Day One Synopsis

[vinivedivichi]

There are essentially two ways to view every team's draft. The first way is to look at the players that were acquired relative the the draft position and relative to other players that were still on the board. The second way is to look solely at the players acquired. I'll try to somewhat quickly do both...

Round 1:

Undoubtedly 95% of Dolphin nation were 100% sure Quinn was our pick. As it turns out, we went with Ginn. The reason a lot of fans were upset is because of an assumption that Quinn is a franchise quarterback. However, it's clear the that the Dolphins (and a lot of other teams) did not consider Quinn to be as "can't miss" as many believed him to be. If the Dolphins did not think Quinn was a franchise quarterback, then I have less of a problem with passing him up.

Once you clear up the Quinn issue, you have to wonder if Ginn was a value pick. The simple answer is that it's impossible to tell. Since we have a new regime, I think it's only fair that we give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that they felt Quinn was not our answer at QB and that Ginn is something special. Besides Quinn, there wasn't a real value pick on the board. The only real option here was to trade down or select your man. The Dolphins must have thought that trading down would leave them vulnerable to missing out on their man.

One more point - I think the root of a lot of fans' pain over this pick comes from us not getting our fairy tale franchise quarterback... but if Quinn wouldn't have been the guy to save us had we drafted him, Mueller and Co. may have saved us a lot of heartache.

Round 2:

No question Beck was a value pick. No matter how you feel about the guy there were lot of teams interested in Beck - he was gaining a ton of momentum heading into this draft. The fact that we waited around and got him at 40 is a testament to Mueller's patience.

I think the same goes for Satele. It's unfortunate that we missed out on Kalil by one pic, but who knows if the Dolphins had Satele higher than Kalil anyway. Still, a nice value pick.

Round 3:

Booker has been hard to read. His career at Florida State was pretty awful, but he his speed had a lot of teams looking into him. Take away any feelings you have about him as a player, and this is probably a little sooner than you would have expected him to go.

Player Evaluation

Tedd Ginn - Tedd Ginn is electric. He will certainly be a sparkplug when he's on the field, but his lack of size is a legitimate concern...as is his ability to develop as a WR. With speed like Ginn has, his upside is obviously huge, but he seems to have too many questions to be picked as high as we picked him. Can he stay healthy at only 175 lbs? Can he run effective routes at the NFL level (only ran 3 in college)? Is his foot ok?

It was very disheartening to hear Cam telling fans how we got a great returner...it was eerily similar to Wannstedt telling us that Eddie Moore was going to be a contributor on special teams. Also, it was likewise not very comforting to hear that we drafted Ginn's family - a family that Cam has been close with for 10 years. As I said, Ginn has a lot of upside, but those two statements by Cam worry me. A lot.

John Beck - I'll be very honest...I've never seen the guy play. If he has the arm, the smarts, and size, and the intangibles to play quarterback, then I can't complain. Also, Cameron knows quarterbacks, so it's mildly comforting that this guy has his endorsement. The one drawback, and it's not minor IMO, is Beck's age. I hope that they had Beck rated substantially higher than the other QB's available, and I hope they think he can contribute fast.

Samson Satele - Never seen him play either. Looks like a solid player that can probably come in right away and push for a starting job. I like everything I hear about him except for the fact that he doesn't seem to be a mauler/run blocker type...but then again, if he was he wouldn't have been around at this point.

Lorenzo Booker - I went to Florida State and saw every game Booker played in. While I don't hold him 100% accountable for his lack of production as a 'Nole, he never truly lived up to his potential. He never really played well at the college level, and his frame leads you to believe he is really not cut out for the NFL. This is a pick I really don't get at all. I know there are those fans out there that think he is more than he has shown, but I just don't see how he fits into our plans.

Overall

IF this first day produced an electric starting WR/KR/PR, a starting QB, a starting C/G, and a special teams RB/situational offensive player (that's the best we can hope for IMO out of Booker) then it's hard to complain. However, there are A LOT of questions about these players - moreso than there should be from guys that were picked as high as they were picked. Based on what we know today, I'd have to say we had a relatively poor draft...probably a C/C-, but who knows what these players will turn into. We shall see in the coming years...

 

[BigSportShop]

We can't project any of the first day draft picks as sure fire starting players in 2007 - that is not what you want for a franchise as down in the dumps as Miami.

