Rapid Fire: Rate the Miami Dolphins draft

[silverfin]

Round 1 (pick 8) Grade: A

Player: Ryan Tannehill - QB - Texas A & M

How can you not love this kid? Seriously? I absolutely love the way he handles himself. Watch Grudens QB video. Watch his interviews. This kid has “it”. The unexplainable “it” factor that every QB needs. His character, confidence and charisma. This kid is smart, and extremely likeaable. He can make all the throws. Yes, he is raw and inexperienced and needs to sit, but he is a first round QB - something Miami fans have been crying out for since Marino retired. With the coaching he’ll receive from our new coaching staff, this kid is going to be our franchise QB for years to come. Love the vibes coming from Philbin, Ireland and Ross. Maybe some will say he wasn’t worth the number 8 guy, but you take your franchise guy and that’s it. Love the pick.

Round 2 (pick 42) Grade A

Player: Jonathan Martin – OT – Stanford

Great value. Can play RT immediately and potential future LT if we were to offload Jake. This guy was a first round talent, and many had him as a top 20 pick. Not the most glamorous position, but a first round player in the second round which fills a big need. I did wonder if we could have gone WR here and taken OT in the 3^rd (somebody like Bobbie Massie) but a great pick nevertheless.

Round 3 (pick 72) Grade B

Player: Olivier Vernon – DE – University of Miami

Pass rusher – fills a big need. Did we reach? Maybe slightly. This kid has a ton of upside, however. Suspended for a lot of last season, but this kid is a good athlete, and performed well at the combine. Could prove to be a very nice pick indeed.

Round 3 (pick 78) Grade B

Player: Michael Egnew – TE – Missouri

Big seam tight end at 6”5 and 250 pounds. Again I figured we maybe reached a bit and possibly he could have been had later. Watching his tape he could be valuable in the red zone.. Overall he adds something we lacked, a big play making tight end.

Round 4 (pick 97) Grade B+

Player: Lamar Miller – RB – University of Miami

Did not expect this although I like the pick. Maybe we didn’t need a running back, but this was a great value pick. A possible late first round back in the forth round? Yeh, that’s a good pick. Concerns with injury, as well as his ability to be a three down back in the league – although I’m not sure we’d be looking for him to be that. Overall a nice pick, and while we had more pressing issues than a running back, I understand the value of this pick.

Round 5 (pick 155) Grade B-

Player: Josh Kaddu – LB – Oregon

Can’t say I know too much about this guy. His numbers look decent. I’ve read up a bit on him and keep reading the same thing – this guy can blitz. I’ll give him a B-, not too be to generous or harsh on the kid.

Round 6 (pick 183) Grade B+

Player: BJ Cunningham – WR – Michigan State

I like this pick a lot. Especially in the 6^th round. Runs routes well (WCO), and broke records at MSU to become the schools highest all time leader in both receptions and receiving yards. We need WR’s as everyone knows, whats not to like about this pick?

Round 7 (pick 215) Grade C-

Player: Kheeston Randall – DT – Texas

Camp Fodder IMO. Although it was a 7^th rounder, so not much should be expected. Maybe Ireland knows something, although I felt this pick could have been used on a player who could actually come in and contribute to our needs.

Round 7 (pick 227) Grade B

Player: Rishard Matthews – WR – Nevada

Another WR which is a positive. His senior year numbers look good – 1,364 yards and 8 TDs. Also returns punts which is a positive.

Overall, a very nice draft which I give a B+.

I felt we drafted well and got good value all round. Nice job Philbin and Ireland.

[cdz12250]

It's a draft. It can't be perfect. We hit on all our needs except cornerback, and Smith might see the light. Solid B.

[Dolfandenny]

I'm not football expert judge but I like Tanny more and more. Especially after seeing him with Gruden and seeing his intensity for the game. It was easy too see Gruden was impressed as well. I was wondering how Marino was recieved way back when by the so called experts. Since his first few games were not that impressive.

[SCOTTY]

Lol my glasses are no where near as rose colored as all yours. This draft is an F. Other than Martin no one drated will be on this team three years from now. Tannehill will prove to be a bust by then as well. Oh well. More years of rebuilding. Cant wait for ireland to go.

[Joker13]

Solid B. If Tanne pans out - A. Idk, I really like the Egnew pick. Can´t block? At 6"5 250 lbs? Well see about that. If anything else, there might be that big red zone target right there.

[goreilla]

B

[roy_miami]

You have to look at where you picked, what you started with, and what value you got.

This was an incredibly draft for Ireland. For some insight
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Those guys give pretty much every pick for every team an A or a B so you have to take their ratings with a grain of salt.

[beanh8er]

Solid B. If Tanne pans out - A. Idk, I really like the Egnew pick. Can´t block? At 6"5 250 lbs? Well see about that. If anything else, there might be that big red zone target right there.

There's a difference between a guy that can't block and a guy that was never asked to block. Egnew was never asked to block in college.

[Jed]

For my 100th post, I've graded the draft an A. My reasons are:
1) we finally drafted someone that the coaching staff thinks is a 1st round franchise QB, and I trust them to know given their experience and intimate knowledge of the player.
2) we next addressed, with first round talent, our other most critical need in offensive tackle which was abysmal last year on the right side.
3) after years of wanting one, we finally drafted a true pass-catching tight-end.
4) we addressed our other lesser needs (IMHO) in a pass-rushing DE, an OLB, a DT, and 2 WR plus more of them for competition in UDFA.

I would have liked to have had a few offensive guards, but maybe the staff feels what we have can be molded to fit that need. All in all, we have addressed those areas of greatest weakness, while taking advantage of falling high level talent to get 1st to 3rd round talent in rounds 4-7 and WR that our staff likes late in the draft. Do I agree with every pick? No. But I'm not going to pretend to know more than these professionals. If they think they made the right pick, I will accept that given the way the draft played out, they seemed to have hit all the needs at a proper time in the draft. We the fans were all screaming WR WR WR and what happened, top level talent fell to us very late in the draft. They played the board magnificently in my opinion, if they feel confident that the players they picked grade out to their pre-draft grades (other than Tannehill where they had inside knowledge and they had graded higher than the board had him).

All in all, brilliantly done by our staff. We will see how the draft plays out over the next few years. I like the move to more athletic from just plain large in some areas, as required by the WCO. It will make for a more exciting team to watch, and hopefully more success!

I'm more excited about this draft than I have been in a very long time. The athleticism and talent throughout the draft picks far exceeds any draft I recall us having had in the past.

[ohall]

lol I can't remember after a Dolphins draft in the last 10+ years more than 50% thought a Dolphins draft was an A or B grade.

---------- Post added at 10:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:17 PM ----------

Lol my glasses are no where near as rose colored as all yours. This draft is an F. Other than Martin no one drated will be on this team three years from now. Tannehill will prove to be a bust by then as well. Oh well. More years of rebuilding. Cant wait for ireland to go.

Seriously, not just trolling?