F13 quick takes on the draft

[Fin Thirteen]

Any draft that nets you three above average starters is generally considered a success by the league, apparently.

With Tunsil, Carroo and Alonso on board I personally believe the chances of not hitting the benchmark are very low. In that sense then, this was not a bad draft by any typical measure. But we need to see how much better it makes us this year and for me that's a question mark.

We entered the offseason with no secondary bar Jones. The draft has netted us Maxwell, Howard as putative starters. They're "great fits" for the press scheme Joseph wants to run, but are they a starter quality duo? Maxwell is certainly an average starter, Howard might turn out that way. Both get burned deep and neither will fill the opposing OC with fear in early regular season.

So far, I couldn't say our addressing the biggest hole in the team was a success.

We have a talented but injury prone starting 3 linebacker group. We've decided to lean on our UDFA haul from last season plus underperformer McCain for depth. No new blood unless we add more UDFAs. I hope that doesn't come back to bite.

Non core rotational players
We burned a high 3 and triggered a stupid auction of picks by taking Kenyan Drake. To me this was the mistake of the draft. He cost us dearly and I wonder how the payback will come.

We then engaged in a stupid pick auction where at best we came out even. Picking the mini WR after committing so highly to Drake seems a waste to me. I'm not going to comment on Lucas, Doughty, Duarte. Don't know enough.

Assets:
Above avg starters: Minimum 3
Below average starters: 2 (in a weak secondary )
Risky situational players: 2
Depth guys: 3

Liabilities: 2 2107 mid rounders, Jamar Taylor

Hard to be angry about the trade and the pickup of Tunsil. Howard and Carroo make sense and I can rationalise the R2 trade, even if I don't like it. After that it was a mess.

 

[yoge]

I don't understand the WR overkill when we have Parker and Landry. You never see N.E. or Packers with this many great WR's. They usually have one real good WR and the rest complementary.

 

[fininpsl]

Yeah, the big failure to me is the Drake pick. What he will give us probably could have been had in the 5th or 6th rounds, and like you said we could have taken Carroo with that pick and saved the future picks. Anybody saying we had picks to gives is simply demonstrating how bad they are at business. You don't give up assets you don't have to. And we didn't have to. You take a RB in the 3rd round to be a starter. Not as your change of pace back and KR. That said he may end up being a productive player for us. We just spent too much on him and then had to overspend to get the player we should have targeted with that pick. I really don't have a problem with the trade later in the draft. My guess is 3-4 of those late round picks stick on the back of the roster. They did this because the new staff wants to churn the back of the roster and get their players in there.

 

[cuzinvinny]

Nice to say what we should have done after the fact. Basing our logic on all the inside infor we have from who knows who on the friggin internet. But like them or not they have a lot more info as to players and takes on potential other teams then ESPN or NFL Net. tells us.

They are putting together a team that I don't think many in here realize the type of players they are actually looking for and others beginning to see. It's a different pattern than what we've seen for the last 15 years and to be fair we all need to let this play out and at least see what we've got on the field before we condemn.

Lets just see what the hell we got and how it fits, then bitch if its wrong. But thee foundation for this draft has pretty good possibilities....

We are going to have to change Finheaven to PsychicHeaven.......

 

[rent this space]

The compensation for the Carroo pick doesn't bother me, a 3rd for a 3rd plus 6th to get it a year early and they only give up the additional 4th if he does well.

 

[cuzinvinny]

The compensation for the Carroo pick doesn't bother me, a 3rd for a 3rd plus 6th to get it a year early and they only give up the additional 4th if he does well.

And that 4th rdr. actually a 5th rdr considering its a comp pick....

 

[spiketex]

Yeah, the big failure to me is the Drake pick. What he will give us probably could have been had in the 5th or 6th rounds, and like you said we could have taken Carroo with that pick and saved the future picks. Anybody saying we had picks to gives is simply demonstrating how bad they are at business. You don't give up assets you don't have to. And we didn't have to. You take a RB in the 3rd round to be a starter. Not as your change of pace back and KR. That said he may end up being a productive player for us. We just spent too much on him and then had to overspend to get the player we should have targeted with that pick. I really don't have a problem with the trade later in the draft. My guess is 3-4 of those late round picks stick on the back of the roster. They did this because the new staff wants to churn the back of the roster and get their players in there.

You may be right, but my read is that Drake is the RB who they really wanted. Booker and Dixon were still on the board and ultimately lasted much longer than expected, but Drake was targeted and obtained in the 3rd round. Grier needed a RB and he drafted the guy he wanted. Let's see how he goes before calling the pick a failure. Don't forget that he is likely to be a big time Special Teams contributor too.

 

[mnphinfan]

I don't understand the WR overkill when we have Parker and Landry. You never see N.E. or Packers with this many great WR's. They usually have one real good WR and the rest complementary.

Actually the Packers is a pretty bad example. They always have a glut of receivers.

I think this draft was all about securing the offense. They filled the G spot and brought a ton of competition to the skill spots. This will be Gase's foundation moving forward. Now that i look back, it should have been expected. The offense is Gase's baby. Of course, in his first draft he would want to load it up.

I'm sure he told Joseph, we'll get you a few more scheme fits but this year your gonna have to make chicken salad from chicken **** with some positions.

