NFL Draft Day Two Vital For Dolphins
By Brian Miller
Round one of the NFL Draft is in the books with the Miami Dolphins drafting their first, first round QB since Dan Marino was drafted 29 years ago. While the NFL did a good job of keeping fans on the edge of their seats awaiting the commissioners call of names, the pick made at 8 left fans wondering what exactly the Dolphins would do. We now know they did exactly what everyone thought they would do. They drafted Ryan Tannehill.
In total, eight trades were made during yesterday’s first round and round two is expected to bring the same. Already rumors swirl that several teams are looking to move up to the top of round 2 where CB Janoris Jenkins will likely get drafted. While the Dolphins are not interested in Jenkins, DE Courtney Upshaw who two months ago was a mock draft target for the Dolphins is still on the board.
The Dolphins pick 10th in tonight’s continuation. Under league rules, teams with similar records are slotted in round 1 by strength of schedule and/or coin toss as was the case with the Dolphins and Panthers this year. Subsequent rounds are slotted by rotation with the first team rotating to the bottom of those teams tied with the others sliding down. So this round, the Panthers will pick 8th and the Bills move up to 9. In round three, the Dolphins will move up one and the Bills will pick first of the three.
The Dolphins are in a very good position to fill major holes on their roster even if they do not decide to move up in the draft. As mentioned, Courtney Upshaw is still available as are offensive linemen Cordy Glenn, Jonathan Martin, and Mike Adams. The Dolphins also need to fill a WR hole and Alshon Jeffrey, Reuben Randle, Mohammed Sanu, and Stephen Hill are all still on the board.
Moving back to the DE/OLB spot Andre’ Branch, LaVontae David, and Vinny Curry also are still available. Rumors also continue that NY Giants OLB/DE Osi Umenyora is also available in trade for as little as a third round pick. The Dolphins have two high third rounders at picks 73 and 74 and could use those picks to move back into round 2 as well.
The draft for the Dolphins is far from over as they hold three selections tonight and still have seven total selections to round out the draft without making any trades to possibly add more.
Around the AFC East, the Buffalo Bills raised quite a bit of eyebrows with their 10th overall selection of CB Stephon Gillmore. Gillmore is a solid prospect but still has a lot of work to do. He was projected a lot further down and many compared the pick last night (on fan message boards) to Dave Wannstedt’s pick of Jamar Fletcher. Wannstedt is now the DC in Buffalo.
The New York Jets got a few laughs from Dolphins fans when they made DE Quinton Coples their number selection. Coples has been at the center of a lot of controversy given the impression that he takes plays off and is a very lazy trainer. Others believe that Rex Ryan will get him into shape but the reality is that most fans did not want Coples in Miami for the very reason that he doesn’t seem to “love” playing football and were very thrilled he ended up in NY.
The Patriots once again are the darlings of the national media after pulling a couple of out of character trades. First they moved up with Cincinnati to draft one of the top DE prospects in the draft, Chandler Jones, then traded up once again a few picks later to draft LB Dont’a’ Hightower. It was evident that Belichick is desperately trying to fix his defense after the poor showing in last years Super Bowl loss. The Patriots have two 2nd round picks and then have no more picks remaining in the draft, having traded their 3rd rounders to move up in round 1.