The general perception of the Miami Dolphins’ 2021 NFL Draft effort is strong. Pundits and analysts across the football world have offered encouragement for Miami’s strategy, process and end result alike — the Dolphins drafted a player who was reportedly No. 2 overall on their board with the 6th-overall selection, picking up a future 3rd and 1st round pick in the process. From there, Miami added playmakers defensively before aggressively attacking the offensive line and run blocking with their fourth and fifth picks of the draft.
Perhaps the only critiques of Miami’s class is that they couldn’t find a standout running back to add earlier in the draft and that they didn’t have enough picks.
NFL.com recently ranked all 32 classes based on their final product and the praise continued for Miami. The Dolphins finished ranked 6th overall:
“Miami had to add more juice on offense after ranking near the bottom of the league in explosive play rate last season. There might not be a better way to accomplish said goal than by adding Waddle, a player who drew a comparison to Tyreek Hill last month from NFL.com senior analyst and Pro Football Hall of Famer Gil Brandt. The Dolphins continued to boost Tua Tagovailoa’s supporting cast on Day 2 with the selection of Long, who can team with Mike Gesicki to give the offense a pair of seam stretchers. Eichenberg could easily be the starting right tackle from Day 1, and don’t sleep on the chance for Coleman, the team’s penultimate pick, to develop into a starter down the road. As for Brian Flores’ stout defense, nabbing Phillips was a home run. I raised an eyebrow at the Holland selection with Trevon Moehrig still on the board (which says absolutely nothing about how Holland will fare as a pro). All in all, coming out of the draft with four potential immediate starters is excellent work.” — Dan Parr, NFL.com
Between Waddle (slot receiver), Phillips (defensive end/rush linebacker), Holland (safety/nickel defender) and Eichenberg, the Dolphins are indeed looking at four potential starters. But there will be plenty of competition for all — although the Dolphins have already begun the process of weeding out veterans, cutting veteran safety Bobby McCain yesterday in a cost-cutting maneuver.
