Yeah, I know, it's a little late for a draft review. But that can be forgiven. Right? Anyway, the draft has come and pass, and we walked away with nine new players. However, this draft went a whole lot differently than I thought it would. Especially when compared with my own mock draft. Round 1 - Vontae Davis, CB, Illinois: In the first round, the Dolphins drafted cornerback Vontae Davis, confirming reports and rumors of the team hitting on cornerbacks early. Vontae Davis offers a lot. He can play special teams, can cover in either zone or man, and has the willingness and tackling ability to be an asset in run support. Plus he lay a hit. Basically put, the only thing stopping him from becoming an all-around great corner is himself. Problem is, he can be one heck of an obstacle. Along with his much publicized character issue(s), he tends to run hot and cold during a game, making a big play on one down, and being almost non-existent during the next. Can he become someone who gives his all every down? And can he keep his attitude in check? My Grade: C Round 2a - Pat White, QB, West Virginia: Pat White was part of the reason why I didn't write a draft review. Truth be told, I didn't expect Pat White to be selected, mostly because I didn't think the FO would select a player specifically for the Wild Cat Formation. But not only did they select a player for the Wild Cat, they selected one on the first day. It certainly didn't help me to see Clint Sintim being drafted right after, either. At first, I wasn't really liking the pick that much. However, a few things helped me ease my mind about it. One of them was the fact that Pat White is working strictly at the quarterback position, quelling my fear of Pat White being a wide receiver project. While position transition projects do interest me, they don't interest me enough to select one on the first day. Also, Pat White brings something to the Wild Cat that really never had before: a consistent passing threat. For the most, the Wildcat was just a running formation, which was pretty much the reason the Ravens were able to shut it down. While Ronnie Brown isn't the worst passer in the world, he is a running back for a reason. With that in mind, it allowed the Ravens to stack eight in the box, daring the team to pass. With Pat White at the helm, teams have to look for the pass or run, as well as other tricks. This would give birth to a two quarterback system that the 'Phins haven't seen since the Woodstrock days. My Grade: C-/D+ Round 2b - Sean Smith, CB, Utah: This pick is one of my favorite in the draft. Sean Smith is somewhat of a project due to his limited experience at cornerback. However, he left Utah on great note, snagging five interceptions and becoming a member of the First Team All-MWC. One thing I love about Smith is his size. He measures 6'3.5" and weighs in at 215 pounds, making him one of the bigger corners in the draft. With a lot of teams going after tall and lanky receivers, what better way to counter than with a equally tall and lanky cornerback who also has some decent speed? My Grade: A+ (Would have been a B, but the fact that we trade DOWN and still was able to select him was icing on the cake). Round 3 - Patrick Turner, WR, USC: Speaking of tall receivers, the selection adds size to the somewhat small receiving corps. Despite his somewhat modest production, and lack of speed, he runs great routes and has been known to beat the jam. While he won't be a deep threat, he can definitely be a redzone target. Plus he is a hard worker who has no qualms about playing special teams. My Grade: B- Round 4 - Brian Hartline, WR, Ohio State: This pick really confused me. Sure, he can play special teams, can catch the ball, find ways to get open, and had a lot of yards per catch during his last year. But the problem was, he doesn't seem to be much different from Greg Camarillo. Not a bad player to pick up, but I still we could have went elsewhere, like outside linebacker, inside linebacker, or offensive line. My Grade: D Round 5a - John Nalbone, TE, Monmouth: I don't know anything about this guy. The only experience I had with Monmouth in any athletic competition was during the times when they played FAU in college hoops. The only thing I know about him is that he is the first prospect selected by the Miami Dolphins in the fifth round since the 2005 NFL Draft. With that being said, I can't really comment on the guy until the camp reports come out and pre-season rolls around. But him being selection confused me. Considering he already have a two-headed monster at the tight end position in David Martin and Anthony Fasano, as well has a large project in Joey Haynos, I didn't expect a tight end to be selected. Does that mean one of them is getting the boot? Or could we being keeping four tight ends on the roster due to the heavy use of the two tight end set? My Grade: