It's been nearly 11 years, and Randy Mueller doesn't reflect much on that draft or that name. But when Ted Ginn Jr. caught an 80-yard touchdown pass last Sunday in New Orleans' playoff win, Mueller found himself thinking not so much what might have happened with the Dolphins as what continues happening with Ginn.

"I marveled a little bit, 'Wow, that guy's still rolling,' " said Mueller, who drafted Ginn as Dolphins general manager in 2007, was fired at year's end and has been with the Chargers organization ever since.

You want my real torture of the past 15 year around the Dolphins?

It's not the failed years, the zero playoff wins, the organizational shuffle.

It's meeting good people at their worst moments. It's chronicling successful careers in their one failure. And it's not so much Ginn, who continues a solid career in its 11th season now. It's the Muellers. It's the football lifers.

Look at Monday's college national championship game. Alabama's Nick Saban beat Georgia's Kirby Smart. One former Dolphins head coach beat his Dolphins assistant. Expand that to the NFL this weekend. Tennessee's Mike Mularkey and Atlanta's Dan Quinn are still playing. Two more Saban assistants with the Dolphins.

So four of the final 10 head coaches to continue on this football postseason were on the same, failed Dolphins staff in 2006. And the guy leading that staff, the one who failed so miserably he ducked out of town after two years, is now the greatest college coach of them all.

Saban put in backup quarterbacks Cleo Lemon and Joey Harrington for Daunte Culpepper in 2006 and kept losing. He put in backup quarterback Tua Tagovailoa for Alabama on Monday and won the national title. That sums up how these past 15 Dolphins years have played out.

"Good to see you again," Jeff Ireland said to me in London before the Dolphins-Saints game this fall. The failed, former Dolphins general manager is the succeeding, current New Orleans assistant general manager. Ireland assembled perhaps the best NFL draft class this year. He's a big reason the Saints are playing Sunday.

And who are they playing?

The Minnesota team assembled by Rick Spielman, who evidently learned something from failing as Dolphins general manager because he's made plenty of smart decisions with the Vikings. One smart Minnesota decision was hiring former Dolphins coach Tony Sparano as line coach. And one of Sparano's smart decisions was getting former Dolphins guard Joe Berger, who has been the kind of solid starter the Dolphins keep looking for.

See how the narrative keeps revolving?

"Good to see you again," said Brian Gaine as I left the celebrating Buffalo locker room after they beat the Dolphins in the season finale and made the playoffs. Gaine was Ireland's assistant with the Dolphins. He now holds a similar role with the Bills.

And who works alongside him in the front office? Former Dolphins general manager Dennis Hickey. They helped the Dolphins' AFC East rival to a rare achievement this year. Buffalo made the playoffs for the first time since 1999 while rebuilding the roster with trades, still allowing for millions to spend on free agents and picking two first- and second- round picks this spring.

Sure, these are the kind of hard transitions that happen all the time in sports, as well as business in general. But why so much failure in Miami and so much success other places? And can it please stop?

There's a personal cost to chronicling all this Dolphins failure. Dave Wannstedt and I hadn't talked since he left the Dolphins until a bridge-mending conversation this fall. He'd see me at events and turn the other way. Not once. Not twice. He didn't like the adjectives. Wannstedt is the nicest guy in the world, too.

Mueller is as well. He had the right plan, too. The Dolphins needed speed and he picked Ginn, who is one of three players taken in the top 10 in that 2007 draft still playing. Look who he also hit on that draft. Eight-year center Samson Satele. Defensive tackle Paul Soliai, who played 11 years and made a Pro Bowl. Brandon Fields, who punted for nine years.

Yes, he also drafted quarterback John Beck, who worked out as well as draft-favorite Brady Quinn did. Everyone knows the larger lesson there. No quarterback has fully worked in these 15 years. Drew Brees winning with the Saints and not the Dolphins underscores that idea.

And that's really why Saban was in Alabama beating his former Dolphins assistant Smart for another national title. And why Buffalo's winning front office is full of Dolphins. And why Ireland is with the Saints in the playoffs playing Spielman's Vikings. And Sparano's Vikings. And Berger's Vikings. And ...

Pardon me. I need to go lie down.