Apr
10
The Miami Dolphins are slated to pick 14th in the 2015 NFL draft, but based on the noise out of Davie, Florida, there is no reason to think that on draft night that’s where the Dolphins might wind up making their first-round pick.
The newest story, courtesy of Rob Rang of CBSSports.com, has the Dolphins looking to trade into the top 10, despite the fact that they do not currently own a third-round pick and only have six picks to play with in the 2015 draft.
The reason Miami might want to move into the top 10 was explained by Rang, who wrote:
The Dolphins appear to be targeting another playmaking wide receiver with West Virginia’s Kevin White ranking highest on their board, sources suggest. If it happens, Miami’s trade could mimic a similar move as the one division rival Buffalo completed a year ago, jumping up to No. 4 overall to land Sammy Watkins. Whereas the Bills continue to struggle at quarterback, the Dolphins boast a quality young passer in Ryan Tannehill to build around.
This would be a mistake, as the Buffalo Bills themselves would tell you.
Julio Cortez/Associated Press
Last season, the Bills traded their 2014 first-round pick (No. 9 overall), along with their 2015 first-rounder and a 2015 fourth-rounder to the Cleveland Browns in order to move up to Cleveland’s fourth overall pick to select Clemson’s Sammy Watkins.
That trade means the Bills have a pretty good set of wide receivers led by Watkins; however, they lack the draft pick needed to even consider trading up to acquire a quarterback, which is just as big of a need for them this season as it was last season.
The Dolphins don’t have that specific problem at quarterback with Ryan Tannehill under center, but they do have other needs—needs that a trade up into the top 10 for a wide receiver would neglect.
The first need comes at guard. While Miami’s offensive line was better in 2014 than it was in 2013, the unit still had major issues. Despite cutting down on their sacks from 58 in 2013 to 46 last season, the Dolphins’ offensive line graded out at minus-67.8 in pass-blocking and minus-40.0 in run-blocking, per Pro Football Focus.
With Mike Pouncey returning to center, as well as a returning Branden Albert at left tackle and Ja’Wuan James at right tackle, Miami is solid at those positions. Left guard is likely going to be taken over by second-year player Billy Turner, but a new right guard and more depth at the position in general are needed.
Wilfredo Lee/Associated Press
If you can’t protect your quarterback, it doesn’t matter who he’s throwing the ball to.
On the other side of the ball is another need, this time at cornerback. Going into this season, the Dolphins have third-year player Jamar Taylor as their starting corner opposite Brent Grimes, and Grimes himself is getting up there in age (he will be 32 at the start of the season).
While it makes some sense to be comfortable with Taylor as the second corner, he has been injury-prone in his first two years in the league, and the position is thin once you get past him.
Because of those two glaring holes, it’s safe to say that Miami doesn’t have enough draft picks at this time to really address them.
Normally, the fix would be simple here, as the Dolphins could just use their first-, second- and third-round picks on the best players on the board at the time for any of those three positions. However, thanks to the trade that brought over Kenny Stills from New Orleans, the Dolphins are without their third-round pick.
Just last week, before there was any talk of the Dolphins moving up in the draft, the prevailing thought would be that the they would try to acquire additional picks, which was the report from Omar Kelly of the Sun-Sentinel. In Kelly’s report, Dolphins general manager Dennis Hickey insinuated that Miami was open for business:
We’d like to be able to massage the board to acquire more picks to get more chances at players. It always takes two. I would trade down, but it has to present itself. There have been many times when you want to trade down and the phone never rings. You’re always prepared to trade up, or trade down.
This would be the correct approach to this draft if the Dolphins want to add a dynamic receiver and fill the holes at guard and cornerback.
While the top of the board at wide receiver is one of the strongest in years, the position as a whole is strong in the first round. Trading down or staying pat will still allow the Dolphins to draft someone like Arizona State’s Jaelen Strong or USC’s Nelson Agholor, or they could take a gamble on Oklahoma’s Dorial Green-Beckham or UCF’s Breshad Perriman late in Round 1 or even early in Round 2.
Then the Dolphins will still have the available ammunition (and if they trade down, even more so) to be able to fill the holes at guard and cornerback, which would remedy the most amount of needs.
That’s the strategy Miami should be looking to enact. While this team is close to contention, it is not merely a player away. The Dolphins need more draft picks to fill holes and add depth, and none of that can (or should) be sacrificed in the name of a shiny new toy.
Statistics provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.
D.N.H.
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