Are we better today than we were on Wednesday?

Post-draft, that's how I think: are we better today than we were before the draft started?

My answer this year: maybe a little, but not enough to get us a winning record.

Maybe we're a little better at OL if Tunsil can play guard and can lay off the mary jane. Maybe we're a little better at corner if Howard's good tape is more accurate than his bad tape. Maybe we have a better return game with Drake and one of the smallest NFL players ever. Beyond that, I don't see how any of the other selections make the Dolphins a better team. Right now, this draft, IMO, is no better than a C+ and it's probably closer to a D - and what we needed was a solid A.

A lot of missed opportunities at key positions like CB, DE, QB and LB, and a lot of very questionable trades. I am not happy at all with how things played out.

In contrast, I thought the Bills had an excellent draft, the Pats had a very good draft, and the Jets had a solid if unspectacular draft.

Jets passed up Lynch for...Hackenburg Dumb, dumb, dumb. And they still had a better draft than the Fins.

Pats had their usual okayish draft.

Bills took the guy I wanted the Fins to take at 13 and then got a WR from TCU who might be faster than Grant. So yeah, they rocked it.

I cannot give this draft more than an F due to the ridiculous trading away of picks that gained the Fins...very little. Speaking of Grant he reminds me of someone back in the day, Hal will know who I'm talking about.

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/H/HerrMa01.htm

I just read an article on NFL.com that also graded the Phins a C+...with the Pats getting a B and the Bills and Jets both getting an A -.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000659095/article/2016-nfl-draft-quicksnap-grades-for-afc-teams

I really like the Bears' draft, but other than then I think the Bills may have had the top draft in the league. 3 or 4 immediate impact players and a possible future starting QB...damn, that's a nice haul.

BTW to answer the question...not really. This team absolutely needed to come out of this draft with a minimum of two decent CBs, and they got one and a safety they hope converts over. They drafted three WRs (the one area they didn't need to draft three players for) but one will be converted to a small TE and another is a return man only who I cannot see being in the league 3 years from now. They once again refused to acknowledge that LBs exist and passed up Matekovich (sp) from Temple who I wanted so they could take possibly the weakest armed QB in the league when he signs and the project TE convert. The D hasn't really been helped at all, there's still no legit starting RB, and when Hennehill gets injured there's still no real backup. And now there's no 3rd or 4th rounder next year either.

Bleh.

JMP wrote:I just read an article on NFL.com that also graded the Phins a C+...with the Pats getting a B and the Bills and Jets both getting an A -.  

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000659095/article/2016-nfl-draft-quicksnap-grades-for-afc-teams

I really like the Bears' draft, but other than then I think the Bills may have had the top draft in the league.  3 or 4 immediate impact players and a possible future starting QB...damn, that's a nice haul.

Gee, I wonder how you ever found that?

Believe it or not, I actually read it just before you sent your message! LOL

Anyway, I'm going to bed...I've wasted enough time talking about this lackluster Phins' draft for one night.

JMP wrote:Anyway, I'm going to bed...I've wasted enough time talking about this lackluster Phins' draft for one night.

Besides, we've got plenty of time to talk about it all next week, right?

I'm only up right now so I won't cry myself to sleep.

I'm only up because I'm drunk...but now I really need to put head to bed...for real this time!

One of my rules is, no drinking when I'm depressed. Only when I'm in a good mood.

I'm seriously thinking about changing that rule...

BTW in Jmp's link the Fins had the worst overall grade of any AFC team (tied with the Eagles for worst overall) and also were the only team to get a D for Day Two. So it's not just me and Jmp grumbling just to grumble.

I believe the Bills reached on Lawson, in fact Dodd graded out better than he did. Of course, if he turns into a good starter draft slot does not matter. It's not a lock, though, he's as risky as anyone in this draft - no one is immune to turning into a "bust".

I love the Tunsil pick. Steal. No one else really talented at a first round level fell to #13. I would have accepted a trade down, don't know if we tried to given that Tunsil starts now at Guard, and replaces Albert as early as next season. Or this season, if Albert is hurt again.

As for the rest of our draft, everyone is a risk. There are no exceptions. Remember that a lot of the teams that look like geniuses excel at player development. Hopefully our staff has the juice to get the most out of these kids.

I love the fact we dumped Taylor. I don't really care what we got for him in return. Bust. Don't make a mistake worse by continuing to carry a player on the roster that has not worked out, cut the cord and move on. I only hope Dallas Thomas is the next to go in this fashion, and with Tunsil on the team we could actually do it now. I'm sure we'll be looking for a guard next offseason, but we'll have our left tackle, center and right tackle. All relatively young too.

My big complaint, like many here, is the constant trading up in the later rounds. Reflective of too large an ego, we think we are so smart and our board is perfect. It's incredible the number of picks we dumped to move up in this draft. Just too much. Wish we would have let the draft come to us instead. Oh well. It's Grier and Tannenbaum's approach, I guess. They will ride or die with it.

CarsonChris wrote:Brandon Albert is in the last year of his contract. He's been injured a lot the last three years. Miami had the opportunity to draft what a lot of people thought was the best overall player in the draft that will most likely fill Albert's spot next year. This was a smart move in that regard. We are changing the type of coverage in our secondary to press corners so Howard fits that role and Jamar Taylor is gone. Howard allowed a passer rating of 32 in his final year of college and a completion percentage of 37 when thrown his way. We always hear from this group you don't need to draft a running back early any more. We didn't and got Kenyan Drake. He is as explosive a runner as there was in this draft. Excellent out of the backfield for pass catching. Leonte Carroo dropped a total of 3 passes in three years. I don't believe the front office likes Kenny Stills. He whined his way out of New Orleans and some kids never learn.

