Draft Review

Hopefully Miller or someone else turns out to be the same kind of revelation that Kohou was last year.  The lack of picks in comparison with the talent the Bills and Jets are adding is really starting to look noticeable.

All things considered I would have addressed interior line with Schmitz or Torrance at 51, but there is a lot of age at the CB position.  Cam Smith is a much more understandable pick to me than Jamar Fletcher---Fletcher with Brees, Heap, Johnson, Wayne and Crumpler all on the board (for a team that badly needed offense to compliment the defense) was arguably the very worst decision in Dolphins history.  

There were some excellent value picks at the CB position later on, and several who have a chance who went undrafted:  Myles Brooks, Rezjohn Wright, Mekhi Garner and a CB I really liked in Conference USA, Sterling Thomas among the latter.  Obviously hoping for the best, but O-line seemed to me to be where the value was at 51.  Thomas in particular is going to surprise somewhere IMO.

Achane is a great fit, but I think I would have taken Jones there as OT is just too big a need.  Phillips would have made a lot of sense to me too.

Not having 4th and 5th round picks with the value there this year was a real killer.  So many

Speaking of, Higgins was expected to go before the 6th, so no complaints there at all.  He's a very good pick at 197, has a chance to make it.  Hayes is very understandable at 238 also but I really wish they'd addressed this position more forcefully.

Right now anything Fin's is hard to get excited if Tua can't make it through the season.

HalCHorn wrote:Hopefully Miller or someone else turns out to be the same kind of revelation that Kohou was last year.  The lack of picks in comparison with the talent the Bills and Jets are adding is really starting to look noticeable.

All things considered I would have addressed interior line with Schmitz or Torrance at 51, but there is a lot of age at the CB position.  Cam Smith is a much more understandable pick to me than Jamar Fletcher---Fletcher with Brees, Heap, Johnson, Wayne and Crumpler all on the board (for a team that badly needed offense to compliment the defense) was arguably the very worst decision in Dolphins history.  

There were some excellent value picks at the CB position later on, and several who have a chance who went undrafted:  Myles Brooks, Rezjohn Wright, Mekhi Garner and a CB I really liked in Conference USA, Sterling Thomas among the latter.  Obviously hoping for the best, but O-line seemed to me to be where the value was at 51.  Thomas in particular is going to surprise somewhere IMO.

Achane is a great fit, but I think I would have taken Jones there as OT is just too big a need.  Phillips would have made a lot of sense to me too.

Not having 4th and 5th round picks with the value there this year was a real killer.  So many

Speaking of, Higgins was expected to go before the 6th, so no complaints there at all.  He's a very good pick at 197, has a chance to make it.  Hayes is very understandable at 238 also but I really wish they'd addressed this position more forcefully.

Dawand Jones is simply too big for the ZBS this offense uses, and was never a consideration. Hayes is actually much closer to the size this system requires. RBs Achane's size have not done much of anything in the NFL for a decade or so and it's hard to believe McDaniel will run much more than he did last season when the Fins were next to last in attempts. It seems like the Achane and Smith picks were hedges against injury more than anything else. The Higgins pick reminds me of what Madden Youtubers do all the time--pick a player at one position and switch him to another. In a video game this actually works well most of the time. IRL not so much. If Grier wanted someone to be another TE, why not just draft an actual TE? Or perhaps like me he was caught completely off guard by all the TEs going before 84.

My draft grade is a D- ONLY because I can at least see the reasoning behind the Achane pick, even I personally never would've drafted him due to size. Otherwise you've got the Fletcher/Iggy debacles all over again and two project players who likely won't contribute anything this season if ever. In a draft with a record number of trades, Grier not making any despite being known as always open for business is especially galling. Did he even try? Did other teams make offers he kept rejecting? We'll likely never know.

And yes, I'm EXTREMELY alarmed by the Bills, Jets and Pats using this draft to get better. The Bills have the league's best point differential and the second most wins over the past 4 seasons, so I'll go ahead and assume they knew what they were doing when they selected Torrence. Teams don't get that good by drafting cluelessly.

Some here might tell me to calm down, but this is me posting after I HAVE calmed down.

I'd give the Dolphins a strong B+/A-.

I think the Bills had a decent draft, probably B-/B+. Jets made a lot of draft-day mistakes and I'd give them a C. The Pats made some savvy moves - I like their draft a lot...maybe A-.

HalCHorn wrote:Hopefully Miller or someone else turns out to be the same kind of revelation that Kohou was last year.  The lack of picks in comparison with the talent the Bills and Jets are adding is really starting to look noticeable.

The Bills look like a team that is stuck, IMO. I don't think they have significantly upgraded or downgraded their roster this offseason In contrast, I think the Phins have improved tremendously on defense and addressed some of the key problem areas on offense - though OL still has questions. Considering there was a very real chance that we could have gone 3-0 against them last year, I think we have closed the gap enough for me to feel confident that we can pass them this season and take the East.

The Jets look like a 9 or 10 win team to me. Major questions at OL, a WR corps that really only has one scary receiver, a group of TEs that are very average, and a RB corps led by a guy coming off an ACL. Yes, they have Rodgers - who hasn't won a Super Bowl in 12 years and is now 40 years old and coming off his worst season ever. Their defense is good - maybe better than that, but I have a feeling they won't be padding their numbers against a multitude of backup QBs this season.

The Patriots will always be tough, especially on defense. But I can't take them seriously with Mac Jones at QB, and their WR corps is very weak IMO.