 

[cuzinvinny]

You may be right, but my read is that Drake is the RB who they really wanted. Booker and Dixon were still on the board and ultimately lasted much longer than expected, but Drake was targeted and obtained in the 3rd round. Grier needed a RB and he drafted the guy he wanted. Let's see how he goes before calling the pick a failure. Don't forget that he is likely to be a big time Special Teams contributor too.

You got to figure Ajayi as the power back and they figured Drake the nice change of pace to go along with him. Booker would have been similar but I think Drake a little better in the protection dept.

 

[Beach Bum]

This is the start to our 2016 team, not the final product. They aren't done. We still have round 2 in FA and other possible options to explore. Who knows who is going to shake lose in a month.

 

[SF Dolphin Fan]

I would have done a few things differently, but overall feel good about the draft. Like you said, the team got three starters for the move down including a player nobody expected would be there at #13 in Tunsil. He has the talent to be one of the best left tackles in football. The front office was thinking ahead with this move, which you don't often see in Miami.

Corners are interesting this year. Nobody can tell me that Apple was the 10th best player in the draft. Artie Burns and Howard were both overdrafted. That said, teams are trying to matchup with the infusion of quality, big receivers. Howard has all the tools for Vance Joseph to work with, but I do expect growing pains there.

I'm with you on linebackers. It's two years in a row that the position has been virtually ignored unless you count Alonso. The one thing I'd change in this draft is making the move to get Miles Jack. The team gave up a 3rd and 4th next year for a wide receiver. I bet that compensation would have worked to move up for Jack.

Looks like the Dolphins did a good job adding speed with Drake and the late round speedster. Drake could play a bigger role than people expect.

 

[xXwarXx]

I don't understand the WR overkill when we have Parker and Landry. You never see N.E. or Packers with this many great WR's. They usually have one real good WR and the rest complementary.

Stills is free agent after this year and probably won't make it through camp. I expect him to be traded.

That leaves Carroo and Parker as your boundary WRs with Landry in the slot.

 

[TarHeelFinFan]

And that 4th rdr. actually a 5th rdr considering its a comp pick....

We didn't give them the comp pick, because right now we don't have a comp pick. We gave them our fourth rounder. The comp pick thing is people assuming we are getting a comp pick in the 4th to replace the 4th we gave up.

 

[BSQ]

How many of us have enough experience and time on our hands to research the draft down to every minute detail? IMO we tend to want the bigger name guys because they are the ones we've seen play and therefore we have an opinion on them. I think Gase was a big part of who got picked. He knows exactly the type of offense he wants to install and exactly the type of athletes he needs to make that work. O-Line has been a monster problem for the Dolphins. With Tunsil we plugged in the #1 O-Line player on the board, problem finally solved! Gase is very high on Ajayi imo opinion and took Drake to be a similar type player he was at Alabama. Gase is probably salivating at all the mismatches that can be developed by using Drake all over the field. If you aren't happy about Caroo go to YouTube and watch this kid terrorize defenses! He indeed is an alpha personality and looks to me like a cross between Landry and Anquan Boldin. I predict we all will soon love this kid! Jakeem Grant is another blazing fast player that simply makes plays. He is a great broken field runner and I see him as our new kick returner. Gase will find ways to get this kid the ball and the fireworks that happen when Grant has the ball in his hands is fun to watch. These new players give the Dolphins the explosiveness that the team has lacked and Tannehill now has weapons and with Tunsil he should have time to find them downfield for big plays! Gase has retooled the offense to his specifications and I'm pretty darn sure we will score many more points as a result. I don't care about weather we traded up or down to get these players, the main thing is that these are the guys our new Coach wanted. I have great faith in Gase and I think we have a young, dynamic and brilliant offensive mind running things for a change. The negative on this draft is that we didn't do enough to fix the defense. We put a ton of faith in Xavien Howard being a plug and play guy. I hope they're right! Jordon Lucas is a corner who is a press coverage guy and like Howard is a system fit. Corner was our biggest need so I hope they hit the jackpot with these picks. I think it can be said that with all the holes this roster had going into the draft there was no way they all were going to be filled. It took years for the roster to get this bad so you can't expect it all to get fixed in one off-season. I believe the offense is now fixed and poised to be much better. That is the good news imo. The defense is still a work in progress but with Coach Joseph at the helm I feel confidant that it will be much better. We still have undrafted free agents to sign, cuts from other teams and the possibility of making a trade or 2 so we're not quite done yet. The best off-season moves were bringing in a new Head Coach and a new Defensive Coordinator. We finally have the right guys making decisions. I think we're in for some better days ahead and I know the offense will be major fun to watch!

 

[AL R]

Stills is free agent after this year and probably won't make it through camp. I expect him to be traded.

That leaves Carroo and Parker as your boundary WRs with Landry in the slot.

I have no probelm with the WR pick, Stills will most likely be leaving and I have to say I saw some plays from him last year that bothered me, have to think thats why Brees wasnt happy with him plus one injury and were thin there again.

I dont get the Grant pick after the Drake pick especially seems like just a toy for Gase and not a necessary pick and we need more at RB in my opinion besides a Drake.

They most have came in and said they were going to concentrate on one side of the ball because they knew they couldnt accomplish a fix for both and since Gase is the O guy they went that way and for the QB help is best I can figure because this defense is going to struggle no doubt.