Worse Draft: '09 Or '13?

Yes, I decided to go there...MUAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

'09, THE BAD: Spending 2nd and 3rd round picks on a QB who literally never completed an NFL pass and a WR with all of ten career receptions--and one of them being a TD against the Fins to boot And who can forget throwing away a 5th on John Nalbone or a 7th on JD Folsom, who only wanted to be a vet? 6th rounder Andrew Gardner couldn't even beat out journeyman and ex-Jets 7th rounder from the year before Nate Garner and was off the team altogether after one season. (This is the same Fins team that is going on 3 seasons of keeping Dallas Thomas on the roster, mind you.)

'09, THE GOOD: 4th rounder Hartline had a couple of thousand yard receiving seasons--only the second drafted Fins WR to do so this century and one more than Chambers managed. Chris Clemons stuck around for 5 seasons, started three, and had four INTs, not bad for a 5th rounder. Vontae Davis is apparently considered kinda sorta good in certain circles even though it's with the Colts now. And according to PFR, Sean Smith was better with the Fins than he is with KC.

'13, THE BAD: Where do I even begin? Trading up for a player who is now considered so useless just two years later I hear the Fins want to get rid of him. Drafting three DBs, two of whom can't even get on the field due to injuries and the other best known for making a certain tweet about how disgusting he found two men kissing. Spending a pick on a RB who is somehow even worse than Daniel Thomas. At least it was just a 5th. And Dallas Thomas. Just...Dallas Thomas

'13, THE GOOD: Um...uh...I hear Jelani Jenkins might be good enough to start this season, although how much of a statement that is considering the black hole of suck that is the Fins' LB corps remains to be seen. Dion Sims had 18 more catches and scored twice as many TDs as his rookie season. And Caleb Sturgis slightly improved his FG accuracy percentage by about two points, inching ever closer to the league average, or at least a little further from the bottom. And that's all I got.

MY VOTE: I know I know, it's only been two years, but somehow, some way, the '13 draft actually looks worse to me, and I didn't think it was possible even for Ireland to screw up a draft worse than he did in '09. At least Hartline, Davis, Smith and Clemons were starters. Right now this draft looks to have yielded exactly ONE starting player, and a bunch of bums closer to being out of football than starting in the next 3 years.

But perhaps I can be swayed, you guys now have the floor

DolFan 316 wrote:At least Hartline, Davis, Smith and Clemons were starters. Right now this draft looks to have yielded exactly ONE starting player, and a bunch of bums closer to being out of football than starting in the next 3 years.

That's why 2013 has to be the worst...at least we got some production out of 2009. Then again, the selections of Nalbone and Folsom were two of the worst possible picks...two players that literally had no business being in the NFL at all.

I don't know...when drafts are this bad, I'm not sure there could be a "worst"!

When it is all said and done, Jeff Ireland did nothing for this team in the way of building a winner. A good pick here and there, but all in all, never managed to find any real stars.

What, you don't consider Long and Pouncey to be stars?

They're the only two picks out of 58 made since '08 to make the Pro Bowl for this team BTW at a time when Pro Bowl spots are handed out like presents on Christmas morning. In fact, a whopping 125 players drafted since then have made at least one

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/play-index/draft-finder.cgi?request=1&year_min=2008&year_max=2014&type=&round_min=1&round_max=30&slot_min=1&slot_max=500&league_id=&team_id=&pos_new=qb&pos_new=rb&pos_new=wr&pos_new=te&pos_new=e&pos_new=t&pos_new=g&pos_new=c&pos_new=ol&pos_new=dt&pos_new=de&pos_new=dl&pos_new=ilb&pos_new=olb&pos_new=lb&pos_new=cb&pos_new=s&pos_new=db&pos_new=k&pos_new=p&college_id=all&conference=any&show=p&order_by=pro_bowls

The 2013 draft had so much promise and has been such a disappointment. The lack of productivity from this draft really sucks the fun out of this years draft. If that draft would have been handled properly Miami could go ape shit on playmakers in this years draft.

