With a win on Sunday against the Indianapolis Colts, the Miami Dolphins find themselves with a surprising amount of momentum entering their Week 11 context with the Buffalo Bills next Sunday in Miami Gardens. There’s no way the Dolphins could end up with a three game winning streak — right?
It doesn’t matter. Because Miami could win half their games the rest of the way and Miami will still be in position to do what they want in the 2020 NFL Draft. No, the Dolphins probably will not be in a position to pull a quarterback needy team like the Cincinnati Bengals out of the 1st-pick in the draft. But there are two star quarterback prospects in this year’s NFL Draft in LSU’s Joe Burrow and Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa — and Miami has everything they need to get him already: ammunition.
Many will gripe that the Dolphins are winning themselves out of position to draft a top quarterback, which is of course nonsense. Miami won yesterday, as did the previously 1-7 New York Jets and the 1-7 Atlanta Falcons. Miami entered the day with the 4th overall pick in the 2020 draft order and left the day with, wait for it, the 4th overall pick in the 2020 draft order.
And of course none of the other teams in the top-10 have three 1st-round picks in 2020 and another two 1st-round picks in 2021. Miami has a plan. They’ve already executed a big bulk of the legwork on that front to collect assets. And because they’ve already pooled those assets, Miami will have every opportunity to move into the top few picks of the 2020 NFL Draft for a top quarterback.
Everyone has a price. And the precedent of trading up for quarterbacks in recent history is such that Miami could trade up to the 2nd pick when things are all said and done and still have a second 1st-round pick in 2020, and still have one pick in every round of the 2020 Draft, too.
That’s the plan. That’s always been the plan. Have the assets to make noise and crash the party for an elite talent. Not “lose ’em all.” And so as the Dolphins continue on, keep that context — there’s going to be a lot of noise that’s going to deter the progress we’re seeing from the Dolphins given the sacrifices this will cause in acquiring a quarterback. For most teams, it’d be a legitimate gripe. Not for the Dolphins.
