Tip of the hat to the Miami Herald’s Armando Salguero, who put out a terrific piece this morning highlighting what ails the Miami Dolphins and how to fix it. As Salguero points out, there’s no magic pill, secret sauce or grand scheme that will bring Miami back to the top of the mountain.
The team’s execution in talent acquisition needs to improve, plain and simple. The trade up for Dion Jordan, the targeting of Mike Gesicki followed by zero plan to implement him effectively, the Charles Harris selection – there’s a laundry list of offenses in recent years that should be cause for concern. But there’s also hope, with Chris Grier fully in control of the decision making.
Eliminating other variables (an Executive VP or a meddling head coach, for example) allows a singular focus on the task at hand. Too many cooks in the kitchen can create conflict, which in turn waters down efforts to excel at the task at hand: drafting good football players.
Here are some of the successes in Miami drafts since Chris Grier was named the general manager of the Dolphins in 2016:
- Offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil (1st round, 2016)
Cornerback Xavien Howard (2nd round, 2016)
Running back Kenyan Drake (3rd round, 2016) - Linebacker Raekwon McMillan (2nd round, 2017)
- Safety Minkah Fitzpatrick (1st round, 2018)
Linebacker Jerome Baker (3rd round, 2018)
Considering the variability of the NFL Draft, getting an average of two strong starters per draft class is a good start. We don’t know what influence others in the building have had in these picks, but generally speaking Miami’s direction in talent acquisition (minus the Charles Harris pick and potentially the Mike Gesicki pick) has been strong enough to be optimistic with a master plan that involves focus on added draft capital.
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