South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Trying to live up to promise of the past
Former 1st-round picks hoping Miami is where careers can be revived
DAVIE — Josh Rosen is trying to make his mark in the NFL with the Miami Dolphins after his former team replaced him with another quarterback after one season.
Christian Wilkins is two-time national champion defensive lineman whose endearing personality and winning ways could affect the Dolphins defense for years to come.
Taco Charlton and Robert Nkemdiche are two Dolphins newcomers hoping to reach their potential in Miami after their former teams also felt they would be better off without them.
And there’s DeVante Parker and Charles Harris, two homegrown Dolphins striving for elusive consistency on the football field at a critical juncture of their NFL careers.
The 2019 Miami Dolphins have six players who were firstround picks, traded away two former first-round picks during the first month of the season and will acquire at least five more first-rounders in the 2020 and 2021 drafts to fuel their extensive rebuilding process.
Miami is also the early favorite to land the No. 1 pick in the 2020 draft if it keeps up its historically bad start to the 0-4 season.
With great power in the NFL draft comes great responsibility for the Dolphins. Their front office, coaching staff and scouting department hope to make the most of their unique opportunity.
But the Dolphins’ recent history of drafting, cultivating, trading away and acquiring firstround picks creates even more doubt about the franchise’s long
term vision and the decision-makers seeing this franchise overhaul through.
Surprising trades
It may have been overdue for the Dolphins to move on past 2011 first-rounder and former starting quarterback Ryan Tannehill.
It may have been fiscally irresponsible to re-sign 2014 first-round pick Ja’Wuan James, who became the highest paid right tackle in the NFL through free agency earlier this year.
Trading away 2016 firstround left tackle Laremy Tunsil and 2018 first-round defensive back Minkah Fitzpatrick, however, could not have been part of the original rebuilding plans. In Tunsil and Fitzpatrick, the Dolphins already had two proven first-round commodities in place and ready to aid their rebuilding process.
But Miami’s plans ultimately changed due to the Houston Texans’ incessant pursuit of Tunsil and Fitzpatrick’s concerns about not playing in the best secondary position to suit his skills. As a result, the Dolphins now own three firstround picks and two second-round selections in the 2020 NFL draft. They also have two first- and secondround picks in the 2021 draft.
Dolphins general manager Chris Grier, coach Brian Flores and their staffs are now under immense pressure to identify and draft talented players who can provide an immediate impact and propel Miami to its ultimate goal of being a consistent winner and contender in the near future.
“[It was important] to strike on this opportunity because we know as the team was built right now, it wasn’t going to win a Super Bowl, much less compete for a playoff spot,” Grier said following the trades of Tunsil and Fitzpatrick.
“Again, we’re trying to build a team that’s going to win right now and [also be a] long-term winner and bring a championship here to South Florida.”
Chance to make a mark
Like Tanne hill and James, the Dolphins could have also moved on past the oft-injured Parker this offseason. But they decided to keep him on board.
Instead of honoring his fifth-year option to his rookie contract, the Dolphins signed Parker to teamfriendly two-year, $10 million deal that gives Miami an out after this season but could reach $13 million if Parker meets incentives and the potential that garnered first-round-pick consideration.
In hindsight, Parker was a product of one of the weaker wide receiver drafts in recent history.
Only Amari Cooper (29) and Nelson Agholor (18) are among the six 2015 firstround picks to score more touchdowns than Parker (10). Add Stefon Diggs (25), Tyler Lockett (22), Jamison Crowder (14) and JJ Nelson (11) as the only ones to have more than Parker in the entire draft class.
At this stage of his career, Parker wants to make the most of his opportunity. He houses hopes of staying healthy and contributing enough to keep his roster spot during Miami’s rebuild.
“I feel like I’ve done OK,” Parker said. “I’m trying to make the most out of what I can do.
“I’m not where I want to be right now. But there’s room for improvement, and I have another chance to make plays.
“I think it’s been a lot better [with] each year. I’ve progressed. I’m just doing whatever I can to stay on the field at all times, learning new offenses and just getting better each week.”
Harris, in the third-year of his four-year rookie contract, is another question mark.
After being Miami’s firstround pick in 2017, Harris has just three sacks and eight tackles for a loss in 31 games. After four games this season, he has already lost playing time in favor of Charlton and other newcomers on the Dolphins defensive line such as Avery Moss, Vince Biegel and Trent Harris.
Like Parker, Harris is concerned with making the most of whatever opportunities he receives.
“There isn’t a magic formula,” Harris said. “There’s no ‘ This is how you succeed.’ You just have to work hard. That’s all you have to do.
“That’s something can’t nobody take away from me. No matter who you are on the outside, you can say what you want to say, but you can’t say I don’t work hard. It don’t matter.”
