Team open to trades if it means more picks NFL draft analysis: Quarterbacks
DAVIE — Last year, the Miami Dolphins made six trades involving draft picks. This year, hints have been dropped that there could be similar trade activity during nextweek’s NFL draft.
According to team sources, the Dolphins are willing to trade their 22nd pick in the first round, so if another team wants to move back a few spots or move up a bit, Miami’s executives are willing to do business.
Miami’smaingoal innext week’s draft is to fill out a relatively thin roster by infusing young, promising talent onto last year’s 10-6 playoff team. The Dolphins have seven draft picks, and want more.
That’s why Mike Tannenbaum, the team’s executive vice president of football operations, began Wednesday’s pre- draft press conference with a “for now” disclaimer when discussing Miami’s selections.
“When that opportunity becomes available we’ll measure it against the board, what our needs are,” Mike Tannenbaum said when asked about a trade, pointing out that he routinely has trade discussions with the three teams selecting ahead, and the three teams selecting behind Miami. “We’ll see what happens. Sometimes you get a trade offer that’s hard to say no to.”
The draft is fluid so moving up the board before draft day arrives next Thursday isn’t ideal considering the Dolphins— or any trade partner — has no idea if the players theywant will be there when its time to make a selection.
It doesn’t hurt that within NFL circles Tannenbaum has a long-standing reputation as a tradefriendly executive.
Just this offseason Miami executed three separate trades, sending left tackle Branden Albert to Jacksonville for a 2018 seventhround pick, then acquiring tight end Julius Thomas from Jacksonville for a seventhpick this year, and getting defensive end WilliamHayes fromthe Los Angeles Rams in a swap of Miami’s sixth-round pick for the Rams’ seventhround pick.
Last year, the Dolphins moved up and down the draft broad. Miami sent its eighth overall pick to Philadelphia in exchange for linebacker Kiko Alonso, cornerback Byron Maxwell and the No. 13 pick, which turned into left tackle Laremy Tunsil, and sent Minnesota this year’s thirdround pick for receiver Leonte Carroo, whom the Dolphins selected with the 86th pick in the 2016 draft. 1. North Carolina’s Mitch Trubisky: