Thank O’Brien for extra draft juice

After cornerback Xavien Howard and his league- leading 10 interceptions, here’s the next worthy candidate for the Miami Dolphins’ Most Valuable Player of 2020:

Bill O’Brien. Wherever he’s exiled.

The fired Houston coach allowed his pocket to be picked last year by Dolphins general manager Chris Grier by surrendering two first- round picks and a second- rounder for Laremy

Tunsil and Kenny Stills. He then turned the Texans’ playoff team last year into the Titanics this year.

So Dolphins now have more draft juice than any time in their history: Houston’s third and 36th picks and their original 18th pick.

Go ahead. Look around. Appreciate the rare chance the Dolphins have this draft by weighing those picks in historical context.

Do you want to compare having the No. 1 and No. 32 pick in 2008? Not close, and not just by numbers. There was no slamdunk pick that year. Bill Parcells actually asked a homeless man, John Schoen, if he should use the

No. 1 pick on a tackle ( Jake Long) or a quarterback ( Matt Ryan). Schoen said the tackle. Parcells took the tackle.

Then there was 2005. Nick Saban had the second pick. Wrong year again. Saban tried desperately to trade down, but no one wanted to trade up, considering the limited options.

Saban took running back Ronnie Brown, a fine player. But

the second pick? Yet three running backs were taken in the top five because there wasn’t enough elsewhere. Even Saban said on draft night: “I didn’t want to take a running back there.”

Do you want to talk the third pick in 2013? It doesn’t really belong on this list other than it’s a match to this years’ top pick. The Dolphins got the third pick that year by trading their 12th and 42nd picks. They took Dion Jordan. They didn’t do their homework.

The only other year the Dolphins had anything close to this spring’s haul was in the black- and- white era of 1966, when the AFL awarded the expansion franchise two No. 1 picks. Running back Jim Grabowski was first. He signed with the Green Bay Packers. Quarterback Jim Norton came next. He started one year.

So history shows it’s nice to have three high picks this year. It’s nicer to have the third pick in a year three highly rated quarterbacks are available when plenty of teams need a young quarterback.

It was nicest of all because the fickle winds of fortune finally blew the Dolphins way. Grier couldn’t have expected O’Brien to be a bumbling accomplice like this, though. He traded away picks, then also traded away his best player, receiver DeAndre Hopkins, to help the Dolphins’ chances.

O’Brien was fired in midseason, and the Dolphins landed in a gold mine after it. Now the question is what to do with that third pick. If they don’t want a quarterback — and they handed the keys to Tua Tagovailoa already — then the easy thing is to trade the pick to someone wanting a quarterback.

Do it right and the Dolphins can score multiple high picks for multiple years. That’s how to fuel a program of sustained winning — well, that and a star quarterback. It’s how Bill Belichick kept on top in New England.

A year ago, Kansas City coach Andy Reid sent the Dolphins some of his city’s top barbecue offerings last year for beating New England in the season finale, which gave the Chiefs the home- field playoff advantage. They rode it to the Super Bowl.

The least the Dolphins can do is be as nice to O’Brien for turning the Texans into the Titanics with dumb coaching and dumber trades. It’s too soon to say it pushes the Dolphins toward a Super Bowl.

But it’s not too soon to say thanks. Send O’Brien some stone crabs, wherever he is.