The Miami Dolphins have received generally high marks for the draft class they selected this past weekend. Mel Kiper gave them a B grade, and Chad Reuter gave them a B-, as did USA Today. Sam Monson from PFF even gave the Dolphins an A- grade. Mike Jones at The Athletic feels very differently, though, in his assessment of who Miami selected. When he listed the Draft’s WINNERS and LOSERS, he listed Miami as one of the draft’s biggest losers. See below what Mike Jones of The Athletic had to say below.
Miami Dolphins
Despite forfeiting their third-round pick because of impermissible contact with Tom Brady and the agent for Sean Payton, the Dolphins still finished the draft with seven picks. Yet they didn’t seem to hit on any big-time stars. Edge rusher Chop Robinson has upside, but he’ll need time to develop. So will second-round offensive tackle Patrick Paul. A team needing to shrink the gap between itself and the Buffalo Bills needed more slam-dunk selections.
To be fair, it does take a few seasons to truly evaluate a draft. Grier is a master of trading, but he has an overwhelming tendency to draft players too soon. This was a deep draft and his approach was foolish. He should have traded down and accumulated as many mid-round picks as he could have. Chop could have been had in the top part of the second round. The draft was approached as if everything was a luxury pick. The dolphins have a lot of holes and not much developing young talent. Trading up for and drafting a running back was truly decadent. This draft was deep in running backs so it seems like a waste of a future pick. I don’t see the wisdom in taking two short and speedy slot receivers when we already have those on the team. We passed up on a lot of big and fast wide receivers that would have been more useful. Also, we should have drafted a quarterback. Not so much to replace Tua but to groom as a backup. Mike White is inadequate. Look at the wisdom of Green Bay. They have a quarterback and they still drafted one in the seventh round. I think it’s mathematically impossible for tua to not get hurt this season and if you have seen the dolphins opponents, there is a good chance that the dolphins could have a losing record. Next year’s draft is not so good on quarterbacks so we may have shot ourselves in the foot again.