have to develop it to get the most out of the player,” Robbie said, “and player development is a big aspect of that.”

The Little trade in 1969 was something of a turning point. Little, who’s from Miami and graduated from Booker T. Washington High School, started three games in two seasons with the San Diego Chargers — now the Los Angeles Chargers — and the Dolphins were able to get him in exchange for defensive back Mack Lamb, who never appeared in another NFL game.

Little was starting to trend upward in San Diego — those three starts were his last three games for the Chargers — and Csonka pressed for Miami to trade for him after a year of getting beaten up behind a bad offensive line. His physical gifts were wildly impressive as San Diego also initially tried him out at both fullback and defensive end, despite his weighing about 280 pounds at the time.

Kuechenberg came in 1970 and became the starter at the opposite guard spot, and Crusan — whom the Dolphins took in the first round of the 1968 NFL/AFL draft after wisely sending quarterback Doug Stofa, himself originally undrafted, to the expansion Cincinnati Bengals for an extra pick — took over as the full-time starter at left tackle, too.

Langer became a starter in 1972 and the line was complete — starting tackle Norm Evans was picked in Miami’s expansion draft and started 136 of the first 140 regular-season games in franchise history.

As important as anyone, though, was the offensive line coach.

Monte Clark was only 33 when Shula hired him as an assistant coach, almost immediately after he retired following a championship-winning career in Cleveland.

With the Browns, Clark played for Fritz Heisler — regarded as one of the best offensive line coaches of all time — and it made him a natural coach, too.

“I think he’ll have an excellent rapport with our offensive linemen,” Shula predicted after hiring him in 1970 and he was right.

“When we see variations in defenses other than what we had prepared to expect, we can adjust to them because even those situations have been covered,” Kuechenberg said in 1972. “Communication is one of our keys. We call them code words. It’s terminology that the other team, as such, can’t understand, but what the word actually means is a change in blocking assignments to adapt to the defense. You’ve got to have communication among each other and Monte emphasizes this.”

Step 4: Make smart trades

The Little trade was a coup and it wasn’t the only one.

Hall of Fame linebacker Nick Buoniconti was a very good player for the Boston Patriots — now the New England Patriots — in the 1960s, yet he didn’t become a superstar until he got to Florida.

It was another heist for the Dolphins, who sent quarterback Kim Hammond, linebacker Jim Bramlett and a fifth-round pick to Boston in the 1969 exchange.

Buoniconti was 28 at the time and the trade, Robbie recalled, was mostly made because a young defense badly needed a leader. Buoniconti wound up becoming so much more.

“You can credit Joe Thomas and the scouting department for putting a higher value on the guy than the team that had him,” Robbie said.

Step 5: Go all-in

In 1970, Miami made the biggest trade in franchise history so far.

The Dolphins had the No. 3 pick in the 1970 NFL Draft, but decided they were done rebuilding. They sent the pick to Cleveland for Warfield.

With Griese having potential and a new coach on the way, Miami decided it was time to build around its young quarterback.

Sound familiar?

“I kind of equate it to the Tyreek Hill trade: You’ve got a young quarterback; he needs weapons,” Robbie said. “Paul Warfield was highly regarded as one of the top receivers in football at the time and to be able to acquire a player like that, you give up what you have to give up to get him.”

About a month later, the Dolphins officially hired Shula and had to give their first-round pick in the 1971 NFL Draft to the Colts as compensation for violating league tampering rules.

In 1972, Miami would also trade its first-round pick in the 1973 NFL Draft to the Buffalo Bills for wide receiver Marlin Briscoe, who started three regular-season games in the 1972 season. The Dolphins only wound up using one first-round pick from 1970-1973.

It was a price worth paying for a team in contention.

The same was true for the biggest signing they made in 1972.

All-Pro quarterback Earl Morrall was 37 and spent the end of the previous season backing up Hall of Fame quarterback Johnny Unitas in Baltimore. The Colts placed him on waivers — instead, going with a younger, cheaper backup — and Shula, who previously coached Morrall during his best season in Baltimore, urged Miami to put in a claim.

With Griese established and Morrall commanding a $90,000 salary, it was the ultimate luxury move for the Dolphins.

Without it, they would’ve never been perfect.

“It didn’t take a lot of arm twisting,” Robbie said. “The fact that my dad hired Shula showed his commitment to doing anything possible to win and that fell into the category of doing anything possible to win. It wasn’t an out-of-character move for my dad to bless decisions that fell under that category. He wanted to do whatever it takes to be a championship team and if that was one of the pieces that’s important, then we’ll get the guy.”