Miami Dolphins still trust in Nick Saban after all these years

The Miami Dolphins fanbase erupted when Wayne Huizenga nabbed the top college coach to take over his team. They erupted again when he left.

There are few quotes throughout Dolphins history that will bring a reaction to Dolphins fans and one of those is “I’m not going to be the coach at Alabama”. Then as the end of the season arrived, Saban was gone to Alabama.

Fans hated and still hate Saban. His success at the college level is nearly unprecedented. He is a great college coach because he works best developing talent as opposed to working with adult attitudes. After all these years, the Dolphins are still relying on Saban. Trusting in Saban, and hoping that the information they get from him, is accurate.

Last year the Dolphins drafted both Tua Tagovailoa and Raekwon Davis. Both came with high praise from Saban who coached them at Alabama. Miami is relying on Saban’s coaching of Tua to fix their QB situation. In 2018, the Dolphins talked with Saban and came away impressed enough with Minkah Fitzpatrick to make him their first round pick. That didn’t work out so well.

2016 brought Miami Kenyan Drake in round three. Since that year, Miami had drafted 40 players and four of them have come from Alabama all of them in the first three rounds with two of them first round selections.

This year, the Dolphins could spend both first round picks on Alabama prospects and they could add a third in round two. MIami is reportedly targeting Jaylen Waddle or DeVonta Smith at six and possibly Najee Harris at 18. In round two, they could be looking to add center Landon Dickerson.

So after all this time, Saban still is influencing the Dolphins indirectly. His relationship through Bill Belichick has led to familiarity with Brian Flores and Chris Grier has been around long enough to have worked with Saban in Miami while his father did the same while in New England.

Will it translate to a winning franchise? That we will have to wait and see about.