Miami Dolphins best centers in history, where does Mike Pouncey rank?
By Brian Miller
The Miami Dolphins have had some great centers throughout their history and now turn to Daniel Kilgore to take over the line calling duties.
The Miami Dolphins released Mike Pouncey at the start of free agency granting his request after the team asked him to take a pay cut and he refused. Where does Pouncey fit in the Dolphins line of great centers?
26 players have been listed as centers for the Miami Dolphins since 1966. This does not include players that were listed as tackle/centers or guard/centers. When looking back through history the only “centers” that mattered are listed below.
Dwight Stephenson
The Hall of Fame center had a short NFL career due to injuries but his play on the field was amazing. The fact that he only played eight seasons is a credit to what he put on the field. Stephenson started his career in 1980 but didn’t start until ’81 when he started five games. He started nine in 1982.
Starting in 1983 Stephenson began a five-year consecutive run as an NFL Pro-Bowl center starting every game for four seasons and then nine of the nine games he played in during the 1987 season. He would retire following the year due to injuries. He goes down in Dolphins history as the best center the team has had.
Jim Langer
Was it Stephenson or Langer who was the best? Take your pick. Langer was the stalwart center for the Dolphins Super Bowl runs in the 1970’s playing from 1970-1979. Like Stephenson Langer is a Hall of Fame player. You could flip the two and no one would make a case that you were wrong.
Tim Ruddy
Tim Ruddy played from 1994-2003 and remains one of the best centers in Dolphins history. Unlike the previous two, Ruddy never saw the Super Bowl. He played all ten of his NFL seasons with the Dolphins.
Ruddy was more than just a good center. He was an iron man. He started 140 games of 156 he appeared in. 16 of those missed starts came in his rookie season. He missed no more than one game in the other nine years until his final season when he missed two games.
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Mike Pouncey
Pouncey comes up fourth on our ranking and that is a solid spot for a player who was very good at his position but suffered the rash of injuries over his career. He completed only two full seasons in his time with the Dolphins and played one season at guard. Pouncey could have been one of the best in Dolphins history had it not been for the injuries.
Jeff Uhlenhake
Uhlenhake played five seasons for the Dolphins at center from 1989 to 1993. He would play four more years in the NFL with both the Saints and Redskins before his career was over. With Miami, He started 15 of 16 games his rookie season. Like Pouncey, his injuries added up. He started 10 of 13 games in ’91, started 13 of 13 in ’92, and started only five games of the five he played in ’93. His last season with the Dolphins.
After leaving the team he would start 15, 14, 11, and 13 games with the other two teams in the following four season.