Let’s explore the most surprising part of the Miami Dolphins’ 2021 NFL Draft
Perhaps the most fascinating, and even peculiar, aspect of Chris Grier and Brian Flores’ third draft together was how little they were persuaded to select players with whom they spent the most time.
You’d think it would be the opposite in a pandemic.
When the Dolphins agreed to coach the Senior Bowl in January, logic suggested that those prospects would be more appealing when Miami went on the clock — particularly with no Combine or 30 visits.
And yet, they passed on DeVonta Smith — who spent the week with the Dolphins’ coaching staff in Mobile — for his Alabama teammate Jaylen Waddle at 6.
And even though Alabama’s stud running back Najee Harris was assigned to the Dolphins’ staff at the Senior Bowl, Grier instead decided on Jaelan Phillips at 18.
In all, just one of the Dolphins’ seven draft picks was a Senior Bowl player: tight end Hunter Long. (By way of comparison, the Dolphins took four Senior Bowl players in 2010, the last time they coached the game.)
The Dolphins didn’t seem to be scared off by even a lack of game film. Waddle appeared in just six games as a junior, Phillips appeared in just 20 games in his career and second-round pick Jevon Holland, a safety from Oregon, opted out of the 2020 season altogether.
Maybe the explanation is that was simply the way the Dolphins’ draft board fell.
But it’s also possible that the more Grier and Flores saw the pool of Senior Bowl players, the less inclined they were to take them.
“I think we got a lot out of coaching the Senior Bowl,” Flores said Saturday. “We met a lot of these players, got to spend some face-to-face time with them. I thought it was good, I thought it was advantageous for us.”
Whatever the reason, the Dolphins made some really big bets on players despite an unprecedented paucity of information.
“Everyone has had to adjust and we’ve done the same,” Flores said. “I’ve gotten more Zoom time and FaceTime. I’ve gotten used to that. You adjust, be flexible. I feel like I’ve got a good feel of all the guys we’ve selected through Zoom.
“It’s always good to look them right in the eye; but we’re just not able to do that right now. It’s no different than you’re in a game and you’ve got to make adjustments and somebody’s out and you’ve got to put somebody else in or somebody loses a shoe and you’ve got to adjust. I think our staff, and Chris’ staff, and you guys as well, everyone has made adjustments in this pandemic this year. That’s just what it is. We were still able to get to know the players and we selected the guys that we feel really good about.”
Grier said the biggest challenge of scouting during COVID-19 was the lack of medical information, but credited the work done by athletic trainer Kyle Johnston. Plus with the league allowing unlimited Zoom contact, coaches and scouts were still able to get a feel for the players.
He went saw far as to call it “business as usual.”
As for the most important question of the offseason — Is Miami’s roster significantly better in 2021 than it was in 2020? — Grier and Flores seemed cautiously optimistic on Saturday.
“We feel good about the moves we’ve made,” Grier said. “But at the end of the day, when you go through it, the players have to go and perform and we’re excited. We have a very good coaching staff, and we think these players are the right types of kids to come in and develop and again, we’re always working through the roster trying to churn it over and work to improve. So we feel we’re in a good place right now, but it’s just getting started. The offseason program is here and players will start coming in — the ones that are around — and so for us, we feel good where we are, but it’s a long ways to go before we kick off in September.”
This story was originally published May 2, 2021 at 2:19 PM.
