Miami Dolphins have three weeks to improve draft position or lose it
By Brian Miller
The final three weeks of the regular season is here and the Miami Dolphins draft position will be a hot topic as the year winds down.
For teams like the Miami Dolphins, the last three weeks is about pride but it shouldn’t be. Take yesterday’s game, for example, a win would have been nice, for the fans, but it would also have dropped the Dolphins to around nine in the draft order.
At this point in the season, you can keep your pride. I don’t want losses but I will take losses as they did on Sunday. A loss that is predicated on a penalty reversal or a last-second field goal in an otherwise entertaining hard-fought game.
Losing out for the Dolphins is important and at this point doesn’t hurt the national narrative that would ask, “why would you want to play for a 3-13 team?” Loaded with draft picks and cap space the Dolphins could make a big dent in their rebuild this off-season but who they draft is as important as where.
Consider this, if the Dolphins lose out, they will draft number two overall and it doesn’t matter what the other teams in the top five do. An unexpected win by the Bengals and Miami could draft number one overall. Number two overall, however, means a potential Joe Burrow or Chase Young draft pick.
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Yes, fans want Tua Tagoavailoa but if the Dolphins really want him, they have the draft capital to move up again in round one and draft him.
Miami has remaining games against the Giants, who sit at two overall, and the Bengals who are at one. They finish with the Patriots. The Redskins sit at three overall while the Dolphins remain in the fourth spot. The Giants and Redskins both play each other in the final three weeks.
The opportunity to draft Burrow, should the Bengals go Young, is hard to pass up at number two and if the Bengals do draft Burrow then Dolphins would be sitting on the best pure player in this draft that happens to fill a major need on the roster.
Getting there is a problem. Miami may not be built to win a lot of football games but they came close to beating the Jets on Sunday, should beat the Giants and the Bengals before wrapping the season in New England.
The Dolphins will tell you flat out that they are not tanking but with nothing but pride to play for, maybe they should strongly consider it. I’m not, or haven’t really been on board with the whole “tanking” narrative but at this point, meaningless games could cost the Dolphins six to 10 draft spots.