The Miami Dolphins’ biggest scouting excursion of the 2021 offseason is in the books. Already. With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic creating limitations for what the rest of the pre-draft process is going to look like for all 32 NFL teams and the NFL hopefuls looking to get drafted this spring, the 2021 Senior Bowl will be the only scouting event in the foreseeable future to have accommodated all 32 teams and a hoard of players. The week was considered a success as the Dolphins’ team emerged victorious on Saturday’s contest, 27-24. But the real fruits of this labor aren’t an exhibition game, they’re the scouting takeaways on who will be a future difference maker for your football team.
Dolphins head coach Brian Flores appears to have found a few.
“We had a really nice, good week with these young players. They really worked hard. A lot of them made really good impressions not only on our staff, but there were teams obviously from across the league,” said Flores after Saturday’s Senior Bowl contest.
“But we got to spend the most time with them. We saw them in meetings, saw them take things from the meetings to the walk-through to the practice…here were quite a few guys who we felt like could possibly help our team. We’re not going to dive into names of who those guys are, but there was a lot of talented players.”
The most popular candidates are Alabama wide receiver DeVonta Smith and running back Najee Harris — but there’s a very strong chance we see a large chunk of Miami’s 2021 NFL Draft class come from the Senior Bowl and not just their top of the draft prospects.
Miami will have such a disproportionate familiarity with the players in attendance this week that, amid all of the uncertainty elsewhere in the scouting space, this week’s lessons may well be heavily valued in the decision making process. For now, we can at least know that Brian Flores leaves Mobile with a list to cross reference with Chris Grier of who can help the team and the two have plenty of time to hash out the details.
