Pass on Brees hurt Miami
Dolphins chose Culpepper, missed chance to sign star.
With the 2006 season on the horizon, then-Dolphins coach Nick Saban gathered leaders on the team and asked them if they’d rather have Drew Brees or Daunte Culpepper as their new quarterback.
“In unison, we said, ‘Drew Brees,’ ” defensive lineman Kevin Carter said.
That exchange came to light this week in Albert Breer’s piece on Saban’s future NFL prospects for Sports Illustrated’s Monday Morning Quarterback.
Dolphins fans don’t need to be reminded what happened next. Saban and the Dolphins overruled the players, opting for Culpepper. Saban has said that team doctors were concerned about the health of Brees’ shoulder.
Culpepper played four games for
Miami, winning just one, before getting hurt once again. Brees remains one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, will someday be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and — dumping more salt on things — won a Super Bowl played in Miami with the Saints.
Oh, and Saban soon was on his way to Alabama and the Dolphins con- tinued their never-ending search for a great quarterback in the post-Marino era.
If they’d made the right choice? “I think they’d probably have had a 10-year run competing year-in and year-out with the Patriots,” former Dolphins quarterback Sage Rosenfels told Breer. “They still had a very good defense, and I thought he drafted fairly well, the free agents he brought in were good football players. I think he’d have been a very good NFL coach—and I bet he would’ve lightened up a little as he went on.”
And maybe we’d be looking at Sunday’s Dolphins trip to New England in an entirely different light.
“If he’d signed Brees, I think we’d have been in the playoffs consistently, and battling with the Patriots for the top of the AFC East,” Carter said. “If Brees came to Miami, he’s still the quarterback there, and you might have a championship team over that time.”