While Parker and Harris have been praised at times by Flores for their work ethic and progress since the offseason, Wilkins may have earned the most significant praise Flores had for a player since he became Miami’s coach.
The coach said he believes Wilkins is “going to be here a long time and be the face of what we want to be about.”
Wilkins may not have the highest expectations for a first-rounder to make an immediate impact, based on the current state of Miami’s franchise. But Wilkins has set the bar for himself so high that he insists others’ expectations of him won’t matter.
“In my mind, I could be the most dominant, disruptive person to ever play the game — at least that’s what I’m chasing,” said Wilkins, Miami’s 2019 first-round pick, who has yet to register a sack, tackle for a loss or quarterback hit in his first four games.
“That’s the mindset I want to have and [my] approach [to] the game each day.”
How Parker, Harris and Wilkins handle expectations as first-round picks may differ, but their goals are ultimately the same: to make an impact on the Dolphins.
Fresh start
It’s been just two games since Charlton, the 2017 first-round pick by the Dallas Cowboys, joined the Dolphins, and he already has two sacks to show for it.
Miami acquired Charlton and Nkemdiche, Arizona’s first-round pick in 2016, with hopes they could revive their young NFL careers and live up to their first-round potentials with the Dolphins.
Nkemdiche, who was considered the nation’s top high school player in 2013, reported to Cardinals training camp out of shape following December knee surgery. He was acquired by the Dolphins last month and has worked to trim his weight while rehabilitating his knee.
Nkemdiche could be eligible to return to action in late October and then perhaps share a glimpse into the player he could become for the Dolphins later this season.
“Once healthy, I think everybody knows he’s got that big-time ability,” Dolphins defensive line coach Marion Hobby said of Nkemdiche, who has 4 1⁄ 2 sacks and 10 tackles for a loss in 27 games.
“He’s getting his body in better shape. He came in really heavy … but he’s getting his weight down. I’m excited about him being here.”
As for Charlton, he’s excited about the opportunity to play in Miami, after having “to take a backseat” behind Pro Bowl defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence in Dallas. During Charlton’s first two seasons with the Cowboys, in which he had just four sacks in 27 games, Lawrence recorded 25 sacks in 32 games during two contract years before signing a five-year, $105 million deal earlier this season.
Lawrence’s performance affected Charlton’s play and how he dealt with expectations of being a first-round pick, but he’s looking to change the narrative on his career in Miami.
“I think [being] the firstround pick sets expectations for some people, but I don’t think it determines how you play your game, no matter where you got drafted,” Charlton said. “I’m a player who, no matter what round I got drafted, I want to improve every year.
“That’s what I did in college — I got better every year. And I plan to get better every year in the NFL. Now, I get a chance to show that here.”
First round, first priority?
Rosen, the Dolphins 21st starting quarterback since Dan Marino retired in 2000, has short-term goals he wants to achieve in Miami.
He wants to master the Dolphins offense, foster continuity with his receiving targets, put touchdown drives together and improve his 3-12 record as an NFL starter.
Rosen also has some long-term goals he wants to achieve, such as winning Super Bowls and having a Hall of Fame career. Whether he is able to achieve those aspirations with the Dolphins could depend on how the rest of this season unfolds.
Rosen may not be feeling a sense of déjà vu just yet, but he could find himself in a position similar to the one he was in just a season ago if the Dolphins are awarded the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NFL draft next April.
“We’re going to do whatever we can to make our team better right away,” Grier said. “For us, yeah, we’ve all talked about the quarterback being an important piece, and it’s competition. We’re not shying away from that, so whoever’s here there’s going to be competition.”
The Dolphins seized an opportunity to gauge Rosen’s talent this season, trading for him shortly after the Cardinals drafted quarterback Kyler Murray with the first pick in last April’s draft.
Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is the presumed favorite to be the first player drafted in 2020.
It may be too early to tell whether Rosen would prefer to play for another team to reach his NFL goals, or whether the Dolphins would prefer keeping Rosen in tow to have two quarterbacks vying to start.
In the interim, Rosen wants to tune out the noise to make the most of his opportunity in Miami.
“You definitely think about it to an extent, but it doesn’t really change anything I do or affect it,” Rosen said. “I’ve got ears and I’ve got eyes. … You see and you hear things, but it does or doesn’t affect you. You try to not let it affect you.”
Whether it’s Rosen and Wilkins, Charlton and Nkemdiche, Parker and Harris or the five future first-round picks Miami will have over the next two years, the Dolphins know the importance of acquiring and developing first-round talent and the impact those players could have on improving the franchise.
As a coach, Flores tries to lessen the expectations with hopes to squeeze the potential out of those players, ignoring draft position and just focusing each individual’ s overall dev elopment.
“Let’s not worry about what round you’re in,” Flores said. “At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter.
“What matters is the work you put in on a day-today basis and whether or not you are doing the things necessarily to become the best player you can be.”