Miami Dolphins have an unimpressive history of Miami U draft picks

The Miami Dolphins have not had a very good history of draft picks from their own hometown. The University of Miami has provided the Dolphins with 15 players, more than any other college in the nation. That being said, it’s an unimpressive list.

To be quite honest, this was supposed to be a top-5 list of Miami U players but then when I started breaking it down I realized that finding five players worthy of being on it was a stretch. There have been some that have been good but a top-five tends to make you think they are standouts, in this case, they were good.

The first player taken was in 1966 and Ed Weisacosky spent seven years in the NFL. His first was with the NFL Giants instead of the AFL Dolphins. A year later he joined Miami for 3 seasons and then the Patriots for two more.

Seven players were drafted after Weisacosky between 1967 and 1984. They either didn’t play for Miami, didn’t make the NFL, or spent one season with the Dolphins. In 1984, the Dolphins drafted LB Jay Brophy.

Brophy played three unspectacular seasons with the Dolphins and then one with the Jets. He was out of the league after the 1987 season. He was also a 2nd round pick.

Miami would draft University of Miami Hurricane players in 1988, 1990, 1991, and in 1997. In 1991, the Dolphins spent their first first-round pick out of the school drafting Randal Hill. Hill would not last long in Miami getting traded to the Cardinals after a holdout and one game. He would later come back to play two unimpressive seasons before heading out of the league.

In 1997, the Dolphins went the first-round route again. This time around they drafted WR Yatil Green. Green would hurt his knee during training camp, miss the season, and played the following year where he caught 18 passes. It was his final season in the NFL.

Miami wasn’t done spending first-round picks on “U” players. In 2004 they finally went back to the school for the first time since ’97. Vernon Carey was taken 19th overall.

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Carey turned out to be a solid addition to the Dolphins roster and made the offensive line better. He played eight seasons and started 107 of 121 games. He appeared in all but 7 games in his career.

Miami would sit out Miami players until 2012 when they drafted both Lamar Miller in round 4 and Olivier Vernon in round three.

Vernon and Miller both played out their rookie contracts but were not re-signed. Vernon signed an off-season free-agent contract with the Giants and Miller ended up signing with the Texans.

The Dolphins have not been back to the U since then but this year, maybe DE Gregory Rousseau might change that.