The Miami Dolphin’s 2020 NFL Draft class didn’t necessarily turn out as expected — with half of the team’s top-100 draft selections tallied on the defensive side of the football. Given Miami’s needs offensively, that seems to have put some skepticism on the Dolphins’ class. But this collection of talent was acquired with the long-term vision in mind. The Dolphins suddenly have a plethora of depth defensively and have enough new pieces offensively to kickstart a new brand of offensive football in Miami in the coming years — with 2020 serving as the foundation.
At least one former NFL general manager sees the biggest picture, too. The Dolphins scored a rave review from NFL Network’s Charley Casserly.
“First all, we’ve got our franchise quarterback in Tua (Tagovailoa). Then, we go to the offensive line, Austin Jackson will someday be the left tackle. Robert Hunt could be the right tackle or the right guard and Solomon Kindley comes in and helps at guard. We also bring Matt Breida in, so we got the running game better, pass protection better, we got the franchise quarterback,” lists Casserly.
And he’s not wrong. Most importantly, Miami’s personnel decisions come with a cohesive vision — the Dolphins prioritized a slew of linemen who thrive in uprooting defenders and creating space in gap/power scenarios in the running game. For the Dolphins to execute all of this within the three days of the 2020 NFL Draft was impressive, but that doesn’t even cover the fits on the defensive side of the football.
The Dolphins didn’t effectively check every single box on their roster this offseason, but they prioritized positions of emphasis at quarterback, the offensive line and in the secondary and made sure the team invested what was necessary to pool enough talent to have this team primed to play the brand of football Brian Flores wants to play moving forward. Casserly sees that bigger picture, as did the Dolphins throughout the course of their three day monster haul of talent. The next step is to get these players together and building chemistry — something that will have to be done virtually for the time being amid the country’s COVID-19 outbreak.