Incomplete. Round 5b - Chris Clemons, S, Clemson: I do know a lot about this guy. An extremely productive safety with great speed, he has experience in the quarters coverage and should bring quality depth to the safety position, adding speed and quickness to a group that alreaady includes Yeremiah Bell, Gibril Wilson, and Tyrone Culver. My Grade: A Round 6 - Andrew Gardner, OT, Georgia Tech: Finally, some offensive line depth. His stock dropped due to a shoulder injury and surgery correcting it. But he does have size and experience. One knock on him was that he may have difficulties against speed rushers, and is not exactly most athletic tackle. But he is very smart, and uses his arms very well. My Grade: B Round 7 - J.D. Folsum, LB, Weber State Just like Nalbone, I don't really know much about Folsum. But from what I can gather, he has played safety and has some decent speed, leading to believe he would usually be used in coverage during passing downs, provided he makes the team. Again, I can't really put a grade on him or comment on him until training camp and pre-season. My Grade: Incomplete What I liked about the draft: I loved the focus on the secondary and wide receiving corps. Vontae Davis and Sean Smith have the potential to be great cornerbacks and any one of them could be knocking on the door for a starting position during camp. With the addition of Patrick Turner, they added that much need redzone target who could be used along side Brandon London while they are near the goalline. What I didn't like about the draft: Two things irked me. One was the lack of selection of offensive linemen. While we did draft Gardner in the sixth round, he didn't anything else. This would have been fine with me if we had kept Samson Satele. I know, I know, we signed Jake Grove, and he should be the better center. But fact is, Samson Satele had the versatility to play center and guard. So we trade him away. That's fine. But why trade away quality depth if you're not going to do anything to replace it? They already seen what happened when our starting guards went down. The only back-up guard that didn't totally embarrass himself was Ikechukwu Ndukwe. Is Joe Berger actually good enough to fill in for Justin Smiley? More so, I hated the fact that we didn't draft any of the outside linebacker prospects. He actually had a chance to draft Sintim, Barwin, and Johnson at different points. Granted, we did draft Jason Taylor. But we still needed a pass rusher. Does this say a lot about Candian Football League prospects Cameron Wake and Tearrius George? My Grade for the whole draft: C-
silver, while I appreciate your efforts, maybe you could further expound on some of your grades. The Davis grade, for instance. CB was one of our absolute priority needs. Most had Davis ranked as one of the very top talented CBs in the draft. In your own mock draft you had us drafting a WR. So is the Davis pick a C because you wanted Hakeem Nicks more than a CB? Would a different CB at #1 resulted in a higher grade from you? Do you disagree with Ireland and Sparano's ultimate assessment of Davis? Obviously they believe his issues are in the past and he was worth our #1 pick. Concerning not addressing OC position in the draft after letting Satele go to Oakland - Alleman is listed as an OC and is bigger. So for our needs, I'm thinking Alleman is the better choice between the two. As for the OL in general, we have an extremely young OL already. I would guess our FO believes the youngsters we have already need some time to develop.
Truth be told, I'm glad they went after a CB early, since our secondary needs it, though I was hoping for a DE/OLB. It's just that Davis's tendency to disappear during games is what really put me off of him. The one cornerback I would have taken over Davis is Smith, but that point is moot since both were selected.
Actually Smith was my fav pick at DB. I was hoping we'd go OLB first round and pick up Smith in the 2nd. It all worked out though.
I think that most, if not all were surprised that we didn't draft one of the more highly acclaimed OLB/DEs. After Coach Sparano stated that we didn't have enough pass rushers, I think it was all but a foregone conclusion that we would address that position in the draft. However, in hindsight his comments were just predraft BS, nothing more. So.....presumably They really do believe in Wake and maybe to a lesser degree, players like George, Walden, maybe Anderson and Moses as well. It also makes me think that they were confident Taylor would resign. Most of the above mentioned are young players; likewise our OL is comprised of mostly young players. So while we're looking at it like we still need some of young highly drafted players if we're going to be successful, I think our FO is thinking that we've already got several up and coming, but unheralded talents that will help carry us to the next level.
