The Miami Dolphins got their second big win in less than a week. Merely days after ending their 16-game losing streak, which dated back to last season, and beating the Ravens in overtime to set off a jubilant celebration befitting a playoff team, the Dolphins have one more reason to celebrate: It appears that Bill Parcells will be taking over.

Just a week ago, the Dolphins were winless, and owner Wayne Huizenga was considering selling the team. Now, the team has the excitement of hiring a new director of football operations — at press time, that was reported to be Parcells’s new title — with Super Bowl experience, a Hall of Fame résumé, and a history of turning around moribund franchises. According to a report by the Miami Herald last night, Parcells has agreed to a four-year deal with the team.

The man known as “The Tuna” is perhaps the biggest catch for the franchise in any form since it hired Jimmy Johnson as its coach before the 1996 season.

Parcells would take over a Dolphins team that has been shredded by years of bad drafting coupled with the inability to find an adequate quarterback. The search has lasted since Dan Marino’s retirement, and it will likely take a new turn with Parcells running the show.

The team drafted John Beck high in the second round of this year’s draft, and the early returns have been less than expected. The Dolphins are slated to earn the first pick in next April’s draft, and yet another quarterback could enter the picture, though NFL executives now say that there might not be a QB worth taking first overall in this draft class.

Another guy who has to wonder about his future with the team is head coach Cam Cameron. Parcells and Cameron have no prior connection, though if Parcells wants a first-hand recommendation, he can call old friend Bobby Knight down at Texas Tech. Cameron played basketball for Knight at Indiana.

Parcells likes total control. He also likes attention.

Previous wooing by the Atlanta Falcons nearly came to a deal before team owner Arthur Blank announced that the two sides could not come to an accord. It was a classic Parcells move, working one team against another, which he’s perfectly allowed to do as a free agent. He now is back in the spotlight at age 66. Considering that he has lasted an average of a little less than four years at his previous four jobs, the Dolphins should count on him staying at his post until he’s about 70 years old.

This is not be the first time Parcells has backed out on a near deal — not even close. Parcells nearly turned down his first NFL gig, as linebackers coach for the Giants, telling then-coach Ray Perkins that he couldn’t leave the Air Force in 1979. Two years later, the Giants hired him as their defensive coordinator when the late general manager George Young broke — for the first and only time — a personal rule never to hire someone who turned him down. In 1987, the Falcons (yes, this is the second time he has jilted them) nearly had a deal to coach them, one that former commissioner Pete Rozelle blocked.

Heart problems, Parcells said, led him to step down as Giants head coach. But in 1993, the itch to return to football and rebuild the Patriots was too strong. Four seasons later, as the Patriots were preparing for the Super Bowl against the Packers, Parcells secretly was working a deal to run the Jets. In 1992, he had a handshake deal to coach the Tampa Bay Buccaneers but backed out, leading then-owner Hugh Culverhouse to say, “I feel like I have been jilted at the altar.”

Yet still, when the Bucs needed a coach to replace Tony Dungy in 2002, then-GM Rich McKay (who is currently hanging on by a thread as the Falcons’ president — oh, the irony) reportedly had serious talks with Parcells then. It never seems to end.

Current Dolphins GM Randy Mueller will be gone, though Mueller might be offered a spot in the front office, one he’ll likely pass on. The draft, free-agent moves, and coaching decisions — they all belong to Parcells now. He loves to be wooed, then hired to take teams at their most desperate, build the team back up from the ground to respectability, and take the credit. After all, he usually earns it. After leaving the Patriots in 1997, he sprung the Jets from their deep slump into a playoff team, and built the current Cowboys roster into the team that now sits atop the NFC.

But it has been 11 years since Parcells has been involved in a Super Bowl and 15 since he won one. He has not received his proper due this for putting together the Cowboys team and for recognizing something special in Tony Romo early on. But even with Parcells, it will be difficult for the Dolphins to make a quick rebound. Several big tasks lie in their way.

In addition to deciding the fates at quarterback and head coach, Parcells must make calls on aging defenders Jason Taylor and Zach Thomas. The latter will likely retire, but Taylor is a tough call. He still can play at a high level, as seen in his two-sack, blocked-field-goal effort against the Ravens on Sunday, but he carries a high price tag, too. The offense is in relative disrepair, other than a few intriguing parts, and the secondary needs major fixing.

Oh yeah, and he’ll be facing off against Bill Belichick — if not as fellow coaches, then as rivals nonetheless — twice a year. Excitement is back in south Florida, and us columnists will have more historical fodder to slosh around when the Patriots and Dolphins meet, starting this weekend in New England.

Suddenly, the AFC East, which has been dominated by the Patriots for the past seven seasons, is open for discussion again. With Eric Mangini, a member of the Belichick-Parcells lineage, and the Jets, plus a spirited Buffalo Bills club that won’t go down without a fight, this division will be one of the more talked about in 2008.

Parcells has a way of doing that. He is big news, and he knows it. The Dolphins represent quite a big chore, but he has turned around one-win teams before. Both the Patriots and Jets sunk to the abyss before quick rises to the playoffs within a couple of seasons. But that was as a coach who had final say on personnel matters. Can Parcells win without putting his daily stamp on this team? His one year as the Jets’ general manager was considered a failure.

But for now, the Dolphins are in a celebratory mood, and it has nothing to do with the 35th anniversary of the ubiquitous ’72 reuniting last weekend. It has to do with an old face resurfacing to rescue the franchise. Start the clock now.

Mr. Edholm, a senior editor at Pro Football Weekly, can be reached at eedholm@pfwmedia.com.