Let me offer a mock draft of my own:
1st Round (High Pick): DE Bjoern Werner, Florida State - The most complete defensive end in the Draft. He's not just your typical smart/high motor white guy at defensive end. His take-off from the blocks and reactions to the snap are consistently among the best I've seen. He has the pure ability to blow by guys like they're standing still, but he combines that with good eyes for and immediate reaction to the action in the backfield, and excellent hand use. He slimmed down this year and looks more explosive than ever, while still being a wrecking ball against the run, and having the same knack for getting his hands up and batting passes that you see in a J.J. Watt. There have been times they've put him up in a two point stance and allowed him freedom in his rush, and the results have been spectacular. Werner will be terrorizing offenses for the next decade. He's the perfect complement to Cameron Wake, who by the way will turn 31 years old before this year's Super Bowl is played. You do have to start thinking about which defensive end will take over and be dominant when Cameron Wake starts to fall off, which could happen as soon as three or four years from now. He has an A+ character background as well. He became the architect of his own future NFL career at 15 to 16 years old. Nobody did anything for him, literally. And he's already married, which is considered a good thing from a character standpoint where NFL scouts are concerned.
2nd Round (High Pick): CB Desmond Trufant, Washington - Mr. Trufant is becoming a popular man, as I've mentioned. If you try and wait for him to fall down the boards you may miss out. I also like Terry Hawthorne around this area of the Draft, and that may come into play because you may not even get Trufant at the top of the 2nd round. Corners with his kind of movement ability, burst, explosiveness and innate physicality tend to rise. There may not be enough corners in this Draft with his level of speed, either. Down the road if he's not working out as a corner, you can probably move him to free safety and still get production out of him. He has the hips for either spot.
2nd Round (Low Pick): WR Quinton Patton, Louisiana Tech - This is a guy that I have had to slowly get more and more familiar with as a player because I hadn't done any preseason work on him. The more I saw, the more I liked what I saw. He's got excellent foot quickness and balance. The quickness helps him make a lot of people miss with the ball in his hands. He's actually got underrated size. The only weakness and the reason you'd get him this far down the board to begin with is his deep speed and inability to create separation with straight up speed. Still it wouldn't surprise me if he were gone by the time we reached this pick. I envision Patton as a guy that could work the slot or the split end position and provide just as much at those positions as we would see from Davone Bess or Brian Hartline.
3rd Round (High Pick): WR Markus Wheaton, Oregon State - This receivers unit needs an overhaul. I think we can agree on that. Absent a considerable free agent signing (Greg Jennings?), I'm looking at conducting the overall through the Draft. Wheaton is one of the most explosive wide receivers in this Draft. He's lightning speed and quickness combined with a knack for pulling in the ball despite physical coverage. He has a lot of the same foot quickness as Patton but with more long speed but less size. You could imagine these two working together for a while. The problem for Wheaton is he could be anywhere from Mike Wallace all the way down to Tiquan Underwood. You don't know how he'll handle the physicality of the NFL at his size (6'0", 190 lbs) until he actually gets there. But this guy can blow the top off zone coverage, and unlike what you see in some other burners, he can run routes. An alternative to taking Wheaton here could be to go after Virginia Tech's Corey Fuller some time later. Fuller is a natural athlete with blazing speed and I have always found him a more compelling player than his more impressively sized counterpart, Marcus Davis. Fuller is on a fast ascent after starting out a track and field player then converting to football.
3rd Round (Low Pick): RB Dennis Johnson, Arkansas - Dennis Johnson has spent so much time on my radar screen that, quite frankly, no matter which team he goes to I will be glad to see him finally out of the college football ranks. I have had a high grade on his potential as a running back since he embarrassed the Florida Gators repeatedly with broken tackles back in 2009. Questions about work ethic and a few injuries have kept him from reaching his potential, but to me he's still like a 215 lbs version of Darren Sproles. He has the same quickness at a bigger size and with uncanny tackle breaking ability fueled by his ever-churning feet. He's become a pretty damn good blocker over the years as well. I like that he's been through the school of hard knocks a little bit at Arkansas, with some disappointment along the way, some lessons learned. In the NFL at his position, success is fleeting and you're not often given the chance to be "the man" by yourself. But this guy is going to be a steal wherever he goes, you can mark me on that. Miami appears set to let Reggie Bush walk and Daniel Thomas is not even worth a roster spot. I'm as high on Lamar Miller as anyone but he can't be your only guy and both he and Jonas Gray are big question marks at this point. It can't hurt to bolster this position.
4th Round (High Pick): LB Jake Knott, Iowa State - This is a natural replacement for Kevin Burnett some time down the road when the Dolphins decide Burnett isn't making enough plays relative to his pay grade. Knott is as a pass covering linebacker almost exactly what Luke Kuechly was, in terms of instincts and ability. The difference is that Kuechly had better ability as a run stopper. But in today's game, especially if the Dolphins already have a wall of force on the front lines with Paul Soliai, Randy Starks, Bjoern Werner, Karlos Dansby and Koa Misi, then having the kind of plus instincts you get from a coverage linebacker in the short areas of the field can be the difference between a pretty good defense and a championship defense. Teams love to throw the football around in the short areas of the field like extended run plays. They love option routes. Getting some linebackers that can show the instincts and ball skills to take the football away in those areas is a premium.
