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Miami Dolphins finally nail their first round pick

By Matthew Stevens

SANTA CLARA, CA - JANUARY 07: Christian Wilkins #42 of the Clemson Tigers celebrates with the trophy after his teams 44-16 win over the Alabama Crimson Tide in the CFP National Championship presented by AT&T at Levi's Stadium on January 7, 2019 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
SANTA CLARA, CA - JANUARY 07: Christian Wilkins #42 of the Clemson Tigers celebrates with the trophy after his teams 44-16 win over the Alabama Crimson Tide in the CFP National Championship presented by AT&T at Levi's Stadium on January 7, 2019 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images) /
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With the 13th pick in the first round of the NFL Draft, the Miami Dolphins finally got it right when they made the trench a priority for 2019.

Anybody who has been a regular reader of Phinphanatic.com over the past three years knows I have not been a fan of the Dolphins front office.  We have rarely agreed on the proper selection and this year is no different.

In the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft I was advocating for quarterback Dwayne Haskins while the Dolphins bypassed him and went with defensive tackle Christian Wilkins.

Almost everybody can agree that the quarterback position is more important to a team’s success than a defensive lineman; no matter how dominant they are.  (See Ndamukong Suh)

If Haskins becomes who I, and NFL Network analyst Bucky Brooks, think he can become then Miami made the wrong choice.  How much would Miami’s top 5 pick in 2020 be worth if Haskins turns out to be the Dolphins answer at QB while having a Mahomes-like “redshirt season” sitting behind Ryan Fitzpatrick for a year?

Now that I have gotten that out-of-the-way, I actually like the selection of Wilkins.  The front office obviously didn’t see Haskins as a ‘franchise QB’ and the way the draft fell it doesn’t seem like any teams were thrilled about moving up to pick 13 so the best player available was Wilkins.  I even selected him in the Phinphanatic Staff Mock Draft.

If you want to see who the other staff members selected, feel free to view it here.  https://phinphanatic.com/2019/04/25/phinphanatic-staff-miami-dolphins-nfl-mock-draft/

"“….if the Dolphins stay at 13, the player that makes the most sense is DT Christian Wilkins…fills an area of need, is the type of versatile player that Flores covets and there aren’t any character questions that plagued a couple of the other top players."

If Wilkins can do to NFL offensive lineman what he did to Commissioner Roger Goodell then he will wreak havoc on the Dolphins defense for the next 5-15 years.  Now the team moves on to day two of the draft and the Dolphins may still get a highly rated quarterback (Josh Rosen) out of this draft class.  If that happens, then the selection of Wilkins will be just that much sweeter.

Regardless, it was finally nice to have round one of the NFL draft end and be ‘happy’ with the pick.  I hope this is the start of a trend and not a momentary ‘blip’ on the radar.

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