Miami Dolphins late draft successes. Part five, the 00’s
By Michael Fink
Each season there’s so much focus trying to determine who the Dolphins will select in the first round, but my contention is the rest of the draft is probably more important to the future of the team.
In the fifth part of a decade by decade look through the Dolphins drafts, we’ll continue to mention players not drafted at the top of the draft that contributed to their overall success.
In 2001. Miami selected Morlon Greenwood in the 3rd round, pick 88. He played LB for 125 games in the NFL. 62 with the Dolphins and 63 with the Texans.
With the 85th pick in the 3rd round, Miami selected RB Travis Minor. Minor played in 118 career games. He spent 6 years in Miami followed by 2 in St. Louis.
In 2003, Miami selected S Yeremiah Bell with the 203rd overall pick. (6th round). Bell went on to have a solid career playing in 142 career games. 110 with Miami over 8 seasons.
In 2004, in round 6 with the 174th selection, Miami took Rex Hadnot G out of Houston. Hadnot played until 2012 and participated in 129 career games. 62 with Miami, then spent his remaining 5 years splitting time between Arizona, Cleveland, and San Diego.
2005 was an interesting draft, not considered a strong one at the time. Miami did manage to find some solid players, however. DT Kevin Vickerson was taken in the 7th round, pick 216 and played 86 career games. It just wasn’t for the Dolphins. He spent 4 years in Denver, 3 in Tennessee and a season in Kansas City.
Travis Daniels, a DB out of LSU was taken in the 4th round, pick 104. Daniels played 44 games for Miami starting 25. He went on to Cleveland for a season and finished his career playing his final 56 games in Kansas City.
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In the 3rd round, Miami selected the son of former Dolphin, Randy Crowder. Channing was taken with the 70th selection. The LB played 82 games with Miami before deciding to retire and became a South Florida radio personality.
In 2007, aside from Ted Ginn’s family, we selected P Brandon Fields in the 7th round. Fields played in 130 career games.
In the 4th round, the Dolphins took a big NT out of Utah named Paul Soliai with the 108th selection. Soliai went on to play in 138 career games 99 of which were for the Dolphins. He then went to the Falcons with his former defensive coordinator, Mike Nolan. He played 29 games in Atlanta and another 10 in Carolina before retiring.
In 2008, DE Kendall Langford was taken with the 66th selection in the 3rd round. Langford went on to play in 136 career games with 4 teams. Miami (64), St. Louis (36), Indianapolis (23), and finally Houston (1) He also played DT in the 4-3 with St. Louis.
In 2009, with the 108th pick, Miami selected WR Brian Hartline who played 104 career games. 92 with the Dolphins before finishing his career in Cleveland his final season.
You can plainly see the impact of these players overall were not nearly as impactful as the players selected in earlier decades and very few that were taken finished their careers with Miami. That’s the impact of free agency as well as all the staff changes.
There were still a few solid starters taken, however, certainly most remember Soliai, and Hartline fondly, Yeremiah Bell was an excellent player as well. All in all the Dolphins drafts during the 2000’s were poor overall.
You can read the earlier articles in the series by clicking the links below.