Players with South Florida ties make an impact at the NFL Draft
After a quiet first two days to the 2024 NFL Draft for South Florida, close to a dozen players from Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties could all find homes in Rounds 4-7 on Saturday.
On Day 1 on Thursday, St. Thomas Aquinas’ Dallas Turner was the lone South Floridian to get picked in Round 1, going to the Vikings at No. 17 after an All-American junior season at Alabama. On Day 2 on Friday after more than 80 picks went by without another player from South Florida getting picked, Northwestern’s Kamren Kinchens became the first player from Miami-Dade County picked with the penultimate selection of Round 3, going to the Rams after an All-American career at Miami.
Day 3 kicked off with Deerfield Beach’s Brandon Dorlus going to the Falcons early in the fourth round. Follow along throughout the day to see where the rest of the top players from the region land in the 2024 Draft.
▪ Round 1, Pick 17: OLB Dallas Turner, Alabama (St. Thomas Aquinas) → Vikings
Turner was twice a Broward County Defensive Player of the Year, according to the Miami Herald, and then became a first-team All-American at Alabama, so it was not surprise to see him be one of the first defensive players picked in the 2024 Draft on Thursday. After offensive players went with the first 14 picks, a run on defenders began and Turner wound up heading to Minnesota after the Vikings traded up to grab the edge rusher. The 6-foot-3, 247-pound linebacker, who spent three seasons at Plantation American Heritage before transferring to play his senior season with the Raiders had 116 tackles and 28 sacks in his final two seasons of high school, then 33 1/2 tackles for loss and 23 1/2 sacks in his three seasons with the Crimson Tide. Turner won a pair of state titles in high school, first as a freshman at American Heritage and then as a senior at St. Thomas Aquinas.
▪ Round 3, Pick 99: S Kamren Kinchens, Miami (Northwestern) → Rams
Kinchens won three state championships with the Bulls and was also the Miami Herald’s Miami-Dade County Defensive Player of the Year for Classes 8A-6A as a junior in 2019 when he nabbed nine interceptions to help Northwestern win a fourth straight state title, so a mountain of hype followed him to Coral Gables and the safety still lived up to it. Kinchens was an All-American as a sophomore in 2022 when his six interceptions were tied for the most in the Power Five conferences and then he led the Atlantic Coast Conference in interceptions for the second straight season last year. The 5-11, 202-pound defensive back started 27 games across three seasons with the Hurricanes, taking over as a starter for the final five games of his freshman season in 2021 and never relinquishing his job.
▪ Round 4, Pick 109: DT Brandon Dorlus, Oregon (Deerfield Beach) → Falcons
Dorlus was focused on basketball until high school and it was a good thing he decided to try out football when his father finally urged him to. The 6-3, 283-pound defensive tackle finally tried out the new sport once he got to high school at Calvary Christian Academy and quickly became one of the best players in South Florida, eventually transferring to play his junior and senior seasons with the Bucks, and earning first-team All-Broward County honors as a senior with 74 tackles, 27 tackles for loss, 11 sacks, three forced fumbles. Although he was only a three-star prospect in the 247Sports composite rankings for the Class of 2019, Dorlus wound up at Oregon and earned all-conference honors three times in his five seasons with the Ducks, including first-team all-conference honors in 2021 and 2023.
▪ Round 4, Pick 146: CB Jarvis Brownlee Jr., Louisville (Carol City) → Titans
Jarvis Brownlee Jr. was one of the fastest rising prospects out of South Florida in the predraft process, after starring in the 2024 Senior Bowl following a breakout senior season at Louisville last year. The 5-10, 193-pound cornerback was a bit of a late bloomer in high school, virtually unknown as a prospect when he was at Hallandale before transferring to Carol City for his last two years. As a junior, he set a record for the longest interception return at hallowed Nathaniel “Traz” Powell Stadium in Miami, bringing a pick back 108 yards for a touchdown. Brownlee then signed with Florida State and had three uneven seasons with the Seminoles despite starting 15 games. The defensive back then entered the transfer portal, landed with the Cardinals and blossomed into an All-Atlantic Coast Conference performer in Louisville, Kentucky.
