Dolphins receive worst draft grade on NFL.com

finyank13 · May 12, 2014

Notorious Dolphin hater Evan Silva actually had some pretty good things to say......

Miami Dolphins

19. Ja'Wuan James, tackle, Tennessee.
63. Jarvis Landry, wide receiver, LSU.
67. Billy Turner, tackle/guard, North Dakota State.
125. Walt Aikens, cornerback, Liberty.
155. Arthur Lynch, tight end, Georgia.
171. Jordan Tripp, linebacker, Montana.
190. Matt Hazel, wide receiver, Coastal Carolina.
234. Terrence Fede, defensive end, Marist.

Overview: The James pick is perceived as a reach because most pre-draft mocks didn't have James in the top 32, but the Dolphins had a first-round grade on him. So I can't kill the pick. Their evaluators liked what they saw. It isn't like they took a guy they gave a day-two grade at 19. James needs to improve as a run blocker, but will solidify Ryan Tannehill's strong-side protection. Pass pro was a huge problem for last year's Fins. Landry is a stick-moving Hines Ward clone. A mauling college run blocker, Turner has every tool necessary to become a quality pass protector. My guess is Miami will start James at right tackle and Turner at right guard. Pairing rookie offensive linemen side by side worked out well for the 2013 Bears, who ranked No. 2 in the NFL in scoring. Aikens is a big, long press cornerback who could push for playing time quickly. The Lynch and Hazel picks I didn't like as much. The former doesn't do anything particularly well and the latter is a low-ceiling slot prospect. Tripp will immediately help on special teams and could develop into a starting weak-side linebacker down the road. Small-schooler Fede was worth the seventh-round stab. Rookie GM Dennis Hickey plugged holes and plucked value, for the most part. There wasn't a lot of flash and pizzazz, but I think the Dolphins got at least four good players.

Grade: B
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MrClean · May 12, 2014

VManis said:

To be fair to Jimmy, we had just spent a 1st round pick the year before on Yatil Green which I'm sure played into his thinking.
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You mean Jimmy was fairly sure Green would completely recover and be the alpha WR or that after the bad luck of his 1st round pick tearing those ligaments early in camp he was gun shy about another WR in the 1st the next season?

666Dog · May 12, 2014

13Machine8385 said:

I really don't agree with these blanket statements about draft grades not having a place right after the draft. It's ridiculous to me that the some people think that we can't critique the draft just because we didn't watch the tape. Then if we visit 20-30 sites of other peoples opinions that did review tape we "sip the kool-aid from the media".

The way some people will go out of their way to put a positive spin our team drives me nuts. I've been a die hard fan for 30 years and love this team but even I can look at things objectively enough to tell it like it is. 2008 was our last playoff appearance. We don't exactly have a strong franchise over the past 20 years. We repeatedly make the same mistakes over and over. To me, it's not about what we did in this draft but what we didn't do. What we seem to hardly ever do. Draft impact playmakers.

It didn't take 3 years to realize that passing on Randy Moss (trading down with GB) would be a huge mistake or drafting Fletcher instead of Brees was a terrible play. We knew it right then it happened. It wasn't because we didn't watch tape for 80 hours a week.

I don't need 3 years to realize that we f-ed up our first pick. We got what looks to be a decent RT but we did it all wrong and passed on some players that would've really changed the dynamic of this team.

This response was to everyone who says we shouldn't be grading the draft. What else should we be doing? Digging up every positive piece of info on every player to justify our draft? I've been there. Glass half full approach. There's a perfectly good reason why we drafted each and every player. The problem is, you will never be able to justify passing on explosive playmakers. They will haunt your tv screen on other teams for years.

25 teams scored more points than we did last year.
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I never said you couldn't critique. I said that in order to get a true opinion, instead of parroting, a person would need to watch the player(s) in question.

A draft isn't the end all be all of a team. A team needs the right coaching. We have lacked the right coaching since Shula retired. (Philbin, IMO, hasn't had enough time to prove whether he's the right one or not). A good coach can win with the talent the Dolphins have.

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