Roster: JJ, Wanny, Spiels, and Nick.

[Dolphin North]

Mostly, I was curious to see what the breakdown was. Thought others might find it interesting too. It is a good reference point for those that want to argue the relative talent evaluation skills of the 4 men who built today's Miami Dolphins.

26 new players also may explain some of the preseason struggles, and the upcoming struggles the Dolphins will have.

But, almost 50% of the roster was handpicked by Saban. Hopefully, having so many of "his guys" on the team means we should get a good idea of what Nick Saban football is all about by midseason.

I'm optimistic they won't struggle too long.

Well, most of us understood your point. It really shows how a coach needs 2 or 3 years to make the team his. This is why we should not rush judgement on Saban as a coach until he has time to make the team truly his.

 

[sn9ke.eyes]

God, Spielman did a real good job butchering that O. line. I know it would've killed our cap to keep Ruddy, Wade, Dixon, Perry but we could've at least brought in high caliber replacements

What are you talking about ? How would it have killed our cap ? Wade was the only one of those who got another job. Everybody else was out of the league once fired by the phins. A better question would be why would you want to keep any of those guys ?

 

[FinfanInBuffalo]

Other then Green and Avery there aren't a whole lot of high round offensive busts on his resume

You might want to add these to your list:

J.J. Johnson - 2nd round, 39th overall
Rob Konrad - 2nd round, 43rd overall (never fulfilled his potential)
Grey Ruegamer - 3rd round - career backup, makes the McKinney pick look good
Larry Shannon - 3rd round - BUST
Brent Smith - 3rd round
Karim Abdul-Jabbar - 3rd round (looked promising as a rookie....)

He had an alarming number of 1st day picks on offense that were just bad. He didn't have any 1st day picks of offense that turned out good. Just look at this classic draft from 1999:

1999
1 2 8 39 J.J. Johnson RB Mississippi State
2 2 12 43 Rob Konrad RB Syracuse
3 3 11 72 Grey Ruegamer C Arizona State
4 5 1 134 Cecil Collins RB McNeese State
5 5 9 142 Bryan Jones LB Oregon State
6 6 23 192 Brent Bartholomew P Ohio State
7 7 26 232 Jermaine Haley DT Butte J.C.
8 7 38 244 Joe Wong G Brigham Young

A starting FB for a few years and nothing else....