▪ Round 5, Pick 171: QB Jordan Travis, Florida State (Benjamin) → Jets
After a massive run on quarterbacks in Round 1, Jordan Travis was only the second quarterback selected after Day 1, and the Jets hope they got a steal by snagging an ultra-productive quarterback with one major injury concern. Travis might have been on his way to New York for the Heisman Trophy ceremony before he fractured his leg in the penultimate game of the regular season. With Travis in the lineup, Florida State was a real contender for the College Football Playoff. Once Travis went out, the playoff selection committee left out the undefeated Seminoles. Travis, who was the first player drafted out of Palm Beach County this year and started his career with Cardinals before transferring to Florida State after one year, is a true difference maker and transformed from a run threat with a little bit of passing ability to a dynamic passer with the ability to run. As a senior last year, the 6-foot-1, 200-pound quarterback threw 3,214 yards, 24 touchdowns and just six interceptions.
▪ Round 7, Pick 226: CB Jaden Davis, Miami (St. Thomas Aquinas) → Cardinals
Jaden Davis wasn’t on many draft radars after he wrapped up his junior season at Oklahoma in 2022, so he decided to transfer back home to South Florida to play for Miami and try to boost his stock in a different role. The Sooners mostly used Davis as an outside cornerback, and his career was spotty. The Hurricanes had the 5-10, 187-pound defensive back play the slot and the fit was natural. Although he only broke up four passes and didn’t have a single interception as a senior last year, Davis led all Miami cornerbacks with 42 tackles and had three tackles for loss, one sack and two forced fumbles as a feisty presence at the line of scrimmage. Davis was the second former Raider picked in the Draft, making Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas the first South Florida school with multiple players picked in the 2024 Draft.
▪ Round 7, Pick 227: CB Myles Harden, FCS South Dakota (Miramar) → Browns
Even with eight interceptions as a senior at Miramar, Harden was an unranked recruit and wound up at FCS South Dakota, with only a handful of scholarship offers. For four years at South Dakota, Harden quietly developed into one of the better cornerbacks in the country, spurning opportunities to transfer to bigger programs to play out his career with the Coyotes. In his final season in South Dakota, the 5-11, 197-pound corner was a first-team All-American with 58 tackles, four tackles for loss, seven passes defended and one interception.
▪ Round 7, Pick 237: C Matt Lee, Miami → Bengals
Matt Lee was one of the major bright spots in another rocky season for the Miami Hurricanes last year — grading out as one of the best centers in the country, according to Pro Football Focus, and emerging as a true leader in his lone season at Miami. The Cincinnati Bengals selected Lee with the No. 17 pick in the seventh round of the 2024 NFL Draft on Saturday — No. 237 overall — after developing from a mostly unheralded recruit into one of the best interior linemen in the country. Lee, who spent four seasons at UCF before transferring to Miami for his final season last year, was a second-team all-conference selection in each of his last two seasons of college, first in the American Athletic Conference with the Knights in 2022 and then in the Atlantic Coast Conference last year with the Hurricanes. Lee was also a first-team All-AAC selection as a redshirt freshman in 2020.
▪ Round 6, Pick 242: LB James Williams, Miami (Plantation American Heritage) → Titans
At 6-4 and 231 pounds, James Williams remains one of the most tantalizing prospects in the country and now the Titans will have to figure out whether he will stay at safety, move to linebacker or play something in between. Williams, who helped the Patriots win a state title as a senior in 2020 after previously playing at Western and Monsignor Pace, was a five-star prospect coming out of American Heritage and was at times spectacular throughout his three seasons with the Hurricanes, piling up 162 tackles, two tackles for loss, 17 passes defended and four interceptions in 33 games.
▪ Round 7, Pick 245: QB Michael Pratt, Tulane (Deerfield Beach) → Packers
Michael Pratt was a bit of a casualty of a strange quarterback draft, which saw a major run on the position in Round 1 and then nothing else until Day 3 on Saturday. The 6-2, 217-pound quarterback flirted with going into the transfer portal and playing one more season of college before deciding to head to the NFL after four excellent seasons at Tulane. Pratt, who started high school at Boca Raton before transferring to Deerfield Beach for his senior season, took over the Green Wave’s starting job essentially as soon as he got to New Orleans, won the 2023 Cotton Bowl two seasons ago and then wrapped up his career as the American Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Year last season by throwing for 2,406 yards, 22 touchdowns and five interceptions.
This story was originally published April 27, 2024 at 2:16 PM.