Miami Dolphins worst trade with the Giants wasn’t really a trade
By Brian Miller
The Miami Dolphins’ worst trade with the Giants wasn’t really a trade.
Over the course of the Miami Dolphins existence, very few trades have been made with the New York Giants. Most had little effect on either team.
Through the years, trades between the Dolphins and the Giants have amounted to late-round draft pick trading for a fringe player that typically didn’t make an impact on either roster. For example, in 1999, the Dolphins sent a 7th round pick to the Giants for running back Tyrone Wheatley who had been a huge draft bust for the G-Men.
Wheatley would not play a single down with the Dolphins but would play six years with the Oakland Raiders finding some success. For the Dolphins however, the worst trade wasn’t even a trade but instead, a waste of draft compensation.
When Larry Csonka returned to the NFL after his very brief stint with the failed World Football League, the Dolphins still owned his rights but Don Shula wanted nothing to do with the trio of players that left the team in the mid-70s.
Miami was awarded two third-round draft picks, one in each of the 1978 and 1979 drafts. Shula wasted both of the selections.
In 1978, the Dolphins drafted Lyman Smith who would play one season in the NFL, with the Vikings, and in 1979, they drafted Mel Land who would play19 games total in the NFL over two seasons. One with Miami and one with San Francisco.
Csonka played three seasons for the Giants before wrapping his Hall of Fame career back with the Dolphins in 1979.