When he coached the Bears, Dave Wannstedt was just about the most disliked person in the city. He’d coached them through a series of losing seasons and many people here just wanted him fired. When he landed the coaching job with the Dolphins, those same people said Miami should get ready for the same losing record the Bears had.
Things did not look good after Dan Marino retired–the Dolphins had no one to rally around. When the season started, the so-called experts said there were at least three teams better than the Dolphins in the AFC East–the Colts, the Bills and the Jets.
However, the Dolphins finished the season with an 11-5 record, went to the playoffs as division winners and had a thrilling come-from-behind victory over the Colts. Granted, they lost to the Raiders the next weekend, but the fact remains that Wannstedt and the Dolphins exceeded expectations.
I have a gut feeling that the Bears’ failure was not a result of Wannstedt and his coaching methods. It seems he was not really permitted the luxury of being his own man but was more or less told what to do by ownership. It’s a known fact that coaches and managers get more credit than they deserve when their teams win and more blame than they deserve when their teams lose.
This season showed that given a different set of circumstances–different owner, different city, different team–Wannstedt can coach at the professional level.
Maybe in another year or two, with a more experienced quarterback and a few other changes, he can take the Dolphins to the Super Bowl. That would really be something after the miserable time he had in Chicago.
