The 2012 Miami Dolphins: Where Have We Seen This Before?

Why does this 2012 Miami Dolphins story sound so familiar? For whatever reason, it feels like Dolphins fans have been down this path before.

Think back to the 2008 Miami Dolphins season. If you can't recall or you forced yourself to "misremember", let me remind you. This is the story of a rebuilding team starting from scratch, merely looking to improve upon on a highly forgettable and historically awful 1-15 2007 season. 2008 brought a new Head Coach and new Quarterback into the fold. A new culture was being created in Miami.

Is this starting to sound more familiar?

Fast-forward to 2012 - how does the 2012 team compare to the 2008 team? Let's go down the checklist:

• New game-managing Quarterback? Check
• New Head Coach? Check
• New culture? Check
• 4-4 start through 8 games? Check
• Played NFC West Division? Check
• Zero to few wins against teams with winning records? Check

These resemblances, these eerily resemblances are remarkable. That Miami Dolphins squad would end up winning 11 games on the back of discarded signal-caller Chad Pennington and the "revolutionary" Wildcat offence, earning their first playoff birth in 7 seasons. Despite, an early exit in the postseason  this new Dolphins regime led by Vice-President of Football Operations, Bill Parcells provided a small glimmer of hope of what would be a return to glory for the once-proud franchise. However, that small glimmer of hope would quickly darken with each fist-pumping Field Goal after fist-pumping Field Goal from Head Coach Tony Sparano. The 2008 season was the start of a giant step backward, rather than forward.

Field Goal Fist Pump!

Flash forward 3 seasons, Chad Pennington along with "future franchise QB" Chad Henne and said Head Coach Tony Sparano are all gone with only much-maligned General Manager Jeff Ireland remaining to direct personnel decisions.

I know history indicates that this optimistic Dolphins season is more of a mirage than the start of a successful run in South Beach, but wait Dolfans! Before you start to hit the panic button, or reserve that optimism you've built up for a surprising 4-4 start to the 2012 campaign, I'm hear to tell you, despite these similarities, the 2012 Dolphins, unlike the 2008 Dolphins, aren't a flash in the pan and will continue to build upon this success. Feel free to continue building that optimism. Here is where these two teams differ:

• Head Coach Joe Philbin is much more equipped to handle the responsibilities of being the main boss than Tony Sparano ever was. He already calls a better game than Sparano ever did.
• While it's preached for rookie QB Ryan Tannehill to limit his mistakes and manage the game, his skill-set is MUCH more diverse than what Chad Pennington could offer as signal caller. Both manage a game exceedingly well but unlike Pennington at the time, Tannehill's best years are ahead of him and he is able to sling the ball when needed.
• Ryan Tannehill is the first-round, franchise Quarterback of the future - Chad Pennington was a New York Jets cast-off.
• The NFC West provides much more competition to AFC East teams than it did 4 seasons ago, ergo the victories over these teams are more impressive than they were in 2008.
• The 2012 Dolphins are winning games through executing fundamentals like running the ball and stopping the run; they are not relying on gimmicks like the Wild Cat to spark an otherwise pedestrian offence.

I hope I talked you off that ledge. While scary similarities remain between the 2008 and 2012 Miami Dolphins, the 2012 team is ready to step ahead.