Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Dolphins hoping Allen’s eye for talent still sharp
Take a walk with Marvin Allen in any environment where there are football people and it’s guaranteed that he’ll be stopped by someone trying to chat him up.
Allen is Mr. Popular in NFL scouting circles, and it’s not because of his ability to tell a good joke.
The Miami Dolphins’ assistant general manager is respected in NFL and college football circles as one of the sport’s best talent evaluators, and he has held that reputation for a decade.
His track record of elite players the teams he’s worked for have selected backs that reputation up, and the team the Dolphins host Sunday can be submitted as evidence.
Allen is one of the men responsible for the Kansas City Chiefs’ ridiculous collection of talent, which the Dolphins will face at
1 p.m. inside Hard Rock Stadium as this 8-4 team pushes to get into the postseason.
The Chiefs, whom Allen spent five years helping to build as their director of college scouting, are what the Dolphins hope to be in a couple of seasons.
So it’s a good thing Miami is in possession of the man who spearheaded the drafting of dynamic talents such as Patrick Mahomes, Chris Jones, Travis Kelce, Tyreek Hill, Marcus Peters, Dee Ford, and Kareem Hunt while he was there.
“He’s got an eye for playmakers,” one NFL execute said. “That’s why everyone wants to talk to him about prospects because when he says something, it usually the gospel.”
Seven players drafted by the Chiefs in his tenure have totaled 12 Pro Bowl appearances in their brief careers.
The Dolphins can definitely benefit from a talent evaluator like that, which is why Allen was general manager Chris Grier’s first hire when he replaced Mike Tannenbaum as Miami’s top executive in the organization two years ago.
And Grier’s minuscule ego, and decadeslong friendship with Allen from their time together in New England with the Patriots makes them a tandem that works because Grier can handle being Mr. Popular’s boss.
Allen’s networking skills lead to better information gathering, especially on the scouting circuit.
That’s what helped the Chiefs gain comfort in selecting Peters, Hunt and Hill, players who all had off-the-field baggage in their college careers.
The hope is that in time Miami will have a collection of talent as dynamic as Kansas City’s, but that takes patience, good coaching, plenty of draft picks — which the Dolphins have this upcoming year thanks to the Houston Texans’ first- and second-round picks — and luck.
The Chiefs don’t hit a home run with every pick or in every draft. But they have a franchise with enough pieces in key positions to deliver sustained success.
Playoffs or not, the Dolphins have a threeyear widow to get to that point before it’s time for the franchise to pay rookie quarterback Tua Tagovailoa like he’s an elite quarterback.
And hopefully Tagovailoa eventually gets there — joining Mahomes as a generational talent — because that is half the battle.
But it would certainly help him and the offense if Allen and his college scouting department can identity and add the next Hill, who was selected in the fifth round of the 2016 draft and became an immediate game-changer, or a tailback like Hunt, a third-round pick who ran for 1,327 yards and scored 11 touchdowns as a rookie with the Chiefs in 2017.
Last offseason was about fortifying the Dolphins’ trenches and adding the pieces to make coach
Brian Flores’ hybrid 3-4 defense work, and Miami has become the NFL’s No. 2 scoring defense and No. 1 unit when it comes to defending third downs.
This upcoming offseason needs to be about adding playmakers so the Dolphins can create a dynamic offense like Kansas City’s, one where opponents must pick their poison in terms of whom to double-team and who to let beat them via single coverage.
To mimic what the Chiefs have the Dolphins need an infusion of speed. A team full of Jakeem Grants — preferably taller.
Dolphins fans should have confidence in knowing that Miami’s bounty of draft picks likely won’t be wasted with Allen in the fold, and what this coaching staff has shown in their ability to develop, and nurture young talent.
It’s people such as Allen who give the Dolphins a chance to become as popular as Allen is on the streets of Mobile, Alabama, during the Senior Bowl or Indianapolis at the NFL combine.