Miami The Dolphins went the safe route and landed the draft’s top tackle (Jake Long), who should prove to be a very good selection. They continued to get bigger on both lines with the selections of DEs Phillip Merling and Kendall Langford and added a pair of versatile guards in Shawn Murphy and Donald Thomas, who should earn jobs and develop. RBs Jalen Parmele and Lex Hilliard bring size and more power to the backfield. Overall, Bill Parcells and Jeff Ireland accomplished their goal of getting bigger and added some key pieces for their 3-4 defense. They were also able to land QB Chad Henne late in the second round after choosing not to address the QB position early, and the pick could prove to be a very solid value. A draft filled with linemen may not look sexy, but it will make the Dolphins a much better football team. Grade: A link to rest of story http://www.profootballweekly.com/PFW/NFLDraft/Draft+Day/2008/teamgrades.htm
I realize we didn't draft Fasano and Adoyle, but they are not in any of our draft reviews even though we used a 4th round pick #100 on them. I wasn't crazy about the deal, but from what I9'm reading about why Booker was traded it kinda helps IMO with the trade. My biggest problem with the Fasano/Adoyle trade is the fact that I don't think Fasano is worth the pick, but I guess we'll see. He's coming off shoulder surgery and never gave Whiten a run for the starting job. Being a 2nd round pick I would have expected more from the guy.
To be fair, Witten is a top 3-4 tight end in this league. Fasano is easily the most talented TE on our roster, now we'll see if he actually produces.
I think that's the key right there. People may look at our draft and go... "what?! who?!?! why?!?! " They just dont get it though. Sure we have no big flashy names, but our o-line hasnt been great, and our Run Defense was flat out terrible last year. This draft was exactly what this team needed, whether you like it or not, and whether you want to admit to it or not. I too would be including Ayodele and Fasano as "part" of our draft. we traded away a 4th round pick for two guys, who are probably going to be starters for us this year. Hopefully Fasano is able to show his potential now that he is going to be the go-to guy at TE instead of being behind Witten. In my opinion, its almost impossible to not call us winners in this years draft.
A major statement was made this weekend. They spent all but one of their 9 picks to improve the running game, whether it's the defensive or offensive running game. Now THAT'S committment to the run. I've always believed that the most sure fire way to beat your opponent is to prevent them from running on you first and foremost, then running on them at will. If you can do those two things better than anybody else, 9 times out of 10 you will not be beaten. Obviously you can't dominate that portion of the game every single week, but when you make this big of an investment into improving the overall talent level, with massive, mean and motivated men (M to the 4th!!) like this, you're taking a serious step in that direction. And boys, that's a good direction to be going.
Fasano is leaps, bounds, solar systems, galaxies...and so on and so forth better than any other TE we've got on the roster. He's better than a lot of TE's not on our roster. It has little to do with a 2nd round pick being spent on him (though checking through his college career will show you why that was done) and everything to do with how bad our TE's were last year. Only Peele showed anything, and blocking was horrible all around from all 3 of our TE's. Fasano represents a huge upgrade at the position for us, and was worth the 4th we spent alone...let alone a guy who has had as many 100 tackle seasons as Ayokedokele has. Great use of a 4th round pick.
