Dan Marino Believes He Would Have Super Bowl Rings if Steelers Drafted Him

Dan Marino isn’t just one of the best quarterbacks in Pitt history, he’s one of the greatest quarterbacks in the history of the sport.

The Pittsburgh, Pa. native starred at Pitt in the late 1970s and early 1980s and went on to play 17 seasons with the Miami Dolphins. He’s commonly regarded as one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history, a quarterback who was way ahead of his time, but he’s also known as perhaps the greatest player in NFL history not to win the Super Bowl.

He was asked about his hometown Pittsburgh Steelers passing on him in the 1983 NFL Draft during an appearance on the Not Just Football podcast with current Steelers defensive lineman Cam Heyward and gave his thoughts on how he thought his Steelers tenure would’ve went.

“Looking back at their teams, I probably [would’ve] won a couple Super Bowls,” Marino said. “I really do because of the defense they had and all that. What year was it? I’m trying to think — we beat them to go to the Super Bowl in the AFC Championship game. Mark Malone was on that team and I got to play against Jack Lambert, which when I’m growing up… and then I see Jack Lambert playing and Donnie Shell, so that was huge for me. But I feel like I’d have been pretty good in Pittsburgh.”

The Steelers selected Texas Tech nose tackle Gabe Rivera with the 21st pick of the 1983 NFL Draft, and the Dolphins selected Marino six picks later. Rivera played in six games; Marino is a Pro Football Hall of Famer.

Marino was good as a rookie but broke out as the MVP in the 1984 season and his Dolphins knocked off the Steelers, 45-28, in the AFC title game — throwing for 400 yards and four touchdowns. The Steelers made the playoffs just once in the eight years following the loss to the Dolphins.

Marino is perhaps the greatest player in NFL history to never win the Super Bowl, up there with fellow Pitt legend Larry Fitzgerald, and certainly one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history.

When Marino retired in 2000, he held more than 40 NFL single-season and career passing records, many of which have since been broken, including passing attempts, completions, passing yards and touchdown passes. He won the NFL MVP in 1984, NFL Comeback Player of the Year in 1994 and the Walter Payton Man of the Year award in 1998.

He finished his illustrious NFL career with 61,361 passing yards and 420 touchdowns on 4,967-of-8,353 pass attempts, leading the NFL in passing yards five times, touchdowns three times and completions six times. He was a nine-time Pro Bowler and six-time All-Pro.

Marino was enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame in 2003, the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2005 and the Pitt Hall of Fame in 2018.

Marino grew up in South Oakland, starring at Central Catholic before attending his hometown Pitt Panthers. He led the Panthers to their greatest success until the ACC title in 2021, winning 33 games over three seasons from 1979-81. He completed 693-of-1,204 pass attempts for 8,597 yards with 79 touchdowns and 69 interceptions.