Well I take this to mean you believe the Eagles CB is the better prospect. No idea what is the big deal about saying so, drafts are meant to be 2nd guessed, they are imperfect. I have said this from the second the draft happened (and also said the draft got alot better after round 2). You could take the first CB off the board (your choice of any of the 3 guys highest rated) or the 4th edge.
Despite the comments from Grier about always going BPA, I think they ended up drafting for perceived need. I do not think Chop was the BPA. Teams and GMs and coaches lie all of the time. Some of it I find acceptable. Some I find annoying. For example, when a team drafts a player high, they always say "we got the guy we wanted all along." Nobody ever says "well the guys we wanted came off the board so this is the best we could do." I can live with that. Especially because it is unfair to the player you drafted, who is just a kid.
Also I am not optimistic Cam Smith will work out. That is one more reason I would have taken the CB. We need a CB. Despite the hate for Fangio, a fair bit of which I personally find over the top, I believe Fangio was a very experienced and very good DC. Cam Smith couldn't even get on the field late in the season over Ethan Bonner, who is someone I had never even heard of. So I am skeptical. Hopefully I am wrong.
Having said all of that, it is possible that the Dolphins really did think Chop, as the 4th edge off the board, with limited college production, and a developmental player, still in their mind could have been the BPA. I doubt it, but it is possible.
You can judge a draft 2 ways. How the players they drafted do, and how they players they passed on do. So I guess Barton would have been the guy if they went OL, will be interesting to see how he does. Then same for the two CBs that came off the board immediately after we took Chop.
If my suspicion is right, the injuries to Chubb and Phillips were particularly detrimental. Not only will we miss them on the field, but we then had to use the first round pick on a player to fill a need that was created by their injuries. What if that Philly CB, or Barton turn out to be pro-bowlers, and Chop is just meh? If Chubb and Phillips werent both injured, we would have had one of the other players in the draft. Of course, this is all conjecture, I am just offering my best guess. It is impossible to know what the Dolphins internal view really was.