South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Quiet time is over
After long wait to make 1st pick, Miami selects Georgia LB Tindall in 3rd round
The long wait for the Miami Dolphins to make their first pick of the 2022 NFL draft resulted in the selection of Georgia linebacker Channing Tindall with pick No. 102 at the end of the third round.
The 6-foot-2, 230-pound Tindall was a national champion with the Bulldogs last season, when he tied for third on the team with 67 tackles as an inside linebacker who can go sideline to sideline. He collected 108 tackles,
16 for a loss, and 12 sacks during his college career.
Dolphins general manager Chris Grier touted Tindall’s speed among the traits the organization liked as the prospect ran a 4.47second 40-yard dash at the NFL scouting combine in March.
“He’s a player that we have been targeting throughout the process,” Grier said late Friday night. “For us, it’s the versatility. The speed is what we like, his ability to play all three downs and play [on] special teams as well.”
Tindall was one of the prospects who was invited to Dolphins headquarters for a pre-draft visit.
“I felt like home,” said Tindall, who watched the draft alongside family and close friends. “I just loved the campus, the facility they had there. I got in with the linebackers coach [Anthony Campanile and] the whole staff.”
Versatility, which Grier noted about Tindall, is something he liked about studying the Dolphins defense, lining linebackers up in different spots, especially with leading tackler Jerome Baker able to play inside and out.
Linebacker was a position the Dolphins were expected to address in this draft. They brought back Elandon Roberts, Duke Riley, Sam Eguavoen and Brennan Scarlett from last year’s roster but could still use an upgrade to pair with Baker on the inside, as well as Jaelan Phillips and Andrew Van Ginkel on the outside.
Grier noted the Dolphins are still plenty pleased with the linebackers they re-signed this offseason.
“Those guys are good players,” he said. “They know our system. We know what they are on and off the field, how they contribute to this team.”
The Dolphins, opting not to trade up between Thursday and Friday, selected Tindall with a compensatory pick they got from the San Francisco 49ers at the end of the third round after they didn’t have picks in the first two rounds. The pick was announced by Hall of Fame Dolphins fullback Larry Csonka from the draft in Las Vegas.
The Dolphins’ selections in the initial two rounds were traded in a five-pick package to the Kansas City Chiefs for star wide receiver Tyreek Hill, who has made the Pro Bowl in all six of his NFL seasons.
That first-round pick, No .29, originally
belonged to the 49ers while Miami’s own second-rounder, No.
50 overall, was also shipped off, along with a fourth-rounder this year and fourth- and sixth-round picks next year in the Hill deal.
Grier said the Dolphins were working the phones Friday night to see if they could move up to draft various prospects, but ultimately teams wanted a piece of Miami’s 2023 draft capital, which the Dolphins were not willing to surrender.
“We had discussions about multiple players that we were trying to move up to land, but teams wanted to make their picks,” Grier said. “We were not going to give up any picks from the 2023 draft, the upcoming draft class. For us, those were non-negotiables.”
The Dolphins have five picks in the first three rounds in 2023, with two in the first and two in the third.
No. 102 is the deepest into a draft Miami has made its first pick and the first time the team didn’t make a selection in the draft’s first two rounds since 2002.
That year, the Dolphins chose center Seth McKinney at No. 90 overall after their first-round pick went to the New Orleans Saints in a trade for running back Ricky Williams and the second-rounder was shipped to Philadelphia in a trade-up in the previous draft.
With those two top choices that went to the Chiefs, Kansas City eventually traded both to the New England Patriots. New England made the first round’s most surprising pick of Tennessee-Chattanooga guard Cole Strange at 29, then took Baylor wide receiver Tyquan Thornton, a Miami Booker T. Washington High alum, at 50.
Tindall was the seventh Georgia defender and ninth Bulldog overall drafted when the Dolphins selected him. Five defensive players went in the first round: defensive linemen Travon Walker (Jaguars), Jordan Davis and Devonte Wyatt (Packers), linebacker Quay Walker and safety Lewis Cine (Vikings).
Wide receiver George Pickens (Steelers) and running back James Cook (Bills), a Miami Central High alum, were picked in the second round. One of the surprise drops in the draft was Tindall’s Georgia teammate Nakobe Dean, who was widely projected as a first-round pick but full to the third round at No. 83 to the Eagles.