Miami Dolphins know they need draft picks to get better
By Brian Miller
The Miami Dolphins may have finally figured out that if you want to get better you may want to get more draft picks.
Over the years the Miami Dolphins have been free spenders and at times that came with the cost of trading draft picks for players that simply didn’t work out. Not to say that they would have drafted well anyways but the more draft picks you have, the more opportunity you have to be successful.
In 2020 the Miami Dolphins are going to have a lot of needs and they have the draft capital to fill those needs. Having a lot of draft picks is great but if you don’t do a great job of scouting those players and drafting the right ones, you may as well just throw them in the trash.
Miami has made a lot of bad decisions with their draft picks. There is no denying it and no hiding it. This years class may turn out to be better but without a few years to grade it out, all Miami fans can hope for is a change and some good fortune.
Miami is staking its future on youth. The trading of Laremy Tunsil was the blockbuster deal that could reshape the franchise, the other trades, in reality, cost the team nothing. Tunsil has the tools and athleticism to be one of the best at his position and he was simply the best offensive player that Miami had. Losing him is going to not only hurt in the short term but if Miami can’t find his replacement it won’t matter who they end up with as a quarterback.
With a ton of draft picks, including four first-round picks in the next two years, four 2nd round picks, and potentially five third-round picks, the Dolphins have the ammunition to do whatever they want on draft day. Again, they have to avoid the pitfalls that so many other teams, like the Browns, have fallen into.
Many in the media will point to players like Johnny Manziel and the other failed first and second-round talents that never panned out. It is true, the Browns for so many years couldn’t get it right. The Dolphins must do better. They know that. They have to trust in themselves.
It has been repeated on social media many times that Chris Grier and new head coach Brian Flores have done nothing to prove that they can be relied upon to make good draft picks but they also haven’t proven that they can change the franchise, win or lose. So does it really matter what they do?
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Consider this before judging the Tunsil trade and the hoarding of draft picks. If you don’t believe they can do it then it won’t matter if Tunsil or anyone else is on the team. In another five years, they will all be gone anyway and we are right back to wishing the next regime can.
Like his predecessors, Grier is making his bed. It’s an approach that the team hasn’t taken, maybe ever. When Bill Parcells tried to rebuild the roster he didn’t try to accumulate draft capital, he gutted the team, found success with Chad Pennington for a season, and then turned it all over to Jeff Ireland and walked away. Grier isn’t going to walk away.
The moves sting and the Dolphins are not going to be very good in 2019 and maybe not in 2020 but it needed to be done and now that they have draft picks to spend on talent, they need to make sure they get it right. Like G.M’s who mortgage their future on a QB, the Dolphins are mortgaging their on their ability to evalute talent.