 

[CrazyCarl]

Ted Ginn Jr. - 6' 180
Marvin Harrison - 6' 185
Donald Driver - 6' 190
Steve Smith - 5'9 185
Isaac Bruce - 6' 188
Torry Holt - 6' 190

According to NFL.com, this is Ted Ginn stacked among some of the top receivers from this past season. I don't think his frame is something to be worried about, I also don't think his "3 route only" limits is a problem either.. What else would we want Ginn to be running outside of the slant and go route anyways?

We got this guy to come on and be a play maker, and thats exactly what he is going to do. I think he is going to be a HUGE boost to our offense, and I have really started to warm to the John Beck pick even though I hate that he is already 25 and will be 26 when the season starts. I know that isn't that big of a deal, but I was a huge Quinn backer and I went nuts when we passed on him. I have slowly cooled and come to the realization we got two dynamic threats in Ginn and Booker. We have a smart, accurate QB that fits the type of system Cameron wants to run, and we got a C/G player that was the second best center in the draft. I think that we did pretty good on day 1.

Of course it wont be graded like that by ESPN or other publications because everyone loves Brady Quinn, I think we made the best choices to help this team immediately next season, which I think is something we all want.

We just need to hope that Brady Quinn doesn't turn into an All-Pro or we will never live it down.

 

[DeFINSeWins]

nice post. all i can say is we def got younger on offense, added speed, and hopefully the overall talent on that side of the ball. Our D will be sick like always. In the next couple years we will be able to adress getting younger and some more playmakers there but for now a more pressing need was adding talent to offense. we did that and i can see 3 of these players starting by the end of the year

 

[pdaj]

Round 2:

No question Beck was a value pick. No matter how you feel about the guy there were lot of teams interested in Beck - he was gaining a ton of momentum heading into this draft. The fact that we waited around and got him at 40 is a testament to Mueller's patience.

I think the same goes for Satele. It's unfortunate that we missed out on Kalil by one pic, but who knows if the Dolphins had Satele higher than Kalil anyway. Still, a nice value pick.

I like Beck a lot. I think he's going to a very good Dolphin QB for years to come. He's smart, athletic, and accurate. Love the pick. The only question is when his starting role will begin. I still expect Trent Green to be the starter in '07.

The disappointment of the draft for me, was missing out on Kalil. And by one pick! Ugh, that would have been huge. As was mentioned, Satele was a good value at 60, but he's not as "NFL ready" as Kalil. It'll be intereting to see how he contributes early on.

Round 3:

Booker has been hard to read. His career at Florida State was pretty awful, but he his speed had a lot of teams looking into him. Take away any feelings you have about him as a player, and this is probably a little sooner than you would have expected him to go.

Per rotoworld:

Dolphins selected Florida State RB Lorenzo Booker with the No. 71 overall pick in the NFL Draft.

This probably means the 'Fins aren't counting on Ricky Williams. Booker is the ultimate third-down back and can be a homerun hitter if he gets free in the open field. He could steal some catches from Ronnie Brown.

Translation? Speed, speed, speed. That's why Mueller chose him over Pittman. But what does this mean for Ricky? I don't know. Also, I've seen little of Booker .. other than when playing BC. Mueller obviously feels he could be a Keven Faulk-type playmaker.

 

[vinivedivichi]

The problem with Ginn is that he is not a known commodity. There are a lot of legitimate concerns - and size is certainly one of them. Can he be a great receiver? Definitely. However, you have to wonder what our FO was thinking by drafting Ginn at #9 when it was a certainty that one of the top receivers would fall to us in the second round. We didn't really capitalize on the fact that this draft was loaded at WR.

The more you look at our draft, the more you see that you have to put a lot of faith in our FO to be comfortable with what transpired today. A few about what transpired today:

• We know that the FO thought Beck was slightly higher rated than Quinn. As far as I know, there aren't a lof of other teams that felt this way.
• According to the PBP, we were split between Edwards and Beck. I would hope that Beck was substantially higher rated since we are dealinig with a guy that is a good bit older...
• For us to pick Ginn when there were a plethora of of quality receivers in this draft, we had to have him rated substantially higher than either Bowe, Meachem, Jarrett, or Rice.
• What role does Booker have on our team? Too small to be even a backup RB, and since we have Ginn there is little ST value. I would guess that Cam thinks he can use him ala Reggie Bush...they will quickly find that Booker is no Bush.

 

[Shouright]

Booker could be a Leon Washington type, and if Ginn turns out to have a role similar to Reggie Bush's, then we have two players who make the offense much harder to defend.

Before this draft we had nobody at any skilled postions who strike fear in the hearts of any defenses. We may have fixed that in the first three rounds of this draft.