About a month ago, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald peeled back the curtain for Miami Dolphins fans. Reporting from a session between new general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and season ticket holders, Jackson made a prescient observation that in some ways foretold the top brass' decision to trade fan favorite Jaylen Waddle.
"Jon-Eric Sullivan likes to collect draft picks. In the eyes of the Dolphins’ new general manager, draft picks are precious, like a vintage wine or a family heirloom. And Sullivan doesn’t merely collect the ones he already has. He likes to collect others that he doesn’t yet own."Barry Jackson
Sullivan himself said it was his job to turn the Dolphins' eight draft picks at the time into 11 or 12. As fate would have it — following the trades of Minkah Fitzpatrick and Jaylen Waddle — the Dolphins now find themselves with 11 draft choices. If Sullivan moves around the draft board in April, that number could balloon even higher.
It's fair to be skeptical of these comments because NFL decision-makers haven't always proven to be the most forthcoming. It's not that they're dishonest people; it's more so that they are in a cutthroat business with immense pressure. Information is power, so they often protect it with their lives.
When Jon-Eric Sullivan said he treasures draft picks, however, the numbers back up the reality that this is not just lip service from the former Green Bay Packers executive.
Draft pick analysis indicates fans should brace for a new world of Miami Dolphins football
I went into the lab and compiled some draft pick data for the last five drafts to get an idea of how NFL franchises — particularly the Packers and the Dolphins — have gone about their business. The results were jarring.
Of the 32 teams, the Packers have made the most selections in the NFL Draft from 2021 to 2025 with 52. What team holds the dubious honor of making the fewest selections in that time period, you ask? Well, the Miami Dolphins, of course. With a paltry 30 selections, the Dolphins are separated from even the 31st-ranked team (the "powerhouse" Saints) by four picks.
Chris Grier's mismanagement of draft picks is one of the biggest reasons the Dolphins find themselves staring down the barrel of a season in which half their salary cap is devoted to players who are no longer on the team.
Just about every general manager touts the significance of draft picks. The oft-uttered mantra of building through the draft doesn't always coincide with the actions that follow. What's more, the Packers' strategy is somewhat of an outlier from the rest of the league.
With so many selections, fans may be tempted to assume that they're all sixth and seventh-rounders that don't usually amount to much. While the Packers' average draft choice is 144.2, which ranks 30th in the league, the raw data clarifies a complex picture.
The Packers did have the league's second-most Day 3 picks (33). They also had the fourth-most Day 2 picks (rounds two and three), indicating they value both quality and quantity.
For reference's sake: the Dolphins had the second-fewest Day 2 and Day 3 picks in this same time frame. The shift in team-building philosophy could not be more stark.
While it's impossible to correlate just one statistic to winning in the NFL, one perhaps telling note is that of the top-10 winningest teams of the time period, eight rank in the top half of the league in terms of draft choices used.
There's no such thing as a guaranteed strategy in a league as competitive as the NFL. It's that sheer competitiveness that invites decision-makers to try bold strategies in the first place. If there's anything that can be gleaned from this analysis, it's that the Dolphins are embarking on an entirely foreign frontier.
Fans can only hope the sustained success Jon-Eric Sullivan experienced in Green Bay will follow him to South Florida.