Playing the Miami Dolphins NFL Draft “what if” game isn’t easy
By Brian Miller
The Miami Dolphins are drafting three times in round one if they don’t trade back, trade up, or trade out. That leaves a lot to speculate about.
When it comes to this year’s NFL Draft, the Miami Dolphins are going to be one of the busiest teams but that first night could very well end quickly if Miami makes a certain move up in the draft. It isn’t easy to play the “what if” game when it comes to the Dolphins because so many pieces are in play to be moved.
Yet here we are trying to make sense of what could happen on that first day of the 2020 NFL Draft.
Moving up
Miami’s night could end if they opt to move up from pick number five or for that matter pick number 18. Depending on where they are planning to move up to, the Dolphins might find themselves dropping one or both of their extra first-round picks to move up for a QB. The likely scenario is that the Dolphins trade one of their first’s this year and a second this year and next. High price to pay to move up to number two or three.
Staying put
If Miami stays at number five they could find themselves looking to draft a QB. Tua Tagovailoa, Justin Herbert, or Jordan Love could all potentially be options but what if Tua and Herbert are both gone? It’s possible. Should the Dolphins wait to draft Love at 18? Maybe if they don’t view him as a top-five pick and decide to wait.
At five, should both QB’s be off the board, we would be looking at a draft scenario where Joe Burrow, Chase Young, Tua Tagovailoa, and Justin Herbert are all gone. That is assuming that the trades made to move up for the other two QB’s are with Detroit and the Giants at numbers three and four.
In this scenario, the Dolphins would have their choice of Jeffery Okudah the top corner in the draft, any of the offensive tackles, and maybe, just maybe, Chase Young could slide if Washington is one of those teams trading. It wouldn’t be great for Miami to get a QB but they could walk away with a major draft pick and still have two picks to go.
Picking at 18
The Dolphins may very well get a shot at Jordan Love at pick 18. While most fans see him as being off the board by then, it is the NFL and with so many free agent QBs on the market this year, some of those QB needy teams are not going to need one come the draft. Landing a top-five prospect and Jordan Love in the middle of the first would be an amazing job by Chris Grier with a lot of luck sprinkled in.
What if the draft played out like the scenario mentioned above? Miami would find themselves looking at players that dropped further than would have been expected. Now players that might be available as players fall due to the trade jumps could include K’Lavon Chaisson, Xavier McKinney, Grant Delpit, and maybe even Mekhi Becton who had a great NFL Combine.
Picking at 26
As the dominos fall from earlier, other players will again drop as well. By pick 26 however, most of the drafts first round starts to shake back to what most predicted as the QBs would have been taken already and the dominos would have stopped falling. What if the Dolphins, however, passed on QB at 18 and selected one of those players mentioned?
Well, 26 would be an interesting spot to take one.
In some mock drafts, Jordan Love is still a day two draft pick but if the Dolphins have yet to take a QB, Love could be in play here. That isn’t a bad spot for Love. While there will be plenty of fans saying that there is no way Love will be here at 26, it is entirely possible. But what if Miami opted to pass on Love or any other QB in the first round?
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Miami could also see players like Tyler Biadasz that could hold the center job for the next decade, they could draft a safety, corner, defensive edge rusher, or an offensive tackle.
What if the Miami Dolphins walked away from the first round of the NFL Draft with Jeffery Okudah, K’Lavon Chaisson, and Tyler Biadasz? What if they walked out with Isaiah Simmons, Mekhi Becton, and A.J. Epenesa?
The Dolphins would still have two draft picks in round two that could land them a quarterback or continue to fill their roster as they believe is warranted.
The point to all of this is not to say it will happen but only to remember that it could. The NFL Draft is a crazy period of hours and hours of teams making smart moves and more often than not, surprisingly dumb ones. Players who are expected to go high, fall, players expected to be drafted late in round one end up being taken in the top 15.
Miami’s best play is to stay put and let the draft play out in front of them. Truth be told, there is too much to be concerned about with Tua Tagovailoa’s health and Justin Herbert’s leadership issues and consistency to throw away the opportunity to get really good on both sides of the ball with top rookie talent. But then again, what if they toss it all to move up to two, three, or four?