Good picks crucial for improvement
DAVIE — It’s never good enough.
NFL draft prospects are annually scrutinized about everything from their productivity in college to the size of their hands and ankles.
The entire process — the draft class, depth at each position, everything but the outcome, which all 32 teams will praise Saturday evening when it’s all over — could be better during this season of scrutiny.
“If you have the 11th pick, there are eight guys you love. If you have the eighth pick, there are five [guys you love]. That’s just one of the axioms,” Miami Dolphins vice president of football operations Mike Tannenbaum said last week, explaining the annual crusade to find the perfect fit and the push to produce perfect draft.
“Maybe we wind up trading back. You never know. I think we feel really good about our preparation.”
Think? Tannenbaum better know because time is ticking on this regime’s four-season shelf life to transform the Dolphins into a franchise that is viewed as a perennial playoff contender.
Based on Steve Ross’ frustrated and disappointed tone at the NFL Annual Meeting in March, where he admitted his failures as an NFL owner over the past decade, there is a sense that everyone in this organization has been put on notice: Win a playoff game within the next two seasons or we’ll be pressing the reset button again.
Ross might not wait until 2020 to channel Donald the Trump and say, “You’re fired,” especially if the team struggles in 2018 because of this offseason’s decisions.
That means Tannenbaum, general manager Chris Grier and head coach Adam Gase, who collectively have a 16-16 record after going 6-10 in 2017, are on the clock as they work their third draft together.
It is universally understood that the NFL draft is where and how good teams build their franchise.
And early first-round picks aren’t required. See the Pittsburgh Steelers, Kansas City Chiefs, Baltimore Ravens, Green Bay Packers, Seattle Seahawks and the Super Bowl-winning Philadelphia Eagles if you need an example of this.
The draft is also the Dolphins’ biggest area of weakness this decade.
Miami’s leadership needs at least three of its 2018 draft picks to be immediate contributors and end up being reliable NFL starters other teams will covet three years from now.
Too many drafts during the Ross era — 2011, 2013 and 2014 — fall short of that measuring stick.
And plenty of productive players in the drafts that actually meet that standard — 2009, 2010 and 2012 — never made it to a second contract with the Dolphins as the departure of homegrown talents like Vontae Davis, Sean Smith, Charles Clay, Olivier Vernon, Lamar Miller, Rishard Matthews and Jarvis Landry watered down the team’s talent base even further.
This has to change, and there’s no better time than this week’s draft, where management should go after players they unanimously love — at all cost.