2009 was just ill-conceived. Remember, Parcells/Ireland actually picked up extra late 2009 pick in the Satele trade...and then had no players left on the draft board at the end of the 5th round! If you hated this draft that much, why not ask for 2010 picks instead?

Pat White was probably the worst pick since the Jamar Fletcher/Eddie Moore errors. So many players on the board who would have helped right away at need positions.

That said, we got something out of 4 different picks in 2009, with Clemons and Hartline being good values.

2013, though, my God. When Jonathan Martin actually was more productive than anyone you picked in the first three rounds......

HalCHorn wrote:2009 was just ill-conceived.  Remember, Parcells/Ireland actually picked up extra late 2009 pick in the Satele trade...and then had no players left on the draft board at the end of the 5th round! If you hated this draft that much, why not ask for 2010 picks instead?  

Pat White was probably the worst pick since the Jamar Fletcher/Eddie Moore errors.  So many players on the board who would have helped right away at need positions.  

That said, we got something out of 4 different picks in 2009, with Clemons and Hartline being good values.

2013, though, my God.  When Jonathan Martin actually was more productive than anyone you picked in the first three rounds......

I'm still pissed off to this day that the 2009 Dolphin board was empty in round 5...how could that possibly happen??? A clear case of the Miami staff being completely clueless and unprepared.

2013 looks worse by the day, especially with the signing of 2 free agent corners this offseason...which probably spells the end of Will Davis. Jamar Fletcher...oops, I mean Taylor...probably gets one more season.

And it's great to see you posting here, Hal - please post more often!!

nice to see Hal!

Trying to decide which Jeff Ireland draft is the worst is like trying to decide which pile of shit is the worst one to step in.

There's not much difference between Pat White and Dion Jordan as far as turds go. They both had their cheerleaders before and after the draft. At the time I thought Jordan was a great pick and White a horrible pick. I had no idea of the off field problems with Jordan. Had I known I wouldn't have considered Jordan a viable first round pick. I never thought White was a good pick prior to or after the draft. He wasn't a prototypical QB. It's rare when non prototypes make it in the NFL.

Well, I think with the latest news the '13 draft is not only worse than '09, it may be the worst in Fins history. I'll see how Hal ranks it. Four picks in the top 100 and literally next to nothing from any of them. This is the sort of draft that should get the GM in charge of it blackballed from the NFL for life. Seriously.

It is hard which draft was better for the fact that there were no stars from those drafts. 09 and 13 were a waste to me. The other problem is that Philbin doesn't like to play his rookies. He actually acts like college coach and redshirts his freshman(rookies)

Good Lord does 2013 look bad now.

That said, I think 2006 is still the very worst draft in team history. Literally nothing out of that entire draft, with a head coach who was one year removed from the college ranks and should have had all kinds of knowledge of the class.

2013 might now be the second worst though. Only Jenkins is really saving it. Sturgis has hung around, but hasn't done anything that any other kicker couldn't have done.

So you think '13 is now worse than '95? I forgot about that one initially.

Hmm. I'm going by memory now. At least with '95 Shula took two good players in Pete Mitchell and Norman Hand. Shula made a terrible move and traded Mitchell (for Mike Williams!) and JJ cut Hand in his purge of all things Shula.

1995 draft did suck though. I'd have to go back and read my original article about the worst of all time and refresh my memory on how I ranked these.

How bad is it that we've found three real stinkers without once mentioning the Bumstedt Era?

Really, every Dolphins draft from 1998 - 2004 was absolutely awful. The only great player we drafted in that 7-year period was Pat SUrtain. There were a couple of other good players - Chambers, Bell, maybe McMichael - but that was basically it. That's 7 straight years of crap drafting...it's a miracle that the Phins won as many games as they did in that stretch.

Sadly, the drafting after 2004 wasn't that much better, and was often even worse, and that's why we're in the position we're at now.