Miami Dolphins could move up in draft for a non-QB player
By Brian Miller
The Miami Dolphins are expected to make phone calls to move up in this Thursday’s round one of the NFL Draft but maybe it won’t be for a quarterback.
If the Dolphins want a quarterback the consensus is they will need to get to pick five or six to draft one. That is going to cost the Dolphins perhaps a little more than they want to spend. Of course there are a lot of people who believe it won’t matter because a quarterback won’t be on the table where the Dolphins hope to move to.
It is a real possibility that the Dolphins could watch Sam Darnold, Josh Allen Baker Mayfield, and Josh Rosen all come off the board in the top five draft picks. Doesn’t even matter to which team. QB could easily go 1, 2, 3, and 5. Leaving the Dolphins without an option at the position.
But what if quarterback isn’t what the Dolphins really want? Very few, if any are talking about the possibility of the Dolphins moving up for someone else.
Most draft pundits believe that the draft will shake out with the top four QB’s gone early and then the top two linebackers coming off the board between picks seven and ten. If the Dolphins covet Roquan Smith or Tremaine Edmunds they may have to move up to get one of them.
Oakland picks at 10 and they are favored to draft one of the two linebackers so a move up by the Dolphins might only cost them an additional third round pick if they were to jump to pick seven, eight, or nine. This is something Miami should absolutely consider in my opinion.
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Linebacker is a huge need for the Dolphins and while many point to the addition of Vita Vea at pkck 11, surrendering a third round pick to draft one of the top linebackers may make a lot more sense.
Smith and Edmunds are likely to go back to back but no one has an idea of which one will go first. The Dolphins have been rather coy about players outside of the top quarterbacks which should be a reason to believe that their real target is someone else. Leading others to think that QB is what they want, they can force other teams to try to move up to take a QB and allow the player they truly want to drop.
Linebacker makes a lot of sense for this example and in reality unless a player like Bradley Chubb or Saquon Barkley were to fall, it would make the only sense in a trade up scenario.
While talk of a Dolphins trade up is believed to surround a quarterback, I wouldn’t summarily dismiss the possibility of trading up for one of the linebackers and frankly, I would be o.k. with that. Something to think about when the draft moves beyond picks five and six if a QB isn’t on the board. Or maybe even if one is.