We also got Kiko Alonso and Byron Maxwell as part of this draft. This gives us:

Two starting corners
Starting ILB
Starting guard/LT
#3 wr that will push for more
A change of pace running back
A kick returner.
A backup developmental QB

We agree. I'm pretty happy with the draft. I posted a while back that Miami failed to score over 20 points 13 times. This had to be the priority and with the draft and the coaching change I'm highly optimistic that this will indeed change. I also believe this draft was heavily influenced by Gase which in my mind is a good thing.

CarsonChris wrote:I didn't like what we did in rounds 4-7. I don't like trading away future picks. This team needs an infusion of talent through the draft for the next few years just to become relevant again

We have the comp picks and I'm betting Stills will be traded before the trade deadline. I've always said if you love a player do whatever it takes to get that player. That's exactly what happened.

CarsonChris wrote:Brandon Albert is in the last year of  his contract. He's been injured a lot the last three years. Miami had the opportunity to draft what a lot of people thought was the best overall player in the draft that will most likely fill Albert's spot next year. This was a smart move in that regard.  

But:

--Albert is a top tackle, and we never had a winning season with him. Why should we expect Tunsil to change that?
--Tunsil was only rated that high because it was a weak draft. And, who had him rated that high besides draft analysts? Clearly, the 12 teams that passed on him didn't think that much of him and thought the negatives outweighed the positives.
--Tunsil doesn't play guard, but the Dolphins are probably going to play him at guard. Even if it's only for one season, playing a rookie out of position can screw up his development.

There was nothing smart about this move. A player the Dolphins liked fell in their laps and they took him, after 12 other teams wanted nothing to do with him. You can like the pick, but the Dolphins didn't do anything special to get Tunsil.

We are still lacking at RB, TE, OLB and (with Wake getting up there) DE, so I'm not expecting much this year. On the plus side, I do think there's a good chance we finally fixed the O-line.

Dallas got some criticism here for heavy investment in the O-line: they took Smith, Frederick and Zach Martin with first round picks within a 4 year stretch. The feeling was that they were passing on better options to trade down and draft for need with Frederick. But by 2014, the investment finally paid off, and they had probably the league's best offensive line.

If Tunsil works out, we might see a dramatic improvement up front, finally. Far from a certainty, though, and in this case (we don't have a DeMarco Murray that I can see) not likely to result in SB contention.

Fins are now NOT projected to get a 4th round comp pick for Miller, making that Vikings trade even worse than it already was.

http://www.dailynorseman.com/2016/5/1/11548724/dolphins-not-projected-to-receive-fourth-round-compensatory-pick

So yeah, Tannenbum probably just traded away a top 5 pick in the 4th. And that's assuming they get a 3rd round comp for Vernon.

I got this off the Twitter of a Vikings fan who's expressing open disbelief at how dumb Tannebum was for doing this BTW. Yup, those clever Fins, always knowing what nobody else does

When Vegas Insider says you're going to stink, chances are you're going to stink.

HalCHorn wrote:
Dallas got some criticism here for heavy investment in the O-line: they took Smith, Frederick and Zach Martin with first round picks within a 4 year stretch.  The feeling was that they were passing on better options to trade down and draft for need with Frederick.  But by 2014, the investment finally paid off, and they had probably the league's best offensive line.

If Tunsil works out, we might see a dramatic improvement up front, finally.  Far from a certainty, though, and in this case (we don't have a DeMarco Murray that I can see) not likely to result in SB contention.

Yes, but even without the Tunsil pick the Dolphins had already invested just as much if not more in the OL than the Cowboys did - and had no winning seasons. Albert signed a mammoth FA deal, Pouncey and James were both first round picks, and Thomas and Turner were both 3rd round picks. That's a HUGE investment, and it failed. High draft picks and big-name FAs don't mean your line is fixed. It's about getting the right players - not the most expensive players. The better teams in this league are able to build good-enough OLs without investing high picks and big $.

JMP wrote:Yes, but even without the Tunsil pick the Dolphins had already invested just as much if not more in the OL than the Cowboys did - and had no winning seasons.  Albert signed a mammoth FA deal, Pouncey and James were both first round picks, and Thomas and Turner were both 3rd round picks.  That's a HUGE investment, and it failed.  High draft picks and big-name FAs don't mean your line is fixed.  It's about getting the right players - not the most expensive players.  The better teams in this league are able to build good-enough OLs without investing high picks and big $.

And boom goes the dynamite. Just close this thread now.

(Drops mic.)

It's about talent evaluation. The group in Miami have overpaid for shit. That's on them. Just because they over-invest in bad talent doesn't mean that throwing money at the right person won't help fix it. It's when you overpay for crap, and draft crap too high (or at all), then you have Miami.

Degarmo wrote:It's about talent evaluation.  The group in Miami have overpaid for shit.  That's on them.  Just because they over-invest in bad talent doesn't mean that throwing money at the right person won't help fix it.  It's when you overpay for crap, and draft crap too high (or at all), then you have Miami.

Except that nobody thought the crap WAS crap--until they played a season or two in a Fins' uniform.

Everybpdy thinks Tunsil's the 'best player in the draft" now, but the bong video and the 'allergic reaction" before his first official PC are sure signs that this too will go badly. And then the same people who thought he was a great pick will start posting about what a horrible and obvious mistake it was 2 years from now, guaranteed. And what's worse, they won't even see the irony.